BE AFRAID

Barbour Publishing is launching this line of cozy mysteries called Heartsong Mysteries. You can find out more about it here: http://www.heartsongmysteries.com/

My first book in this book club comes in September and if you’ve been reading along the earlier posts you’re getting an idea of the fun all our authors are having being involved in this new line of books.

Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple stories are the classic example of cozy mysteries.

On television, think Murder She Wrote.

My next turn to blog I’ll talk more about my own cozy mystery coming in September, the first of a three book series. But I’ll give you a blurb for now:

Of Mice…and Murder

By Mary Connealy

Being named in Great-grandma’s will was like hitting bankrupt on Wheel of Fortune. The whole family held their breath while the wheel ticked around and around, or rather while the lawyer opened the envelope. Then the wheel stopped on Carrie’s name and everybody else heaved a sigh of relief.

Carrie the heiress. Great.

Clean up the house.

Clean up the yard.

Clean up Great-grandma’s rap sheet.

Carrie hates mice and loves the big city. So why is she living in a huge mouse infested house in her dinky hometown? The dead guy in her pantry closet is the most interesting thing that's happened since she came home. Of course the carpenter who's helping her trap her mice and solve the crime is pretty interesting, too.

http://www.maryconnealy.com/

I created Carrie out of my own mouse phobia. How about you? Anyone else afraid of mice? Any other phobias?

The only truly unrealistic thing that happens in my small fictional town of Melnik, Nebraska, is...Carrie staying in that house once she sees the first mouse. The rest of it, an oversized stuffed mouse, a dead guy in the closet, a crazed pie-baker and a mouse obsessed drama queen, sure...those could happen. But staying in that house with the mice?

No way.

So tell me what makes you go EEEEKKK!!!!!

LaTisha Blogs

LaTisha Barnhart here, resting my bunions as I type out this message of greeting to you. Hardy, my husband, is hovering nearby, in a stew because he kept procrastinating returning some library books and now they're overdue. I told him, I said, "Hardy Barnhart, there's no sense in paying a fee for overdue library books when you only live a couple of blocks away from the place. You best get over there and pay up." Did he listen to me? No. He went and curled his hide up in a ball on the sofa. Sound asleep. That man. But you get me in the kitchen whipping up one of my Caramel-Pecan cakes and Hardy suddenly listens real good. Listens for the sound of the mixer mixing up the caramel frosting! Then, sure enough, he's right there at my elbow, big brown eyes pleading to lick the beaters. I always have to double the recipe in order to have enough. Of course, having raised seven hungry children, I'm used to doubling recipes, sometimes tripling them if they were favorites.

Now that's it's just Hardy and me, I try not to cook so much. Sure is tough though. Know what's even tougher? Seeing my babies leave the nest. Funny how it didn't strike me quite so hard until Lela--she's our youngest--left for college this past fall. Now the house seems too quiet and too big. And when Hardy plays his piano, I miss the sound of our babies singing along. It's a good thing I've got my college work to keep my mind busy.

Which reminds me, I need to hustle over to the library and return those books. Maybe I'll drop by Out of Time, the little antique store here in Maple Gap. I used to work there, but Marion and I didn't see eye to eye too often. I hear she's having a going-out-of-business sale, so it might be worth checking out, that is if I can get Hardy on his feet. I can hear him snoring all the way in here.

When LaTisha Barnhart sets foot into the Out of Time antique store, her bunions tell her something's afoot. Upon discovering the body of her former employer Marion Peters, LaTisha decides to put her Police Science degree to good use and do a little investigating of her own. But when her husband Hardy opens his trap and implicates her, the ante is upped, and she is determined to clear her name and find the real culprit.

She's burping Mark Hamm's bad cooking to investigate his beef with Marion. . .gettin' her hair styled at a high falutin' beauty parlor to see what has Regina Rogane in a snarl. . .and thinking Payton O'Mahney's music store lease might be the reason he's singing out of tune when discussion of Marion's murder arises. LaTisha's thinking she just might use the reward money to have her bunions surgically removed, but she's got to catch the crook first!

Murder on the Ol' Bunions, March 2008
by S. Dionne Moore
http://www.sdionnemoore.com/
Check out my Most Beautiful Bunion Contest. Stop laughing, I'm serious!

Meet Cici Wilde

Thanks for stopping by the website for my vintage clothing store. Located as it is in the small town of Grace Gulch, Oklahoma, a lot of its success comes from online sales.

However, business has boomed in the last few months. Everyone wants an authentic outfit for our town’s celebration of the 1891 land run. That’s when our part of Oklahoma was opened to white settlement.

Audie Howe, my new boyfriend and interim director of the Magda Grace Mallory Theater (we call it the MGM), has planned a reenactment of the most famous gunfight in Grace Gulch history.

You see, although our town is named Grace Gulch, after Bob Grace, his rival Dick Gaynor arrived seconds later. He always accused old Bob of cheating. They even exchanged gunfire once.

With Audie directing the reenactment play, my old friend Cord Grace playing his great-grandfather Bob, and my sister Dina handling the prop guns, I hope everything goes well.

I see them out in the street now. Cord is exchanging insults with Penn Hardy, the newspaper editor portraying Dick Gaynor.

Both men pull their guns, shoot, and fall down. Only—Penn Hardy remains on the ground.

He’s … dead!

Award-winning author and speaker Darlene Franklin resides in the Colorado foothills with her mother and her lynx point Siamese cat Talia. She has two grown children and two grandchildren. She loves music, reading and writing. She has published one books previously (Romanian Rhapsody, Barbour, 2005), as well as numerous devotions, magazine articles, and children’s curriculum. Gunfight at Grace Gulch is the first book in the Dressed for Death series. Visit Darlene’s website at http://www.darlenehfranklin.com/

Homicide at Blue Heron Lake

When Emily Gray returned to the tiny, lakeside town of Baxter, Maine, all she intended to do was clean up her mother’s island cottage and sell it. She didn’t expect to see her childhood sweetheart, Nate Holman, again—not that she wouldn’t be glad to see his parents, if they still ran the Baxter Marina. And she did sort of hope they’d tell her what Nate was up to now. But she certainly didn’t expect to find Nate himself running the business and eager to give her a boat ride out to her cottage. Another thing she didn’t expect that golden day on the island with Nate: discovering a murder victim.

Why would anyone kill senior citizen Henry Derbin, who liked to spend quiet summers in his cottage on the island? And now that he’s dead, can Emily break his old rule about trespassing?

Come to Baxter and meet Emily, Nate, and the other residents. Everyone is talking about the murder—or is it two murders? Truly Vigue will talk about anything, anytime. Her plump son Rocky wants friends badly, but has secrets of his own. Raven Miller, owner of the Vital Women Retreat Center, has ideas about the killer. So does Felicia Chadwick, owner and editor of the Baxter Journal. Then there’s Detective Blakeney, who wants Emily out of his way, but grudgingly listens to her and Nate.

My daughter Megan and I concocted this story together. We created Baxter and Blue Heron Lake based on the small towns and gorgeous lakes of Maine that we know and love. We live near the real life “Golden Pond” (Great Pond), where author Ernest Thompson used to spend summers. There’s still a mail boat, and across the state there are still little towns where the people all know each other well, but still have secrets to hide. Join us in the MAINEly Murder series.

Learn more about Susan Page Davis and Megan Elaine Davis at http://www.susanpagedavis.com/.

Happily Ever Buried

I love fiddling with words as if I were mixing colors on a palette. All painters want to produce just the right effects with their medium, and so it is with writers. I spend long hours in front of my computer, trying my best to add just the right light and color to my work, hoping to make it real and inspiring and memorable. At least, that’s always my desire.

My latest writing endeavors are cozy mysteries! Another Stab at Life will be the first cozy in The Volstead Manor Series. The novel is about a young woman, Bailey Walker, who’s lost everything—her family, her job, and her home. She has nowhere to go, except the dilapidated mansion she’s just inherited from her granny Minna. Unfortunately, Bailey discovers that the house has a history as shadowy as its hidden passages and finds the neighborhood overflowing with some rather quirky folks—as well as one particularly appealing bachelor. Bailey feels like she’s trapped inside the pages of a gothic novel but with a comedic twist. In order to honor her grandmother’s wishes and stay at Volstead Manor, Bailey must unravel a string of mysteries and secrets, which all seem determined to stay happily ever buried.

You might ask, “Now, Anita, what made you want to write about such a sinister mansion?” Well, growing up in a creepy one-hundred-year-old farm house in the middle of nowhere probably helped a little. Our old place had bats in the attic, a dank cellar, and a mysterious place under the floorboards like in Poe’s, The Tell-Tale Heart, for hiding money. Or for hiding whatever. So, there was plenty of fodder in that old place for my young imagination to chew on, and it was only a matter of time before those shadows made their way into my writings. So, when you read my mysteries, The Volstead Manor Series, I hope you’ll remember that old farmhouse and how it got me pondering about secret places and puzzling crimes.

Mysteriously Yours,
Anita Higman

Please feel free to drop me a note at ahigman@msn.com or stop by my website at http://www.anitahigman.com/ to enter a drawing for a chance to win a free signed copy of Another Stab at Life.

Meet Priscilla Crumb!

Dear Reader,

Retirement is not at all what I envisioned. I’ve often compared it to one of my prized cheese soufflés gone flat. Dull, dreary, and monotonous. Thankfully, my son Nathan was desperate enough to fly me to his upscale hunting lodge, or I’d more than likely be sitting at my card table right now, putting together one of those five-hundred-piece puzzles he gave me last Christmas. Filling in for Nathan’s full time cook, who came down with a serious case of the West Nile virus four months ago, had become my escape from the mundane routine of retirement. Or so I thought.

That was until my guest list turned into a suspect list. . .for murder. You can believe me when I say that I never expected to be involved in a real life mystery, but that’s exactly what happened when my informal buffet turned to chaos, and Charles Woodruff was found dead after sampling one of my salmon-filled tartlets.


Now up until this unfortunate event, I’ve always been known as superb cook and articulate hostess--save one regrettable incident involving Dr. Witherspoon and an expired jar of mayonnaise--but now my very reputation has been tarnished. So to save my name, and that of my son’s lodge, you can bet I’ll find out the truth.


Sincerely,


Pricilla Crumb

P.S. Want a chance to win a copy of Recipe for Murder? Sign up today at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LisaHarris/. Drawing will be held this month!


Visit my blog at http://pricillacrumb.blogspot.com/ or

Lisa Harris’s blog at http://myblogintheheartofafrica.blogspot.com/
for more information.




Lisa Harris is a wife, mother, missionary, and award-winning author who has been writing fiction and nonfiction for the Christian market since 2000. She and her husband currently live with their three children in Brazil and are learning Portuguese in preparation for a return to Africa. To learn more about Lisa and her ministry, check out her website at http://web.mac.com/sgharris/iWeb/Site/Welcome.html

Meet Dana Mentink

Dear Mystery Lover,

Hello from the Golden State. I thought I’d take a moment to write and introduce myself. I’m Dana Mentink, author of the Up Finny’s Nose series which launches in the first cycle of Heartsong Presents Mysteries. I also write inspirational suspense for Harlequin. I live in Northern California, home to happy cows and excellent cheese. I co-exist with two small children, a husband who works for the fire service and a confused, 70 pound shepherd who is quite convinced she could be a lap dog if properly indulged.

I am so thrilled to be writing cozies for Barbour Books. My love affair with mystery goes back to the Agatha Christie days. Remember those gems? Miss Marple and her cups of tea? I enjoy the cozy format because it is the perfect vehicle for zany, quirky characters who get swept up in life’s strange adventures. Case in point, Ruth Budge, a vermiculturist who was left in charge of a flock of crippled sea birds by her late husband. Her small seaside town of Finny is host to a number of strange comings and goings, not the least of which is Ruth’s discovery that her late husband was busy writing a novel she knew nothing about. Murder? Mystery? Madness?It’s all got a home in Finny.

And now a word about you, dear reader. What do I hope we experience together? I pray that in the course of reading my books, you will laugh, you will be moved and most of all, you will be lifted up, along with Ruth as she stumbles along her own rocky road to grace. I feel blessed to be sharing this adventure with you.

I would love to have you visit my website at http://www.danamentink.com/ to leave a comment or just extend a cyber hello. I host a monthly contest if you wish to try your luck. Thanks for stopping by.

Dana Mentink