Heartsong Presents Cozy Mystery Theater!

The Case: Late one evening, Lord Flauntit is in his study watching television. He rings a little bell and Jasper, his butler, enters the room. The master and servant have a brief conversation, at the end of which Jasper gives his notice.

At midnight, a fire breaks out at Flauntit Hall. When the firefighters arrive, they find Jasper’s body spread-eagle on the gravel driveway. He is quite dead. The firefighters assume that in his panic to escape the fire, Jasper junped out of the his third story bedroom window and broke his neck in the fall.

The firefighters easily put out the small blasé and then call the constable. The entire county is shocked when respectable Lord Flauntit is later arreseted for arson and murder.

The Mystery: Why did Lord Flauntit kill Jasper and set the fire?

The Clues: It was Jasper’s lucky day. . .and unlucky day! In case of fire, find your most valuable possession. Jasper was a numbers man.

The Answer? Think you know the answer? Submit a comment with your guess. Winner receives a free copy of one of Heartsong Presents Mysteries!

Heartsong Presents Cozy Mystery Theater!

The Case: Union Camp has always been a peaceful town, with not crime other than the occasional stolen library book. But recently, strange things have been happening. Last week, the town clerk’s office was broken into. Two days ago, a dog was shot and killed for no apparent reason. And today Jim, the local mail carrier , was attacked with a baseball bat and wound up in the hospital with 20 stitches.

“We got us a regular crime wave,” the neighbors complained. “What’s going on here?”

The Mystery: What is going on in Union Camp?

The Clues: The murdered dog belonged to the mail carrier. Unknowingly, Jim was hiding something that someone wanted. Something was found in the library that led to the clerk’s office, that led to Jim.

The Answer? Think you know the answer? Submit a comment with your guess. Winner receives a free copy of one of Heartsong Presents Mysteries!

A Mysterious Trip

How did it happen? My darling protagonist Ruth Budge and I have reached a strange and mysterious place. One day we’re easing into adult life and then bam! Out of nowhere…middle age. I ignored the signs for a while, the wrinkles, the gray hairs, the odd bulge here or there. Since my monolithic 40th birthday, and completion of Ruth’s adventures in Finny, I can no longer disregard the plain truth. I’ve made it my mid-life mission to compile a handy list of the top three signs of middle age, a sort of roadmap for those accompanying me down that crooked highway.

Sign Number One: Parts of my body are not where I left them two decades ago. Gravity is not my friend, I’ve decided. It seems to be doing its able best to pull all manner of areas in the southernly direction. Other parts require much more time and assistance than they did in my twenties. Getting up off the floor for instance, necessitates several people and a winch. And what is that sound that comes out of my mouth when I bend over? Ruth has the same trouble, but she puts me to shame. She manages to chase her flock of disabled seagulls, keep up with her new husband’s catering business and even solve a murder in her latest book, Fog Under Finny’s Nose. If she can forge ahead, I guess I can too.

Sign number Two: I’ve become technology road kill on the great cyber highway. When I turned forty, the world exploded with microchips and gigawatt thingamagiggys. I got a new phone that came equipped with all kinds of functions from text messaging to navigating the Mars explorer. For some reason, my middle aged brain has reached capacity and I am unable to figure out anything technology related. Ruth, like me, still appreciates the power of a good handwritten document. As a matter of fact, just such gem, handwritten by a stalwart restaurateur in 1920, proves to be a clue that unlocks a decades old mystery. How’s that for the power of the pen?

Sign Number Three: Time moves faster now. The days on my calendar fly by so
quickly, I sometimes can’t remember what I packed into all of them. Gone are my girls’ jack o’lantern grins with missing teeth and the box of tiny ballet slippers marks an age that seems so long ago and yet remains so recent in my memory. Gone too are the times of reading books on Mommy’s lap and playing in the mud on a warm spring morning. I can’t remember when my kisses stopped being magic for boo boos, or when the girls got too big for flying high on the swing set, looking as if they could touch the sun.

Could it be only a few short weeks until Finny #2, Fog Under Finny’s Nose releases? And how is it possible that book three, Treasure Under Finny’s Nose is complete? I will certainly miss Ruth and her crazy town filled with colorful characters and plenty of villainy. Maybe we will meet again sometime. I suppose the miles we’ve traveled together helped me to appreciate this amazing God given journey, to taste the sweetness of the days, like hidden fruit left on the tree to soak up the sun for a while longer. I will count myself blessed to savor my life in the middle, and the wonderful company I’ve enjoyed along the way.

Cozy up with Eileen Key

My cozy mystery book, Dog Gone, revolves around a series of missing pedigreed dogs. The first dog disappears from the Pampered Pooch Kennel and Day Spa in Trennan, Tennessee, owned by Ginnie, Belle Blevins’ best friend. Belle is extremely worried, because the kennel sits on land she owns. And taxes are due on that land. When other dogs vanish, Belle begins tracking clues and praying the Lord will get her out of one more jam.

I’ve read and enjoyed the mystery genre since the days of Trixie Belden and Cherry Ames(ummm, aging myself there!). When the opportunity to write a mystery arose, I decided to try it—and a love affair was born. I’d written a number of other manuscripts, but Dog Gone was the first to sell. Barbour took a chance on an unknown fiction writer, and for that, I’m truly grateful.

The journey to publication began in earnest seven years ago. I wrote numerous unpaid articles and devotionals for an online magazine. My first sale was a series of prayers in Prayers and Promises: Armed Forces published by Barbour in 2004. What a blessing for the Lord to have me write words to Him that might be read by someone in uniform. In the next few years, I was published with God Allows U-Turns, Soul Matters, God’s Way and other anthologies. In the meantime, I pegged away at the fiction craft, learning and practicing and hoping and dreaming.

One rainy, dreary Thursday, in July 2006, my daughter Rachel took me to eat lunch. We were about to climb out of her truck in the parking lot when my cell rang. It was Tamela Hancock Murray—agent extraordinaire—with “The Call.” Susan Downs wanted my manuscript. I cried! God allowed a desire of my heart to be fulfilled in an unbelievable manner. He is so faithful!

Our new mystery line from Heartsong Presents is fun and filled with unusual characters and unique storylines. Can’t wait for my next set of books to arrive in the mail. I hope yours comes soon, too. This fall it will contain Dog Gone. Please let me know what you think!

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To learn more about Eileen visit http://www.eileenkey.com/

Undercover...Mother?

Karen Maxwell is the heroine of George Washington Stepped Here, the first mystery by K.D. Hays. Since Karen gets to do all the talking in the book, her son Evan asked for some time here to share his side of the story...

My mom is so embarrassing! While most other moms have normal jobs like working in a doctor’s office or some nice building where everyone wears suits, my mom works in my uncle’s office in a crummy building that’s like 600 years old and looks like it could fall down any minute. But that’s not the worst part about her job. Uncle Dave is a private investigator and now Mom thinks that just because she works for him, she should be an investigator, too. An undercover investigator.

Yeah, maybe it sounds cool, but it really isn’t. She’s going “undercover” as a mom taking her kids to volunteer at a historic site. That means taking me along. And my useless sister, Alicia. The people there dress up in weird clothes and pretend like they’re living back at the time of George Washington. Mom won’t let me bring my Nintendo or even my soccer ball.

I think I’ll probably die of boredom.

I don’t know why she has to go there anyway. She said somebody stole something, but I’ve never seen anything there worth stealing. Except maybe the sodas in the gift shop.

There is one good thing about the place, and that’s when I get to help this guy in the blacksmith shop. He showed me how to make stuff by heating up metal until its burning red super mega hot and then you can bend it and flatten it and stuff. No other kids get to do this, just me. Since I’m a volunteer.

Or maybe it’s because the blacksmith guy went on a date with my mom. She said it wasn’t a date but Alicia says it was and she’s always reading magazines with boys on the cover and pretending she knows something about dates.

So, anyway, don’t read George Washington Stepped Here because it’s really embarrassing. (But you can read the next book, Worth Its Weight in Old, since we don’t have to wear funny clothes in that one.)

And you can read pages from my sister’s diary if you visit the author’s website at http://www.kdhays.com/. You can also read more about the author at the site, too, but I don’t think you should. She’ll probably just say something that would embarrass her kids.

The Beauty Beat--Stories from Lovita's Cut'n Strut Salon. . .by Lovita Mae Horton

Lovita's Cut 'n Strut ain't your average salon. We git all types of people in here. For instance, yesterday a stranger walked in thinking we were a "saloon," not a salon. I told him the only thing close to spirits in our shop was the blue sanitizing liquid we use for rat tail combs, and that just wasn't gonna cut it! Haha--I guess that's beauty salon humor for you.

My sidekick, Sue Jan is mostly the one who keeps things interesting 'round here. Something always seems to happen in orbit around her world, if you know what I mean. The other day, she accidentally sat herself down on a cactus, though she was aiming for a tree stump. I thought I'd split my seams laughing. Sue Jan wasn't laughing much at the time though. She must've had a hundred cactus needles in her rumpus room area. Took old Doc Nasale an hour to get 'em all out.

She's always cooking up some scheme to find a husband. The woman's desperate and pert near one hair from becoming a full-fledged stalker. No stranger who comes to town is safe from her. She knows more about them in half an hour than the federal government would in a year. No takers though. I always tell her men can sense a desperate single woman like a zebra herd can smell a lion nearby. They run. I think it's because men like to think they do the hunting. Smart women are the ones who really do the hunting, but they let the man think he's doing it. It's just that simple. I sound like I know what I'm talking about, but I don't have a man either. I gave up looking. Men think plus size is hard on the eyes. But Sue Jan says she and I are "big bodaciously beautiful women." Maybe so. But so far, no man has agreed with that statement.

Anywho, aside from Sue Jan, there's not much going on around here. Although my daddy, Clark W. Horton used to tell me that most folks have a secret or two to keep. I found it hard to imagine in our little town of Wachita, but daddy sure knew what he was talking about. he caught his share of scoundrels and lawbreakers in the region. I guess that's what's expected of a Texas Ranger though. He was real modest about how good he was at investigating. Said, "Even a blind hog find's an acorn ever' now and then." And I guess that's true, but not where my daddy was concerned. He knew just where to look.

Sometimes I wish I'd followed in his footsteps. But the silver star ain't for everyone. I guess my silver star's a blow dryer. But who knows. Maybe I'll find an acorn one of these days. . .

Look for Misfortune Cookies in 2008! Coming Soon!

www.coffeeteaandthee.org

www.babeswithabeatitude.com

wwwinternalmonoblogcom.blogspot.com 

MAINEly Murder

Welcome to Baxter, Maine. We may be a small town, but we’ve got big things going on here.

I’m Felicia Chadwick, owner and editor of the Baxter Journal. I’ll tell you, things have been hopping here, and I’m not talking about the new owners at the marina or the outdoor seating at the Lumberjack Restaurant.

The smartest thing I’ve done in last couple years is to convince Emily Gray to come and work for me at the Journal. When Emily first came back to Baxter, I was a little intimidated by her. I mean, she’d been working for a big city newspaper and had won some awards for investigative reporting. The Journal was only a weekly, and what’s more, her parents used to own this paper. Not only that, her family owns one of those darling cottages out on Grand Cat Island, something I’ve always dreamed about. But since Emily came back, we’ve morphed into a biweekly and increased our advertising and readership base. And that isn’t all.

We’ve had murders in Baxter. Since Emily came home to live here, we’ve had more murders than. . .well, ever. Her first day here, she and Nate Holman discovered a dead body. Of course, Emily is so head-over-heels in love with Nate that I was afraid it might distract her from her work. But no siree, she’s right there ready to buttonhole the State Police detectives and ask the really hard questions. And she’s not above doing a little snooping around—er, research, that is—on her own. Field work. That’s it.

And it’s a good thing. Without Emily’s nose for news, I’m not sure the cops could solve all the crimes we’ve had lately. Arson, burglaries, lost treasure, impostors trying to claim an inheritance. . .it’s just been wild around here. I love it!

Me, I just put out the paper. But I know everything going on in Baxter, Maine. You’ll want to, too.

Read the MAINEly Murder series, by Susan Page Davis and her daughter, Megan Elaine Davis. They’ll give you the scoop. The first book, Homicide at Blue Heron Lake, came out in February. Next up is Treasure at Blue Heron Lake. I hear that now they’re working on Impostors at Blue Heron Lake. And you can check out the authors at www.susanpagedavis.com, especially on the “Mystery” page. Love it. Absolutely love it.