This has been a busy month! And a month on the go…
First of all, THE HOLLOW HOUSE (#12) and SARACEN’S GIFT (#13) released right on time last month and are doing well. (Can you believe this is just about the halfway mark in my rerelease publishing blitz? I can’t!) This month I’m re-releasing a tasty little horror story (which I believe was the first pure horror story ever released by Carina/Harlequin) called TIMELESS INNOCENTS by J S May (#14) on July 5 and a lovely little Christmas Regency (we need some Christmas coolth during these hot days!) title THE EARL AND THE BLUESTOCKING by Janis Susan May (#15) on July 19. Both are available now in pre-order if you just can’t wait.
A writer of incendiary pamphlets for women’s rights, Sibylla Chalfont is an embarrassment to her stepmother and two Society-obsessed stepsisters. Raised by a nearly revolutionary aunt, she has been taught that marriage is a trap, love is an illusion and no woman needs a man complicating her life.
Justin, Earl of Ashlington, has returned to England from America to accept the newly-inherited title. It is impressed on him that it is his duty to marry and beget an heir quickly, so his uncle Sir Peregrine Playfair has arranged an extensive social whirl for him, making sure that he can meet every eligible young woman in Town. Since all he wants to do is return to his beloved estate of Ashlings, which now belongs to him, Justin most reluctantly agrees to stay until Baroness Worsley’s Christmas Eve ball before leaving.
These two young people would seem to be both mis-matched and incompatible, but they are no match for Lady Miriam Pontrefact-Watson, Sibylla’s godmother, who is accustomed to arranging things as she wishes. Can she make her wishes come true this time?
Two dead friends …
A crazed ex-suitor …
Custodianship of six and a half million dollars …
And maybe demons.
Sometimes a Timeless Innocent can change your life.
When her father and his two best friends Ralph and Edith Clerkwell are hit in an accident, Brianna Forte finds herself reluctantly in charge of everything. While settling the Clerkwells’ estate she finds not only a collection of strange and unsettling little figurines but a mystery she never dreamed existed. To complicate things she must deal with two people determined to buy the collection, a bitter relative and a vicious boyfriend who would rather kill her than let her leave him.
And demons. Never forget the demons.
Aaaannnndd…. this month I have a little lagniappe for you. Dreamstone Publications, for whom I do Regency summer and Christmas anthologies every year, is using the first chapter of my story TO A WILD ROSE as a gift to readers of this year’s summer anthology, so I thought I would put out the whole story in case you want to read all of it immediately. Unfortunately, this is a last-minute decision so I can’t give you a link right now, but be assured it will be up within ten days as an Amazon KU book.
Aaaannnndd… (drum roll!) on the audio book front, THE HOUSE IN THE PINES is still doing well, but the big news is that there are two new audio books coming out this month – A KILLING AT EL KAB (a mystery by Janis Patterson) and CURSE OF THE EXILE (a Victorian gothic romance by Janis Susan May). I can’t give you links yet, because both are going through the final Audible check process, but they are wonderful and it should be just a short time before they go live.
Exciting times indeed!
Now for the stories of my travels… The middle of last month The Husband – a gifted amateur war historian – and I traveled to Richmond VA for a tour of battle sites and graveyards. Believe it or not, it was very enjoyable in spite of the muggy heat. Our tour members were all lovely simpatico people, the hotel was lovely and the meals were superb. The only thing bad about the trip was we couldn’t go enjoy the magnificent Confederate statues downtown, since legal vandals had removed and destroyed them. Such a mindless, soulless, horrible thing to do! What kind of monster would deny the people the right to see world-class art?
We flew home, arriving at 7.30pm on a Thursday night, and at 9.30am Friday morning we were in the car on the way to Murfreesboro AR. I was scheduled to give a workshop the next morning for the Diamond Writers’ Association, headed by the lovely Penny Richards. My dear friend Sandy Steen had driven up with us and we gave two very long presentations – me on the realities of writing and Sandy on what makes a cozy mystery. It was a great morning!
The Husband and I had decided to stay an extra day so we could go hunting for diamonds at the Crater of Diamonds State Park. Now I know several lovely jewelry stores where lots of diamonds nest, but The Husband wanted to stalk them in the wild, so we had enough ‘mining’ equipment in the back of the car to start our own company.
Well, you make plans and things happen. That night it started to rain. Horizontally. I thought our little cabin might blow over. There was an incredible lightning storm, and I swear there was a strike or two in the pasture next door. Luckily we were on a kind of hill, because there was flooding down below. This went on for at least three hours.
No mining for us. The ‘mine’ is actually a very large, very bare ploughed field. I’ll bet by the time the storm was over it looked like a rice paddy. We decided to come on home, but we’re planning to go back when the weather is cooler. (I do like diamonds!)
And one of the benefits of the trip is that the three of us writers are talking about doing a special anthology – nothing is firm yet, but I’ll keep you informed!
I hope all of you are having a good – and safe! – summer. Please stay hydrated, be sensible about going/staying outside, and take care of yourselves.