FEATURED AUTHOR: MARY LEE ASHFORD

ABOUT THE BOOK

Former magazine editor “Sugar” Calloway’s life has taken a delicious twist since she launched a community cookbook publishing business with blue-ribbon baker Dixie Spicer. Now these amateur sleuths must solve a small-town murder—without getting burned.



Sugar and Spice Cookbooks’ newest project is a fundraiser organized by the St. Ignatius Crack of Dawn Breakfast Club, famous for their all-you-can-eat biscuits and gravy events. But when a group member is found dead, Sugar and Spice’s priorities change from raising dough to figuring out who put murder on the menu.



The return of former badboy Nick Marchant has stirred the town’s gossips too. Add a few grudges and some old-fashioned greed over a land deal into the mix, and it’s a recipe for mayhem. And when someone serves up a second helping of murder, Sugar and Spice need to sift the guilty from the blameless, or their next breakfast may be their last . . .

Book Details:

Title: Risky Biscuits

Author: Mary Lee Ashford

Genre: Cozy Mystery


Series: Sugar & Spice Mysteries, book 2


Publisher: Kensington Books
 (July 9, 2019)


Print length: 252 pages

On tour with: Great Escapes Book Tours

IFs ANDs OR WHATs INTERVIEW WITH MARY LEE ASHFORD

Ifs


 

If you could talk to someone (dead), who would it be and what would you ask them?
It would be my father and I would ask him about his family. I’m the youngest child of a youngest child and so that makes for interesting family dynamics. My grandparents were gone years before I was born and no one really talked about them when I was younger. Now most of my parents’ generation is gone. And I so wish I’d asked more questions about their lives: what their parents were like, what was life like for them, what did they like to do. I have so many questions and no one is left to ask. My advice to the generation growing up now is talk to your grandparents about their lives. Maybe, if you can talk them into it, you could even do a video interview. You’ll be glad that you did!

If you could be anything besides a writer, what would it be?
If I had to choose another career, I’d be a bookstore owner. A small little bookstore with a coffee shop on the side. I can’t imagine anything better than waking up and heading to work someplace where I’m surrounded by two of my favorite things – coffee and books! I know that it would be a lot of hard work. My parents were small business owners, so I realize that I wouldn’t get to just sit around and talk books and have coffee with the customers. But still, I would love the atmosphere and helping people find the books they’re looking for. And maybe some they weren’t.

If you were on the Amazon bestseller list, who would you choose to be one before and one below you?
I’d have to pick G.A. McKevett and Laura Levine. I’ve read these two authors’ mysteries for years, and I can’t imagine a bigger honor than to share list space with them. Though their mysteries are quite different, in both cases the books are automatic buys for me as soon as a new book comes out. 

Laura Levine’s books remind me of the classic movie madcap comedies of the past, where anything that can go wrong for the heroine does. But Jaine, who is such a likeable (and relatable) heroine manages to survive and to solve the mystery. G.A. McKevette’s books on the other hand, feature a tougher heroine. Though Samantha is still someone I can picture myself hanging out with. I love her no-nonsense attitude and adore the rest of the characters in the book. A new book always feels like a return to old friends.

For me, the most important element in any fiction I read is the characters. And I feel these two authors absolutely bring their characters to life. 


If you could choose a fictional town to live in what would it be and from what book?
What an interesting question! I immediately thought of a particular series of books when I first read the question. Then I thought of so many other wonderful settings in books I’ve read. The Low Country, Key West, Montana, Quebec  - so many possibilities. However, I eventually I returned to my first thought.

I’d have to pick the quiet village of Carsely from M.C. Beaton’s Agatha Raisin mysteries.  Located in the Cotswolds, an area in south central England known for its rolling hills and quaint villages, Carsely seems to me to be the perfect spot. I grew up in a very small town in Iowa and there are times I miss that pace and that small-town feel.


If you could live anywhere in the world, where in the world would it be?
If I could live anywhere, it would be right where I live now. I love the Midwest! There are certainly times I don’t love the winters, but even then, it’s pretty and a great excuse to stay inside with a good book.

Another reason I wouldn’t want to move anywhere else, is that I have six wonderful grandchildren who all live close by. And being a grandma, is crazy fun! 




Ands


5 favorite possessions: 
    •    the ring my husband and sons gave me on my fortieth birthday. It’s an unusual ring, gold with diamond baguettes, and a very unexpected gift. They were so excited to give it to me and I’m not easy to surprise. But I was surprised!
    •    a tea cup from my childhood. It’s a small tea cup with purple flowers on one side. I lost my father at a young age. He and I used to drink tea together when I was little and this was the cup I always used.
    •    the poster from my first book signing. It was such a long and hard-won journey to that first publishing contract. The book launch and signing was done at the Des Moines Public Library, and we had a wonderful turnout. Family, friends, and fellow writers turned out to celebrate and seeing that poster brings back that memory.
    •    a box of family photos. Here’s where I confess that they’re in a box because I’ve been trying to get them sorted and in albums for years. Those photos represent our family’s history and I would be heartbroken if I lost them.
and
    •    my wedding ring. My husband and I have been married forty-two years and he's my biggest fan. He has always supported my writing and believed in my dreams. 

5 things you need in order to write:  
    •    my computer
    •    notebook
    •    pen
    •    coffee
and
    •    chocolate

5 things you love about where you live: 
    •    Close to my family
    •    Strong arts community
    •    Short commute
    •    Culturally diverse
and
    •    Midwest nice

5 things you always put in your books:  
    •    a strong protagonist.
    •    great friendships, friends that become like family.
    •    at least one unusual and fun character
    •    a dog or a cat – usually both
and
    •    a secret

5 favorite places you’ve been:
    •    Salisbury, England
    •    New York City, New York
    •    Sausalito, California
    •    Laguna Beach, California
and
    •    Honolulu, Hawaii

Whats

 

What’s your all-time favorite movie?
Force 10 from Navarone. An amazing cast, a great plot, a bang-up cast. Boom!

What’s your all-time favorite library?
Winterset Public Library, Madison County, Iowa. Because of access to the public library growing up, I began a life-long reader.

What’s one thing that very few people know about you?
I received a birthday card on my fortieth birthday from Davy Jones of the Monkees
.

What’s your favorite time of day?
Late night. I love when the rest of the house is quiet and it’s just me and the cat.

What’s your favorite meal?
Chicken Spiedini.

What’s your all-time favorite place you’ve visited?
England.

What’s your favorite vacation spot?
Anywhere near the ocean, but my current favorite spot is Pass-a-Grille, Florida.

What’s your favorite thing to do?
Hang out with family.

What’s your favorite snack?
Olives and cheese.

What’s your favorite beverage?
Coffee with iced tea a close second.

What’s your favorite quote?
“No is not an answer. No is a clue.” I don’t know who said it but would love to know so I can properly credit it when I repeat it. I heard it on a late-night talk show and wrote it down, but unfortunately, I didn’t write down who it was that was being interviewed. It was someone from the tech field, but it applies to so many other endeavors. Like writing.

What’s your favorite social media site? Would you rather tweet or post on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest . . .?
I enjoy the interaction on Facebook and love that we connect from far and wide over common interests.

What is the wallpaper on your computer’s desktop?
Beach scene from our last trip to Pass-a-Grille
.

What’s your all-time favorite place in your town?
Sculpture Park, Downtown Des Moines.

What book are you currently working on?
Just turned in Book 3 in the Sugar & Spice series – The Quiche of Death
.

What’s your latest recommendation for:
Food: Truffle fries
Music: Rick Hale
Movie: The Lion King
Book: Now That You Mention It by Kristin Higgins
TV: Songland
Netflix/Amazon Prime: Shakespeare & Hathaway

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mary Lee Ashford is a lifelong bibliophile, an avid reader, and supporter of public libraries. In addition to writing the Sugar and Spice series for Kensington Books, she also writes as half of the writing team of Sparkle Abbey, author of the national bestselling Pampered Pets mystery series from Bell Bridge Books.



Prior to publishing, Mary Lee won first place in the Daphne du Maurier contest, sponsored by the Kiss of Death chapter of RWA, and was a finalist in Murder in the Grove's mystery contest, as well as Killer Nashville's Claymore Dagger contest.



She is the founding president of Sisters in Crime - Iowa and a board member of the Mystery Writers of America Midwest chapter, as well as a member of Novelists, Inc., Romance Writers of America, Kiss of Death the RWA Mystery Suspense chapter, Sisters in Crime, and the SinC internet group Guppies. 

She loves encouraging writers and is a frequent lecturer and workshop presenter for writers' groups. Mary Lee has a passionate interest in creativity and teaches a university level course in Creative Management to MPA candidates, as well as presenting workshops and blogging about creativity.



She currently resides in the Midwest with her husband, Tim, and Sparkle, the rescue cat namesake of the Sparkle Abbey pseudonym. Her delights are reading and enjoying her two sons and daughter-in-laws, and six grandchildren.


Connect with Mary Lee:
Website  |  Facebook  |  Twitter  |   Instagram  |  Pinterest  |  BookBub 

Buy links:
Amazon  |  Barnes & Noble  |  Kobo  |  Apple Books 

FEATURED AUTHOR: DAVID MARLETT

ABOUT THE BOOK

In American Red, as the Great American Century begins, and the modern world roars to life, Capitalists flaunt greed and seize power, Socialists and labor unions flex their violent will, and an extraordinary true story of love and sacrifice unfolds.

In his critically acclaimed debut novel, Fortunate Son, David Marlett introduced readers to a fresh take on historical fiction–the historical legal thriller—bringing alive the people and events leading to and surrounding some of the most momentous, dramatic legal trials in history. Now he returns with American Red, the story of one of the greatest domestic terrorists in American history, and the detectives, lawyers, spies, and lovers who brought him down.

The men and women of American Red are among the most fascinating in American history. When, at the dawn of the 20th century, the Idaho governor is assassinated, blame falls on “Big Bill” Haywood, the all-powerful, one-eyed boss of the Western Federation of Miners in Denver. Close by, his polio-crippled wife, Neva, struggles with her wavering faith, her love for another man, and her sister’s affair with her husband. New technologies accelerate American life, but justice lags behind. Private detectives, battling socialists and unions on behalf of wealthy capitalists, will do whatever it takes to see Haywood hanged. The scene is set for bloodshed, from Denver to Boise to San Francisco. America’s most famous attorney, Clarence Darrow, leads the defense—a philandering U.S. senator leads the prosecution—while the press, gunhands, and spies pour in. Among them are two idealists, Jack Garrett and Carla Capone—he a spy for the prosecution, she for the defense. Risking all, they discover truths about their employers, about themselves and each other, and what they’ll sacrifice for justice and honor—and for love.

Book Details:

Title: American Red

Author: David Marlett

Genre: Historical Fiction

Publisher: StoryPlant (July 2, 2019)

Print length: 528 pages

On tour with: Partners in Crime Virtual Book Tours






LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT WITH DAVID MARLETT

Things you need in order to write: at least a two-hour block of time. My computer. Relative quiet.
Things that hamper your writing: stress about other things. Narrow time windows. 

Things you love about writing: depends on the type of writing, but as a novelist, I love the ability to bring characters alive, to explore their humanity, to play with language and experiment, and to connect directly to readers . . . from the keyboard to their minds is truly amazing.
Things you hate about writing: nothing that I hate, per se, but I certainly don’t like the overall decline in reading and the financial instability of the profession.

Easiest thing about being a writer: again, as a novelist writer, it is the ability to do it anywhere, anytime. To not have to chase partners, buy-in from others, etc. as one often must with screenwriting.

Hardest thing about being a writer: assuming you mean as a novelist writer, then the hardest things are the isolation . . . the lack of exercise . . . the lack of collaboration.



Things you never want to run out of: tea bags.
Things you wish you’d never bought: nothing particularly. I’m careful about what I buy.


Favorite music or song: modern folk, Celtic, U2, some jazz.
Music that make your ears bleed: I don’t prefer most rap and hip-hop.

Favorite beverage: single malt scotch.
Something that gives you a pickle face: coconut water.

Favorite smell: gardenias, petrichor, my kids.

Something that makes you hold your nose: Trump.

Something you’re really good at: graphic design.

Something you’re really bad at: cooking.

Something you wish you could do: live on a beautiful, mountain lake with all my adult kids living nearby.
Something you wish you’d never learned to do: nothing particularly. I enjoy learning new things.

Something you like to do: woodwork.

Something you wish you’d never done: we all have regrets.

Things you’d walk a mile for: only one mile? Then many things. But if you mean 500 miles, then my family.
Things that make you want to run screaming from the room: Trump.

Things you always put in your books: someone pointed out that I always include someone being seriously injured or killed by being run over by a vehicle (coach-and-six, train, automobile). Not sure why that is, but I guess I’ll have to keep it up. 

Things you never put in your books: gratuitous sex, and hopefully no anachronisms.

Things to say to an author: I recommended your book to five other people.

Things to say to an author if you want to be fictionally killed off in their next book: what’s it about? . . . I don’t like to read.

Favorite places you’ve been: Edinburgh, Puget Sound, the delivery rooms for my four kids.

Places you never want to go to again: Beijing, Buenos Aires.

People you’d like to invite to dinner: a whole assortment of people . . . I love being invited to dinner parties where there will be interesting people.
People you’d cancel dinner on: Trump and his cronies.

Most daring thing you’ve ever done: a number of things . . . but one that comes to mind is (many years ago) sneaking my car onto the at-that-time empty Indianapolis 500 track and driving it all the way around, just avoiding security.

Something you chickened out from doing: I can’t think of anything . . . as I’ll try most things. That said, there certainly are things that I wouldn’t do, were they presented as options.

EXCERPT FROM AMERICAN RED

The lawyer lobbed a verbal spear across the courtroom, piercing the young man, pinning him to the creaky witness chair and tilting the twelve jurymen forward. Their brows rose in anticipation of a gore-laden response from the witness as he clutched his bowler, his face vacant toward the wood floor beyond his shoddy boots. When the judge cleared his throat, the plaintiff's attorney, Clarence Darrow, repeated the question. "Mr. Bullock, I know this is a strain upon you to recount that tragic day when fifteen of your brothers perished at the hands of the Stratton-"

"Your Honor! Point in question," barked the flint-faced defense attorney representing the Stratton Independence Mine, a non-union gold operation near Cripple Creek, Colorado. On this warm summer afternoon in Denver, he and Darrow were the best dressed there, each wearing a three-button, vested suit over a white shirt and dull tie.

The robed judge gave a long blink, then peered at Darrow. With a chin waggle, his ruling on the objection was clear.

"Yes, certainly. My apologies, Your Honor," feigned Darrow, glancing toward the plaintiff's table where two widows sat in somber regard. Though his wheat-blonde hair and sharp, pale eyes defied his age of forty-nine, his reputation for cunning brilliance and oratory sorcery mitigated the power of his youthful appearance: it was no longer the disarming weapon it had once been. No attorney in the United States would ever presume nascence upon Clarence Darrow. Certainly not in this, his twenty-sixth trial. He continued at the witness. "Though as just a mere man, one among all …" He turned to the jury. "The emotion of this event strains even the most resolute of procedural decorum. I am, as are we all, hard-pressed to-"

"Whole strides, shall we, Mr. Darrow?" grumbled the judge.

"Yes," Darrow said, turning once again to James Bullock who seemed locked in the block ice of tragedy, having not moved a fraction since first taking the witness seat. "Mr. Bullock, we must rally ourselves, muster our strength, and for the memory of your brothers, share with these jurymen the events of that dark day. You said the ride up from the stope, the mine floor, was a swift one, and there were the sixteen of you in the cage made to hold no more than nine-is that correct?"

"Yes, Sir," Bullock replied, his voice a faint warble.

"Please continue," Darrow urged.

Bullock looked up. "We kept going, right along, but it kept slipping. We'd go a ways and slip again."

"Slipping? It was dropping?"

"Yes, Sir. Dropping down sudden like, then stopping. Cappy was yelling at us to get to the center, but there was no room. We was in tight."

"By Cappy you mean Mr. Capone, the foreman?"

"Yes, Sir. Our shift boss that day." The witness sucked his bottom lip. "He was in the cage 'long with us." He sniffed in a breath then added, "And his boy, Tony. Friend of mine. No better fella."

"My condolences," said Darrow. "What do you think was the aid in getting the men to the middle of the cage?"

"Keep it centered in the shaft, I reckon. We was all yelling." Bullock took a slow breath before continuing, "Cappy was trying to keep the men quiet, but it wasn't making much a difference. Had his arms around Tony."

A muscle in Darrow's cheek shuddered. "Please continue."

"So we was slipping, going up. Then the operator, he took us up about six feet above the collar of the shaft, then back down again."

"Which is not the usual-"

"Not rightly. No, Sir. We should've stopped at the collar and no more. But later they said the brakes failed on the control wheel."

"Mr. Bullock, let's return to what you experienced. You were near the top of the shaft, the vertical shaft that we've established was 1,631 feet deep, containing, at that time, about twenty feet of water in its base, below the lowest stope, correct?"

"Yes, Sir. Before they pumped that water to get to em."

"By ‘them' you mean the bodies of your dead companions?"

"Yes, Sir."

"Ok, you were being hoisted at over 900 feet per minute by an operator working alone on the surface—near the top of the shaft, when the platform began to slip and jump. Is that your testimony?" 

"Yes, Sir."

"That must have been terrifying."

"Yes, Sir, it was. We'd come off a tenner too."

"A ten-hour shift?"

"Yes, Sir."

Darrow rounded on the jury, throwing the next question over his shoulder. "Oh, but Sir, how could it have been a ten-hour work day when the eight-hour day is now the law of this state?"

The defense lawyer's chair squeaked as he stood. "Objection, Your Honor."

"I'll allow it," barked the judge, adding, "But gentlemen ..."

The witness shook his head. "The Stratton is a non-union, gold ore mine. Supposed to be non-union anyway. Superintendent said owners weren't obliged to that socialist law."

"Hearsay, Your-"

"Keep your seat, Counsel. You're going to wear this jury thin."

Darrow stepped closer to the witness. "Mr. Bullock, as I said, let's steer clear from what you heard others say. The facts speak for themselves: you and your friends were compelled to work an illegal ten-hour shift. Let's continue. You were near the top, but unable to get off the contraption, and it began to-"

"Yes. We'd gone shooting up, then he stopped it for a second." 

"By ‘he,' you mean the lift operator?"

"Yes, Sir. He stopped it but then it must have gotten beyond his control, cause we dropped sixty, seventy feet all the sudden. We were going quick. We said to each other we're all gone. Then he raised us about ten feet and stopped us. But then, it started again, and this time it was going fast up and we went into the sheave wheel as fast as we could go."

"To be sure we all follow, Mr. Bullock, the lift is the sole apparatus that hoisted you from the Stratton Mine, where you work?"

"Yes, Sir."

"And the sheave wheel is the giant wheel above the surface, driven by a large, thirty-year-old steam engine, run by an operator. That sheave wheel coils in the cable" he pantomimed the motion—"pulling up the 1,500-pound-load platform, or lift, carrying its limit of nine men. And it coils out the cable when the lift is lowered. But that day the lift carried sixteen men-you and fifteen others. Probably over 3,000 pounds. Twice its load limit. Correct?"

"Yes, Sir. But, to be clear, I ain't at the Stratton no more." 

"No?" asked Darrow, pleased the man had bit the lure. "No. Seeing how I was one of Cappy's men. Federation. And, now 'cause this." His voice faded.

Darrow frowned, walked a few paces toward the jury, clapped once and rubbed his hands together. "The mine owners, a thousand miles away, won't let you work because you're here-a member of the Western Federation of Miners, a union man giving his honest testimony. Is that right?"

"Yes, Sir."

Again, the defense counsel came to his feet. "Your Honor, Mr. Darrow knows Mr. Bullock's discharge wasn't—"

The judge raised a hand, took a deep breath and cocked his head toward the seasoned attorney before him. "Swift to your point, Mr. Darrow."

"Yes, Your Honor." Darrow's blue eyes returned to the witness. "Mr. Bullock, you were telling us about the sheave wheel."

"Yes. It's a big thing up there, out over the top of the shaft. You see it on your way up. We all think on it—if we was to not stop and slam right up into it—which we did that day. We all knew it'd happen. I crouched to save myself from the hard blow I knew was coming. I seen a piece of timber about one foot wide there underside the sheave, and soon as we rammed, I grabbed hold and held myself up there, and pretty soon the cage dropped from below me, and I began to holler for a ladder to get down."

"Must have been distressing, up there, holding fast to a timber, dangling 1,631 feet over an open shaft, watching your fifteen brothers fall."

Bullock choked back tears. "Yes, Sir. That's what I saw." He paused. When he resumed, his tone was empty, as if the voice of his shadow. "I heard em. Heard em go. They was screaming. They knew their end had come. I heard em till I heard em no more."

--- Excerpt from American Red by David Marlett.  Copyright 2019 by David Marlett. Reproduced with permission from The Story Plant. All rights reserved.




ABOUT THE AUTHOR





David Marlett is an award-winning storyteller and writer of historical fiction, primarily historical legal thrillers bringing alive the fascinating people and events leading to major historical trials. His first such novel, Fortunate Son, became a national bestseller in 2014, rising to #2 in all historical fiction and #3 in all literature and fiction on Amazon. The late Vincent Bugliosi—#1 New York Times bestselling author of Helter Skelter—said David is "a masterful writer of historical fact and detail, of adventure, peril and courtroom drama.” Just released is American Red which follows the extraordinary true story of a set of radical lovers, lawyers, killers, and spies who launched the Great Americn Century. Visit www.AmericanRedBook.com. He is currently writing his next historical legal thriller, Angeles Los, which continues some of the lead characters from American Red. Angeles Los is based on the true story at the 1910 intersection of the first movies made in Los Angeles, the murderous bombing of the Los Angeles Times, and eccentric Abbot Kinney's "Venice of America" kingdom. In addition, David is a professor at Pepperdine Law School, was the managing editor of OMNI Magazine, and guest-lectures on story design. He is a graduate of The University of Texas School of Law, the father of four, and lives in Manhattan Beach, California.


Connect with David:
Website  |  Book website  |  Facebook (book)  |  Facebook (personal)  |  Twitter  |  Goodreads 

Buy the book:
Amazon  |  Barnes & Noble

FEATURED AUTHOR: PAMELA Q. FERNANDES

ABOUT THE BOOK

English cricket captain, Mathew Anderson is a star, both on and off the pitch. But a smart, mouthy teacher just might be the one to make him see that he’s only a man.

Mathew has enjoyed the life as a cricket superstar. With fame, fortune, adoration, and a beautiful girlfriend that comes with the territory. Until he’s been accused of domestic abuse and he’s arrested. Now, Mathew is very careful about the people he surrounds himself with. Especially women. Then Rose Cavendish tweets him and he can’t help but get bowled by her simplicity, honesty, and grit.

As a teacher surviving a vicious break-up, the last thing Rose needs is a man holding sway over her life. Rose knows she’s way out of her league getting involved with the red-haired English skipper. Even though Mathew is kind and a perfect gentleman, she doesn’t know that he hates being kept in the dark. All she knows is that she has fielded before in this game of love and lost big. She doesn’t intend to do that again.

But when Mathew plays an inning, he only plays to win. And when he gets a second chance, he’s going to play an inning of a lifetime to win Rose back.

Book Details: 


Title: Bowled


Author: Pamela Q. Fernandes


Genre: Sports, Romance


Series: To Love a Sportsman


Publisher: Touchpoint Press (April 30, 2019)


Print length: 284 pages

LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT WITH PAMELA Q. FERNANDES

A few of your favorite things: kohl and shoes! I love wearing kohl, not eye liner but thick kohl.
Things you need to throw out: all these lipsticks that I never wear and a few pairs of stilettoes that I can’t seem to walk in. Why did I ever buy them?


Things you need in order to write: water, quiet, a desk and chair, window.
Things that hamper your writing: noise, interruptions, internet, family. I write better when I’m alone.


Things you love about writing: the process, the finished product.
Things you hate about writing: bad reviews and the emotions you go through while writing.

Easiest thing about being a writer: Imagining, mine’s very colorful. 

Hardest thing about being a writer: feedback. When the edits come back, I almost always allow myself a good cry.


Things you love about where you live: the neighborhood, Prospect Park, the quiet, the ease of everything nearby.
Things that make you want to move: my roommates! Nah, they’re good too. But I’d only move out of here if I was getting married or something. I like being close to the Park.


Things you never want to run out of: kohl, coffee, cheese, chocolate!!!
Things you wish you’d never bought: brown rice, pointed toe shoes, and carrots! I can barely get the brown rice below my throat. 


Words that describe you: punctual, happy, honest.
Words that describe you but you wish they didn’t: OCD, naïve.

Favorite foods: French fries.
Things that make you want to throw up: anything gelatinous, I hate that texture.

Favorite music: piano music like Yiruma and Einaudi, although I love 80s music like Eddie Rabbit’s “I love a rainy night.”
Music that make your ears bleed: Metal and rap!

Favorite beverage: chocolate milk shake.

Something that gives you a pickle face: rose milk.

Favorite smell: the smell of rain on the ground, Marc Jacob’s Daisy, Atelier’s Orange Blossoms.

Something that makes you hold your nose: vinegar.

Something you’re really good at: writing.

Something you’re really bad at: playing the piano.


Something you wish you could do: play Canon in C on the piano.
Something you wish you’d never learned to do: I wish I had never learned how to use Facebook.


Last best thing you ate: Spanish chicken stew, one of our attendings bought us lunch.

Last thing you regret eating: Prosciutto, made me sick, like diarrhea-inducing sick! Ughhh.

Things you always put in your books: anything, tissue, bookmarks, prayers, my pen. It all seems to fit in my book.

Things you never put in your books: flowers. Never!

Favorite places you’ve been: New York.

Places you never want to go to again: Oman.

Favorite things to do: long walks, sit at the beach, lie down at the park, play with other people’s dogs, bake, and read!

Things you’d run through a fire wearing gasoline pants to get out of doing: study, laundry and changing sheets. I have the elastic bordered ones, and I can never get them on the mattress in one go. So I tend to spend an hour changing sheets, and it’s a huge time suck. Now, I hate changing sheets.

Things that make you happy: good music, good food, good company, great conversations.

Things that drive you crazy: traffic, people who touch me on public transport, dirt!

Most daring thing you’ve ever done: delivered a baby alone during my fourth year internship.

Something you chickened out from doing: head rolls in aikido class. I still can’t do it.

BOOK TRAILER

ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

Pamela Q. Fernandes is a doctor, author, and medical writer. She hosts The Christian Circle Podcast and plays the piano. When she's not writing or practicing medicine, she's baking or traveling the world. 
She started as an author with Seoul-Mates and since then has written many romances, Under A Scottish Sky, Cinders of Castlerea, The Milanese Stars, Painting Kuwait Violet and other short stories. 
Her Christian non fiction series, "Ten Reminders" is based on her own conversations and life with fellow Christians. Pamela writes romance, speculative fiction, women's fiction and Christian non-fiction.



Connect with Pamela:
Website  |   Facebook  |  Twitter  |  Goodreads 


Buy the book:

Amazon  |  Barnes & Noble

FEATURED AUTHOR: J.K. FRANKO

ABOUT THE BOOK

When I first met Susie, she appeared to be a normal, happily-married woman dealing with tragedy.

Then, I uncovered her secrets.

While I could understand everything that she’d done, I could never approve.

But, knowing what she was capable of, it became clear that if I was going to survive her, I had to play by her rules.

And, the first and most important rule is… leave no singing bones.

Book Details:


Title: Eye for Eye


Author’s name: JK Franko


Genre: Crime, suspense


Series: Talion Series


Publisher: Talion Publishing (June 22, 2019)


Print length: 434 pages


LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT WITH J.K. FRANKO


Easiest thing about being a writer: storytelling.
Hardest thing about being a writer: marketing.


Things you never want to run out of: toilet paper.
Things you wish you’d never bought: Diaper Genie.

Things you love about writing: google: “JK Franko Chapter 19”
Things you hate about writing: characters with minds of their own
.

Words that describe you: complex.
Words that describe you but you wish they didn’t: aloof.

Something you wish you could do: stop the voices.
Something you wish you’d never learned to do: turn a blind eye.

Things you’d walk a mile for: one of her kisses.
Things that make you want to run screaming from the room: a narcissist.

BOOK TRAILER

EXCERPT FROM EYE FOR EYE

When I try to piece together how this whole mess began, a part of me thinks it may have started over thirty years ago. At least the seeds were planted that far back, in the early 1980s. What happened then, at that summer camp in Texas, set the stage for everything that was to come.

Odd, how something so remote in time and geography continues to impact me here, today.

Sometimes I try to imagine her, how she felt—that eleven year-old girl—as she ran, stumbling and tripping through the woods that night. I try to put myself in her shoes. When I do, I wonder if she was frightened.

Did she understand the consequences of what she’d gotten herself into? I imagine it felt otherworldly to her, like a dream. But not a good dream. No, one of the bad ones—the ones that make your heart machine-gun as you try to outrun some dark thing that’s chasing you. But the faster you try to run, the slower you go, your legs feeling leaden, clumsy, useless.
Panic sets in. Tears of frustration form. Fear takes hold and won’t let go. You open your mouth to scream but realize, to your horror, that you’re paralyzed. It’s not that you can’t scream; you can’t even breathe. Not a dream—a nightmare.

Then again, all that may simply be my imagination. It could just be me projecting what I might have felt onto Joan. Maybe she wasn’t scared at all.

True, it was dark out. The night smelled of rain, but there was no lightning, only the far-off rumble of thunder hinting at a distant storm. There were no trail lights, no visibility but for the moon peeking out intermittently from behind a patchwork of clouds. But, Joan had been down this trail before. She was running toward the main cabin.

She had been at Camp Willow for almost two full weeks. She had been up and down that trail at least ten times a day, every day. Of course, that was during the day, and always with her buddy, or a camp counselor (the children called them troop leaders). Joan had never been on the trail at night. And never alone.

Maybe I imagine Joan was scared because, as an adult, I believe that she should have been. I would have been terrified.

***

Excerpt from Eye For Eye by JK Franko.  Copyright © 2019 by JK Franko. Reproduced with permission from JK Franko. All rights reserved.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR  


J.K. Franko was born and raised in Texas at a time when what he really wanted to do in life—writing and film—were not considered legitimate jobs. His Cuban-American parents believed there were only three acceptable career paths for a male child: doctor, lawyer, and architect.

After a disastrous first year of college pre-Med, he ended up getting a BA in philosophy (not acceptable), then he went to law school (salvaging the family name).

Franko was on law journal. His work was cited by courts, and he was recognized on the National Law Journal’s “Worth Reading” list—which for law is the equivalent to a top review in the New York Times.

While moving up the big law firm ladder, Franko also published a non-fiction book and a number of articles.

It was his wife who pushed him to write novels. And, after thousands of hours writing, and seven or eight literary miscarriages over the course of eighteen years, he completed his first book, finally launching his career as a writer of fiction.

Ironically, although he started writing fiction before any of his three children were born, they were all old enough to see and remember their father’s first book launch.

J.K. Franko now lives with his wife and children in South Florida with their six dogs and one cat.



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FEATURED AUTHOR: PETER GELFAN

ABOUT THE BOOK

Jules—former beatnik, hippie, experimental therapist, and now editor—is having one hell of a year. First, an old friend dies. Then his wife announces her retirement (and without her income, they’ll have to leave New York). Finally, Ralston—lifelong friend and devil’s advocate—shows up at their door in the midst of his own existential crisis . . . and apparently considering suicide.

Jules has no idea how to deal, so the two men set off on a road trip—to find a new home for Jules and Ritz, and possibly Rals.

Monkey Temple is a coming-of-old-age adventure about two best friends and rivals making one last attempt to rectify past failures and give meaning to their futures before it’s too late.

Book Details:


Title: Monkey Temple

Author: Peter Gelfan

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Publisher: Adelaide Books (February 2019)

Print length: 325 pages

GUEST POST BY PETER GELFAN

A Day in the Life

When I was asked to write about a typical day in my life, my first thought was that it would make for awfully boring reading. Get up, breakfast, sit down in front of my computer and write or edit. Read a bit. Answer emails, talk to a friend or two. Ho-hum. My publicist calls about my appearance on the Tonight Show? When pigs fly over the moon. Clearly that sort of blog wasn’t what I was being asked for.

Which brings us to the Second Law of Thermodynamics. You probably read about it in your high school physics text (or were supposed to), but W.B. Yeats explains it much closer to home and heart:

Turning and turning in the widening gyre  
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world . . .

As we grow up and then older, entropy’s relentless pecking takes on very personal meaning, especially when the things falling apart begin to include ourselves. There’s no escaping the process, but you can counteract it by putting things together. So I try, in every one of my boringly typical days:
•    To learn something new about writing. This often comes from tackling a problem that I or an editing client is having with a sentence, paragraph, character, or story. It’s rarely an isolated case, and usually there’s a general principle at work.
•    To learn something new about another topic I’m interested in. For me, this often entails reading scientific research or philosophical insight into the workings of human cognition—which of course ends up relating to writing.
•    To strengthen my bond with my wife, Rita. Pleasurable routines are part of it, but we also try to discover new things about each other, not so much by talking about ourselves as by discussing something different we did, saw, heard about, read about, remembered, or thought that day.
•    To contact, often though email, far-flung friends.
•    To go somewhere new in or around the city or meet someone new (tough to do every day).

Sure, there’s also travel and vacations, but building new order against the encroaching chaos hits me as something I need to work on every day.

Yeats’s falcon is long flown. But injecting atypicality into a typical day is one way to fledge some new ones.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Peter Gelfan was born in New York City, grew up in New Haven and the New York City suburbs, and attended Haverford College until he turned on, tuned in, and dropped out. He has traveled widely and lived in Spain, England, Florida, and Vermont. Found Objects, his debut novel, was published in 2013. He co-wrote the screenplay for Cargo, les Hommes Perdus, which was produced and released in France in 2010. He lives with his wife, Rita McMahon, in New York City, where he continues to write, work as a freelance book editor, and tutor writing in a public high school as part of PEN’s Writers in the Schools program.


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FEATURED AUTHOR: ELIZABETH MCKENNA

ABOUT THE BOOK 


Mystery with a splash of romance . . .

Chicago Tribune reporters Emma and Grace have been best friends since college despite coming from different worlds. When Grace is assigned to cover an annual charity ball and auction being held at a lakeside mansion and her boyfriend bails on her, she brings Emma as her plus one. The night is going smoothly until Emma finds the host’s brother unconscious in the study. Though at first it is thought he was tipsy and stumbled, it soon becomes clear more is afoot, as the wall safe is empty and a three-million-dollar diamond necklace is missing. With visions of becoming ace investigative journalists, Emma and Grace set out to solve the mystery, much to the chagrin of the handsome local detective.

Book Details:


Title: The Great Jewel Robbery


Author: Elizabeth McKenna   


Genre: Cozy mystery


Series: A Front Page Mystery, book 1


Publisher: Elizabeth McKenna (May 28, 2019)


Print length: 204 pages


On tour with: Pump Up Your Book

LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT WITH ELIZABETH MCKENNA

Things you love about writing: getting lost in a different world.

Things you hate about writing: feeling like I’m not good enough.

Easiest thing about being a writer: writing dialog.

Hardest thing about being a writer: getting readers to notice your book.


Things you love about where you live: it is quiet, safe, and near a beautiful lake.

Things that make you want to move: there are no consistently good restaurants and no decent clothing shops.

Things you never want to run out of: coffee, chocolate, toilet paper.

Things you wish you’d never bought: every bottle and jar of useless wrinkle cream in my bathroom drawer (also every useless bottle of foundation).

Words that describe you: introvert, honest, sensitive.

Words that describe you but you wish they didn’t: introvert, sensitive, moody.

Favorite foods: chocolate chip cookies, french fries, cheese, bacon.

Things that make you want to throw up: pickles, mustard, mushrooms, oysters, liverwurst.

Favorite music: anything from the 1980s.

Music that make your ears bleed: certain heavy metal/rap/hip-hop.

Favorite beverage: red wine.

Something that gives you a pickle face: whiskey.

Favorite smell: lilac.

Something that makes you hold your nose: poop.

Something you’re really good at: being a mother.

Something you’re really bad at: sports.

Last best thing you ate: gluten-free chocolate chip cookies made with very expensive GF flour.

Last thing you regret eating: a box of Milk Duds in less than ten minutes.

Things you’d walk a mile for: My family and friends.

Things that make you want to run screaming from the room: politics.

Things you always put in your books: moonlight.

Things you never put in your books: lengthy descriptions.

Things to say to an author: I’ll buy your book.

Things to say to an author if you want to be fictionally killed off in their next book: I’d buy your book, but I don’t like to read.

Favorite places you’ve been: Italy.

Places you never want to go to again: Orlando, Florida.

Favorite books: in no particular order: YA, mystery, romance, fantasy.

Books you would ban: none of them.

Favorite things to do: reading, writing, hiking, watching movies.

Things you’d run through a fire wearing gasoline pants to get out of doing: speaking in front of a large audience.

Things that make you happy: my family, nature, meditation, sleeping.

Things that drive you crazy: liars, mean people, politics, my dog.

Best thing you’ve ever done: had children.

Biggest mistake: marrying my first husband.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR 


Elizabeth McKenna’s love of books reaches back to her childhood, where her tastes ranged from Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys to Stephen King’s horror stories. She had never read a romance novel until one Christmas when her sister gave her the latest bestseller by Nora Roberts. She was hooked from page one (actually, she admits it was the first love scene). She combined her love of history, romance, and a happy ending to write Cera’s Place and Venice in the Moonlight. Her contemporary romance novel, First Crush Last Love, is loosely based on her life during her teens and twenties. The Great Jewel Robbery is her debut cozy mystery, and she hopes readers will like it as much as they have enjoyed her romances.

Elizabeth lives in Wisconsin with her understanding husband, two beautiful daughters, and a sassy Labrador. When she isn’t writing, working, or being a mom, she’s sleeping.




 

Connect with Elizabeth:

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FEATURED AUTHOR: LESLIE NAGEL

ABOUT THE BOOK



In a small town like Oakwood, Ohio, everyone knows everyone else’s business—except for Charley Carpenter’s standoffish new neighbors, who tend to keep to themselves. But behind closed doors, Paxton Sharpe’s habit of screaming bloody murder at all hours of the day keeps Charley awake all night. Coupled with the stress of the increasingly delayed expansion of her shop, Old Hat Vintage Fashions, the insomnia is driving Charley crazy. Her only distraction? The local paper’s irreverent new advice column, “Ask Jackie.”
 


Jackie’s biting commentary usually leaves Charley and her employees rolling on the floor, but her latest column is no laughing matter. An oddly phrased query hinting at a child in peril immediately puts Charley on high alert. After arriving home to a bloodcurdling scream next door, she follows the noise into the basement and makes a grisly discovery: the body of Judith Sharpe’s adult daughter.
 


With Detective Marcus Trenault off in Chicago, Charley decides to take matters into her own hands. Convinced that the murder is connected to the desperate plea for help in “Ask Jackie,” she embarks on a twisted investigation that has her keeping up with the Sharpes—before a killer strikes again.


Book Details:


Title: The Codebook Murders

Author: Leslie Nagel

Genre: Cozy mystery

Series: The Oakwood Book Club Mysteries, book 4

Publisher: Random House Alibi (May 21st, 2019)

Print length: E book and audio formats only, 245 pages

GUEST POST BY LESLIE NAGEL



A Day in the Life of Amateur Sleuth Charley Carpenter

Suburbia is murder, my friends.
 


I know this, and in the most intimate and shocking way possible. And yet, I simply cannot leave well enough alone. Or maybe it’s the murders that won’t leave me alone. I’m just a shopkeeper, for pity’s sake. Maybe it’s the red hair . . .
 


My name is Charlotte Carpenter, aka Charley. I am the humble owner of Old Hat Vintage Fashions, the trendiest boutique in my hometown of Oakwood, a wealthy, insular suburb of Dayton, Ohio. Not exactly your first pick as a likely locale for a series of gruesome murders, you say?
 


You’d be dead wrong.



A few months ago, I helped the police solve a baffling case involving the exclusive Agathas Book Club, of which I used to be a member—before most of the membership was knocked off, with crime scenes arranged to copy books from our murder mystery reading list. Specifically, I found myself working intimately with smoking hot Detective Marcus Trenault.

Ever since that first investigation, I’ve encountered more dead bodies than any amateur sleuth has a right to expect. I love it. And I’m good at it, too—solving puzzles, tracking down information, going where the police cannot. My secret? I listen. And I remember what I’ve heard, making connections that help me to discover the truth.

Before you ask, the fact that I’ve had a major thing for Marc since we were in high school had no influence whatsoever on my affinity for all things murder. None at all. Of course, now that we’re in a committed relationship, I’ve taken advantage of his expertise and professional contacts to solve more than one mystery.

Marc bought the house next door and is busy renovating it for us to live in—together! He is the sweetest man. He didn’t want me to have to choose between him and my father Bobby, who is confined to a wheelchair. Although our amazing live-in caregiver Lawrence loves Bobby and treats him so well, I felt guilty about leaving. In the end, my father was the one who convinced me to get out there and live my life. After all, I turn twenty-nine next week. And since I will literally be right next door, our little family circle stays intact. Morning coffee on the back deck with all three of my favorite guys—life just keeps getting better and better.

In addition to running my shop, preparing to move in with my boyfriend, and solving the occasional crime, I’ve got a new pastime: The Oakwood Mystery Book Club. Frankie Bright—we’ve been BFF’s since junior high and partners on more capers than I care to think about! Anyway, this new book club was her idea. She was in the Agathas with me when all that craziness went down last year. If it hadn’t been for her help, I might not have wriggled out of that situation in one piece.

Our new club will still focus on reading mysteries; female authors only, of course. But in addition, I somehow found myself agreeing to let the entire membership help me with my investigations. What was I thinking? As it turns out, the six of us each brings something unique to the table. And we’ve found that drawing inspiration from the books we’re reading helps us to crack cases. For example, Death on the Nile by Dame Agatha Christie centers on a deadly love triangle—but it’s not the triangle you think it is. That startling plot twist has got me wondering; could it be the key to a forty year old cold case?

Which brings me to the latest puzzle to land on my doorstep. Last week a tornado passed right over Oakwood! Everyone’s okay, but I was forced to take shelter in a creepy, dank access tunnel that runs from the stadium to the high school furnace room. While I was down there, I found a moldering backpack with a journal written entire in some sort of code. My father says it might belong to a girl named Regan. She was murdered forty years ago, and her boyfriend Carter went to prison for the crime. When another convict confessed, Carter was released. But when the convict recanted, a new pall of suspicion fell over Carter. He’s been living like a hermit in the old family house in West Oakwood ever since.

You might think that’s the end of it, but once again, you’d be dead wrong. First of all, a reporter named Berkeley’s been nosing around. He’s the one who unearthed that convict twenty years ago. He’s also been researching Regan’s murder for years, planning to write a true crime best seller. He actually swiped the journal right out of Old Hat’s back room! I’d asked a teenage pal to try to decode it; he and Marc helped me trap Berkeley and get the journal back. That reporter is a slippery one. He got me to agree to work with him on solving Regan’s case.

Here’s the thing: None of us believe Carter was guilty. And that convict? His story had more holes than Swiss cheese. So if neither one of them murdered Regan, who did? Is her killer still out there, walking the streets of Oakwood? Whatever happened to the fabulous sapphire necklace Regan stole right before she was killed? And now Berkeley’s disappeared, and someone’s been following my teenage code expert. It has to be connected, I’m certain of it.

Maybe this cold case isn’t so cold after all.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Leslie Nagel is the author of the USA Today and Amazon bestselling Oakwood Mystery Series. She lives in the all too real city of Oakwood, Ohio, where murders are rare but great stories lie thick on the ground. In addition to writing about murder, she also teaches writing at a local community college. After the written word, Leslie's passions include her husband, her son and daughter, hiking, tennis and strong black coffee, not necessarily in that order.


Connect with Leslie:

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Amazon  |  Barnes & Noble  |  Kobo  |  iBooks