A New Year, and a New Release

2012 is finally a fading image in my rear view mirror.  It's been a tough year, maybe the toughest year I have ever faced.  But today, with the arrival of 2013 I am able to put the old year behind me, and look forward to the new.  Sure, there will be challenges, and I am not 100% just yet, but I am much better than I was a month ago, and miles better than the month before that.  On the 10th of December last year (man, am I glad to be able to say that!) the wound care facility declared me healed, and officially released me from all follow-up care.  Much as I appreciated all they did, I was just as glad to say good-bye.  It was a friendly break-up though, and I took them some lovely parting gifts.

The other good news today is the release of Murder Hooks a Mermaid, the second book in the Haunted Gift Shop series, along with my friend Julie Hyzy's Fonduing Fathers (Thanks, Julie, for the great review posted above).  Here's the cover blurb:

Nestled in Keyhole Bay, Florida, Glory Martine’s souvenir shop, Southern Treasures, is supposed to trap tourists—not ghosts. But a possessed parrot may be just what Glory needs to solve a murder...

Inheriting her great-uncle Louis’s bayside souvenir shop should have been a breeze for Glory. Instead it’s been one headache after another—with a lot of them generated by Bluebeard, a parrot with a mouth like a sailor and a personality a lot like her late great-uncle. But Glory’s troubles pale in comparison to those of her best friend Karen, whose ex may still have the personalized key chain to her heart, but whose brother-in-law is about to get locked up.

A diver has been found with a gaff hook in his chest, and Karen turns to Glory to help get her brother-in-law off the hook for his murder. But casting the net for the real killer won’t be easy. Glory and Bluebeard are about to find out that the secrets in Keyhole Bay run deeper than anyone ever imagined…

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Yep, we get to know Karen's ex, who made a cameo appearance in Murder Buys a T-Shirt, as well as his troublesome brother.  There's more Bluebeard, and more Jake, and especially more of Sly and Bobo.  I didn't know those last two were going to turn into such important characters when I started this series, but once they showed up I knew they had a story to tell.  (And there's also more of Sly's story coming January 15th at Dru's Book Musings.)

I am currently working like mad on Book 3, with a working title of Murder Sends a Postcard, which should be out late this year (Yay, 2013!).  As always, if you want a signed copy of any of my books you can contact my local booksellers: North by Northwest Books and Antiques,  or Bob's Beach Books.

Sunday Morning Musing

Number One Fan, AKA husband J. Steven York,  has been on my case to get back on here and talk to y'all.  Being MIA is understandable and all, but at some point you have to pick yourself up, dust yourself off and get back to the business at hand.


To quote Morgan Freeman, "Get busy living, or get  busy dying."  I choose living.


So I'm going to try and be here more often.


For starters, I want to share some good books with you.  One thing I have discovered is that I tend to read more nonfiction when I'm writing, and I just finished a really interesting book, THE WAVE, by Susan Casey.


I live close enough to the ocean to fall asleep to the sound of the surf.  I love being near the beach.  More than that, I need to be near the ocean.  The flat Midwestern plains?  They make me jumpy-there's no water nearby.  My West Coast roots go deep, I grew up in Southern California is the surfer-60s, and I now live in a tsunami evacuation zone.  (We watched - from a safe distance at the top of our hill - the surge from the Japanese earthquake last year.)  Of course I read this book!


My husband read it first and recommended it to me, and I'm passing along that recommendation.  Here's what he had to say about it:



"As it happens, I just recently finished reading an excellent book about big waves, dealing alternately with big-wave science, big-wave surfers, and the history of giant waves and their impact on people and ships. Amazingly little is known about the huge waves our planet is capable or producing. We don't even know how big they can get, and in fact, scientists are having trouble explaining the biggest waves that have already been reliably been observed. Waves seem simple, but it may actually require quantum physics to decode the mysterious behaviors and energies of giant waves."



And if you're a mystery fan (if you're here, you probably are!) and you haven't yet read any of Julie Hyzy's books, you should.  Her latest White House chef book, AFFAIRS OF STEAK, recently hit the NY Times list.  It's book 5 in the series, and she just keeps getting better!  But start with #1-STATE OF THE ONION.  You won't want to miss a single adventure in our nation's capital.


That's it for now.  I still have some books to write, and some cooking to do, you know.  I'll try to be back more often with bits and pieces from the life of a crazy writer!