Sunday, August 31, 2014

Weekly Wrap Up #34

Here is what happened this week:

Aug 30th- Book Trivia- Sue Ann Jaffarian

Books I've read:

Deep in Death by Shelby Nichols
And She Was by Alison Gaylin

Coming this week:

Sept 1st- Blog Tour- Deep in Death by Shelby Nichols
Sept 2nd- Cozy Book Release Day
Sept 3rd- Author Spotlight- Elizabeth Craig
Sept 4th- First in a New Series- Fat Cat at Large by Janet Cantrell
Sept 5th- Blog Tour- The Corpse with the Platinum Hair by Cathy Ace
Sept 6th- Book Trivia hosted by Victoria Abbott

Hope to see you here!

Saturday, August 30, 2014

Book Trivia hosted by Sue Ann Jaffarian

It's time for trivia and today's lovely host is Sue Ann Jaffarian!! The prize is  a signed copy of the upcoming HELL ON WHEELS (9th Odelia novel due out in early November) and one copy of GHOST OF A GAMBLE.


Good Luck!!


Odelia Grey Trivia Questions
1.      What is Odelia’s middle name?  

2.      What is her father’s name? 

3.      After nearly 35 years, where did Odelia finally meet up with her mother again?  

4.      What felony did Willie Proctor commit?  

5.      What law firm does Odelia work for in the first seven books?  

6.      What are Odelia’s half-brothers’ names? 

7.      What does Mike Steele drive? 

8.      What is the name of Odelia’s nemesis from high school who is now a good friend? 

9.      How many children do Zee and Seth Washington have?  


10.   How many times has Odelia been shot and where?  

Leave an email when you comment please!! 

Friday, August 29, 2014

Interview with Clea Simon

I am thrilled to have interviewed Clea Simon!! So come on and get some coffee or tea. You are in for a huge treat today!! Clea is the author of  the Theda Krakow Series, Pru Marlowe Pet Nior series,  and a Dulcie Schwartz Series!!


Welcome Clea, I am so glad that you can be here with us today!!

Shelley: Tell us about yourself?
Clea Simon: I’m a writer. :)
I have always been a writer, since my earliest days. I loved books and made my own books. Because a journalist because that seemed like a job a writer could have and there were stories to be told. Along the way, I realized I wanted to write my own stories, like I did as a child. Other than that, I’m married with one cat, no kids, and I live in the Boston area. I love to cook and hear live music of all sorts!


Shelley: What inspired you to become a writer?
Clea Simon: I have always been a reader. At times, books were my best friends, so writing came naturally.


Shelley: How did you come up with these great books?
Clea Simon: I don’t plot in advance. I come up with a situation or a character and ask myself, “And then?” The rest follows.(And thank you for the compliment!)


Shelley: Can you tell us a little of what you are working on now?
Clea Simon: I am finishing up Dulcie Schwartz # 10. It has taken me up to about 250 pages to realize what the book is really about - the core of it, if you will - so now I am re-reading and revising, starting at the beginning so that the first part lines up with the second part.


Shelley: What research did you have to do for your books?
Clea Simon: I talk to a lot of animal experts for the Pru Marlowe pet noir mysteries - that’s always fun! And I am currently reading a lot about book conservation for this Dulcie. The techniques conservators use to bring back 200 and 300 (and older) books to life are amazing.


Shelley: When you are not writing what do you love doing?
Clea Simon: I love cooking - making big dinners for family and friends - and going out to hear music. Rock and jazz and Cajun and zydeco and opera. I love opera!


Shelley: What are three things you want your readers to know?
Clea Simon: I try very hard to make my characters consistent and believable - they may not always be smart or self-aware but I try to make them true to themselves.
I will never hurt an animal in any of my books. People yes, animals no.
I don’t plot my books in advance - this means I have to revise a lot, but I hope it also means I avoid cookie-cutter mysteries.


Shelley: If you could have a dinner party with three authors, living or dead, who would you pick and what would you serve as a meal?
Clea Simon: Maurice Sendak, JRR Tolkein, and Madeleine L'Engle because they were all great influences and they all depicted such complete - and completely different - worlds. I would serve a big bowl of chicken and mushrooms, over pasta - cooked in a good red wine - with a lot of wine to drink, to make sure the conversation flowed!


What a fantastic interview and getting to know you more has been a treat!

you can find Clea here:



Thursday, August 28, 2014

First in a New Series- On What Grounds

Hey Coffee Lovers have you read this first? On What Grounds by Cleo Coyle!!  This is one of my favorites!!

On What Grounds (Coffeehouse Mystery Series #1)

Book Description

 September 2, 2003
Book #1 in New York Times bestselling author Cleo Coyle's Coffeehouse Mystery series...
"The perfect cup of coffee is a mystifying thing. To many of my customers, the entire process seems like some sort of alchemy they dare not try at home...." 

Ten years ago, Clare Cosi left an unhappy marriage along with a job she loved: managing the historic Village Blend coffeehouse in New York's Greenwich Village. For a decade, she was happy raising her daughter in the quiet suburbs of New Jersey; but now that Joy is grown and gone, life has gotten way too quiet for Clare. With a little cajoling from Madame, the Blend's flamboyant, elderly owner, Clare agrees to return to her old job, and right from the start she gets one heck of a jolt. On her first morning back as Village Blend manager, Clare unlocks the front door to find her beautiful, young assistant manager unconscious in the back of the store, coffee grounds strewn everywhere. As Anabelle is rushed to the hospital, police arrive to investigate, but Detective Mike Quinn finds no sign of forced entry or foul play, and he deems it an accident. Clare disagrees; and after Quinn leaves, there are a few questions she just can't get out of her mind, like why was the trash bin in the wrong place? If this wasn't an accident, are her other baristas in danger? And are all NYPD detectives this attractive?

You can get it here if you haven't already!! 

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Author Spotlight- Mary Kennedy

Happy Wednesday!  I am delighted to be spotlighting the Lovely Mary Kennedy!! Mary has a Brand New Series coming out on September 2, 2014 it's called Nightmares Can be Murder!! You don't want to miss this series!!






I'm very happy that NIGHTMARES CAN BE MURDER, the first in the new Dream Club Mysteries is available for pre-order right now!! Release date is September 2, 2014. Want the inside scoop on Nightmares? Business consultant Taylor Blake has returned to Savannah, Georgia, to help her sister Allison turn her dream of running an old-fashioned candy store into a reality. Allison is also interested in dream interpretation and invites Taylor to her Friday night Dream Club, where members meet once a week to share and analyze their dreams.
When a local dance instructor, Chico Hernandez, is found dead in his studio, and the murder scene has an eerie resemblance to one of the dreams shared at their meeting, Taylor can't help but be intrigued. And when her sister, who was briefly involved with the dance teacher, becomes the prime suspect, Taylor and their fellow club members can't be caught napping. It's up to them to dream up a solution to the murder before Allison faces a real-life nightmare
I wrote a little companion guide to the series called DREAM INTERPRETATION, a psychologist's guide, that you might find helpful.What are your dreams trying to tell you? Do you ever dream of being stranded in a strange city in the dead of night, along and afraid? Do you dream of wandering through a beautiful house and discovering hidden rooms filled with treasures? Do you ever dream of loved ones who have passed? Dreams are our passport to our unconscious mind and this brief guide will help you unlock their secrets.
Hope you will visit me at www.marykennedy.net and see what other exciting projects are going on. I'm re-printing my Penguin teen novels with new covers and new titles, GOLDEN GIRL, SECRETS and MOVIE STAR and they'll be up soon. Love to hear from my readers, you can find me on FB, Twitter and LinkedIn. And I blog on The Cozy Chicks (a group of 7 cozy mystery writers) every Saturday. www.cozychicks.com. Happy reading! Mary Kennedy

You can pre-order Nightmares can be Murder here:


Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Blog Tour - Undertaking Irene by Pamela Burford

I'm so glad to be part of this tour. Pamela Burford's new book Undertaking Irene is a hoot!


undertaking irene large banner 640

Undertaking Irene
by Pamela Burford

Interesting characters, Interesting romances…
~readalot
…quite a humorous book!
~Storeybook Reviews
There are so many things I liked about this book. Quirky characters, an intriguing mystery, and snappy dialogue all drew me in to this story.
~Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book

undertaking-ireneUNDERTAKING IRENE by Pamela Burford
Cozy Mystery – 250 Pages

Synopsis
Jane Delaney does things her paying customers can’t do, don’t want to do, don’t want to be seen doing, can’t bring themselves to do, and/or don’t want it to be known they’d paid someone to do. To dead people. Life gets complicated for Jane and her Death Diva business when she’s hired to liberate a gaudy mermaid brooch from the corpse during a wake. Well, a girl’s got to make a living, and this assignment pays better than scattering ashes, placing flowers on graves, or bawling her eyes out as a hired mourner. Unfortunately for Jane, someone else is just as eager to get his hands on that brooch, and he’s even sneakier than she is. Just when she thinks her biggest problem is grand theft mermaid, things take a murderous turn. But hey, when you’ve teamed up with a neurotic seven-pound poodle named Sexy Beast, how can you lose?

My Review:
Witty  characters, humorous story line and a plot so fun you won't want to stop reading this book! Jane Delaney's job is anything but normal. She gets hired to retrieve things off dead people. I loved this book it's laugh out loud funny and will make people wonder what you are reading!! 

pam-burfordAbout This Author
Pamela Burford is the best-selling author of 15 works of mystery, contemporary romance, and romantic suspense. She has received four RITA and Romantic Times Reviewers Choice Award nominations and is a frequent speaker at writers’ conferences and workshops. Her books have sold millions of copies, received outstanding reviews, and been translated into more than a dozen languages. Pamela is the founder and past president of Long Island Romance Writers, a chapter of Romance Writers of America. Fun fact: her twin sister Patricia Ryan, a.k.a. P.B. Ryan, is also a published novelist
Author Links 

Monday, August 25, 2014

Blog Tour- Kathi Daily

Kathi Daley is here getting us ready for Halloween! I love Autumn and Halloween is one of my favorite times of year! Her newest book Haunted Hamlet came out on July 31st!  Kathy is also giving away a copy of the book and this fabulous mug to enjoy your coffee or tea in !!


Aren't  they great! They could be yours!!




Haunted Hamlet Description
When a ghost hunter is found dead in a haunted house just days before Halloween it looks like the killer may be living impaired. Zoe must juggle the annual Zoe Donovan Spooktacular with zombies on the run, the annual pumpkin carving contest, a haunted hayride, a relationship in crisis, and a little behind the scenes investigation

Excerpt Haunted Hamlet

Halloween is my favorite holiday. I know most people don’t really get my obsession with all things spooky, but I love everything about this awesome time of year. I love the decorations, the annual events, horror movies on TV, personalized pumpkins, and finding the scariest costume of all. But it’s not just the awesomeness of the holiday that I love, it’s the coziness of the season. The romance of that first wood fire, hot cider with good friends, hiking through groves of aspens dressed in fall colors, and the scent of snow just around the corner.
“I’m thinking witch.” My best friend, Ellie Davis, held up a mask with a huge wart on the nose. She’d been sort of down all week, so I was happy to see her enthusiasm for the pre-holiday shopping trip.
I frowned. “Weren’t you a witch last year?”
“And the ten years before that,” the third member of our triad, Levi Denton, added.
Ellie shrugged. “It’s what I do. Every year: witch.”
“Doesn’t that seem a little boring?” I wondered.
“I think the word you’re searching for is consistent.” Ellie smiled.
“Come on, El, you need to make a little effort for the tenth annual Zoe Donovan Halloween Spooktacular,” Levi persuaded.
“Technically we missed last year, so this is only the ninth annual Spooktacular,” Ellie pointed out.
Ellie was right. Normally, I have a party every year, but last year my plans were interrupted by the discovery of a dead football coach in the basement of a real haunted house. The same haunted house, I hate to say, that the Ashton Falls Events Committee voted to use as a venue for this year’s Haunted Hamlet.
“Okay, then don’t you want to make more of an effort for the ninth annual Spooktacular?” Levi corrected himself.
“Fine.” Ellie sighed.
“How about this?” Levi held up a cat costume that was little more than a black unitard with ears and a tail.
“In your dreams.” Ellie laughed. “I’m pretty sure that outfit will leave nothing to the imagination, and personally, I like to maintain just a bit of mystery.”
“Come on; it’s an awesome costume,” Levi insisted.
“Then you wear it.” Ellie grinned as she poked her index finger into his chest.
“It would show off my boyish figure,” Levi teased as he jokingly held it up in front of his sculpted frame. “I have to admit I’m looking quite svelte since I’ve been putting in extra time at the gym so that I can keep up with Darla.”
“Oh please.” Ellie rolled her eyes. I knew that Levi’s new girlfriend was a sore subject with the woman who had suffered the agony of falling in love with a man she would never have.
“Have you seen where they keep the pus?” I asked in an attempt to change the subject and break the tension.
“Pus? Really?” Ellie put her hands on her hips in disgust. “This is the first big party you and Zak have thrown as a couple. Don’t you think you should go for something other than oozing wounds and external entrails?”
“It’s Halloween,” I pointed out. “Zak will expect pus.”
I decided to get into the long line while Zak finished gathering his supplies. At the rate the line was moving, it would be breakfast before it was our turn to check out. As I looked around at the
overstimulated children running up and down the aisles, I thought fondly of my own Halloweens as a child. My dad always dressed up in a gory costume when he took me trick-or-treating. Some years Ellie and Levi would come with us, but there were a few years when it was just the two of us running from house to house so that I could hit as many as possible in the hours between 6 and 9 p.m.
I was nearing the front of the line, so I was looking around the store for Zak when I noticed a man wearing a dark overcoat and a fedora. His attire seemed odd for this decade, so I couldn’t help but watch as he walked slowly up and down each aisle without stopping to look at anything in particular. If I had to guess, he was looking for someone rather than something.
“Do you see that guy in the overcoat?” I asked as Zak walked up beside me. I tried not to cringe as Zak pushed the two heaping carts of Halloween decorations into line. Ellie was right: At the rate Zak was going, our house was going to look like a magical theme park ride.
“The guy walking around aimlessly?” Zak clarified.
“Yeah. He’s acting strange. Do you recognize him?”
“No. He doesn’t look familiar. Maybe he’s a visitor?”
“Maybe. It’s just that my Zodar is tingling.”
Now that I’d solved a total of eight murders in the past year, my friends had started teasing me about having some sort of Zoe Radar—or Zodar for short—when it came to both murder victims and murder suspects. I had to wonder which I was sensing.
“Maybe your Zodar is on the fritz. No one is dead,” Zak pointed out.
“Yet,” I replied.


My Review:
It's October and Halloween is coming up. Zoe and her friends are at it again. Getting ready for Halloween and all the festivities that will be taking place. But when Adams body is found in the Henderson House it puts a new spin on their planning. Zoe is determined to stay out of the way and the investigation but she just can't help herself and finds herself right in the middle. She has to find out what happened and who did it before the Haunted House really becomes haunted! What a fantastic read for the season you will be drawn into the story instantly and if you love Halloween and all things fall than this is a book you will want to read!

Kathi's books:

Books by Kathi Daley
Come for the murder, stay for the romance.

Paradise Lake Series:
Pumpkins in Paradise
Snowmen in Paradise
Bikinis in Paradise
Christmas in Paradise – September 2014

Zoe Donovan Mysteries:
Halloween Hijinks
The Trouble With Turkeys
Christmas Crazy
Cupid’s Curse
Big Bunny Bump-off
Beach Blanket Barbie
Maui Madness
Derby Divas
Haunted Hamlet
Turkeys, Tuxes, and Tabbies – October 2014
Christmas Cozy – November 2014

Road to Christmas Romance:
Road to Christmas Past


Bio:
Kathi Daley lives with her husband, kids, grandkids, and Bernese mountain dogs in beautiful Lake Tahoe. When she isn’t writing, she likes to read (preferably at the beach or by the fire), cook (preferably something with chocolate or cheese), and garden (planting and planning, not weeding). She also enjoys spending time on the water when she’s not hiking, biking, or snowshoeing the miles of desolate trails surrounding her home.

Kathi uses the mountain setting in which she lives, along with the animals (wild and domestic) that share her home, as inspiration for her cozy mysteries.

Stay up to date with her newsletter, The Daley Weekly. There’s a link to sign up on both her Facebook page and her website, or you can access the sign-in sheet at:  http://eepurl.com/NRPDf

Visit Kathi:
Facebook at Kathi Daley Books, www.facebook.com/kathidaleybooks
Twitter at Kathi Daley@kathidaley
Webpage www.kathidaley.com
E-mail kathidaley@kathidaley.com






Sunday, August 24, 2014

Weekly Wrap Up #33

Here is what Happened this week:

Aug 22nd- Friday 56

Books I've read:

Haunted Hamlet by Kathi Daley
Undertaking Irene  by Pamela Burford

Coming this week:

Aug 25th- Kathi Daley- Haunted Hamlet
Aug 26th- Blog Tour- Undertaking Irene
Aug 27th- Author Spotlight- Mary Kennedy
Aug 28th- First in a New Series- On What Grounds by Cleo Coyle
Aug 29th- Clea Simon Interview and book review
Aug 30th- Book Trivia- Sue Ann Jaffarian

Hope to see you here!! 




Saturday, August 23, 2014

Book Trivia hosted by Mary Anne Edwards

Today's book trivia is hosted by the Delightful Mary Anne Edwards!! Mary is giving a ebook of Brilliant Disguise  to anyone who comments and a Signed paper copy of Brilliant Disguise  to one lucky winner!



Here we go! Good Luck!!



1. Where is Charlie McClung from?  
2 How Marian's husband die? 
3. What is the name of Joan's restaurant ? 
4. Where does Marian volunteer? 




Have fun and don't forget to leave your email too!!!



First in Series- Miss Julia Speaks her Mind by Ann B. Ross

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