Two of my good friends had a book release this week.
I’ve read Heather Weidner’s Murder Strikes a Chord already, and it’s a winner.
The Pearly Girls return to solve a high school reunion murder in this sequel to Murder Strikes a Chord.
Event planner Cassidy Jamison and her not-so-helpful sexagenarian staff of Roxie, Kate, Aileen, and Ruthanne are up to their elbows with a high school reunion committee’s constantly changing requirements for an event that must be the most elaborate and memorable at all costs.
When well-known reporter, Darcy Branch, and former cheerleader, Brittany Mahoney, are found dead on her property, Cassidy and the gang have to find the killer before the party’s over. And the more Cassidy and her Chihuahua mix, Elvis, dig for clues, the more deadly secrets they uncover—including one that changes everything she knows about her family’s history.
The Pearly Girls need to solve the case before the Class of 2009 goes down in Ivy Springs history as the deadliest reunion.
The Sasquatch of Hurricane Ridge by my friend, KB Jackson, also released this week.
Cryptids beware . . . Jake, Jasmine, and Lanny, the Sasquatch Hunters of Washington, Inc., are at it again in the fourth book of the ever-popular Sasquatch Hunters series!
Fresh from their adventure in Scotland, the Sasquatch Hunters are headed to the Olympic Peninsula, the place where it all began when Jake’s grandpa first saw a Bigfoot. However, they aren’t the only ones pursuing the legendary cryptids on the peninsula. The crew of Jake’s favorite TV show, Bigfoot Believers, is filming an episode there. Another young team of Sasquatch stalkers also arrives. Will a friendly rivalry turn ugly? And which team will be the first to prove Bigfoot exists and get their TV show shot at fame?
Jake, Jasmine, and Lanny, members of The Sasquatch Hunters of Washington, Inc., are in for their greatest challenge yet as they encounter extreme competition in their quest to locate a Bigfoot. In author K.B. Jackson’s fourth title in the series, readers will dive even further into the adventures of the Sasquatch hunters but also learn more about the characters themselves and how their personal lives come to define their friendships.
Deadlines and Valentines: A Jules Keene Glamping Mystery is the fourth book in Heather’s series, and it’s out now.
Heather is one of the nicest people I have ever met. She’s also a fabulous author, and you don’t want to miss reading this book.
Fern Valley, nestled in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains, is ground zero for all things romance. The town has pulled out all the stops for the first Valentine’s Day “Love is in the Air” Book Festival with events like Death by Chocolate, author speed-dating, a character masquerade, and a male cover model fashion show.
Everything is candy and roses until the sparks start to fly. Jules Keene and her team at the glamping resort spend their time trying to tamp down fiery tempers because opposites may not always attract.
When a popular author with a heart of gold is found murdered in the barn at the resort, Jules has to find the culprit before more than just hearts are broken.
I hope you are having a beautiful and safe spring. Living in the South spoils me. No more Easters with snow. Yay! South Carolina has also spoiled me with lovely warm weather. I don’t deal well with the cold anymore. So, I say welcome spring!
The only negative to living on the coast is we’re far from our family. So, I’m going to take a couple of weeks off to focus on family.
Then I’ll be back in the thick of things. Zoom meetings, Malice Domestic, and I’m honored to be the featured author on May 16 at the Moveable Feast. The luncheon will be held in Murrells Inlet, South Carolina. If you’re in the area, I’d love to see you there. If you have a specific question, just let me know.
Heather Weidner and Misty Simon will be at Malice Domestic along with me and two-hundred mystery authors. It’s a fan-focused event. And it’s FUN!
Until then, I hope you have a happy Easter and spring days!
I’m excited to have Heather back, and she’s going to share about her new book, STICKS AND STONES AND A BAG OF BONES. Isn’t that a catchy title?
Heather took time out of her busy schedule to answer some questions.
Why did you decide to write a new series?
I have always loved cozy mysteries, and I have so many ideas for sleuths and adventures (and murder and mayhem). I have two series with Level Best Books, the Jules Keene Glamping Mysteries and the Mermaid Bay Christmas Shoppe Mysteries. My sleuths have fun jobs that I think about sometimes. Jules owns a camping resort in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. She has restored vintage trailers for the ultimate glamping experience for her guests. She and her boyfriend, the hunky Jake Evans, added a village of tiny houses, themed for famous writers, to the resort for additional glamorous camping experiences.
Jade Hicks owns a Christmas store in the quaint beach community of Mermaid Bay. I grew up in Virginia Beach, and I always loved the Christmas stores that catered to the tourists. Christmas is my favorite holiday, and shopping for ornaments is always a must when we’re on vacation.
Tell us about your new sleuth. What is her career? Why did she decide to solve a murder? My latest mystery is STICKS AND STONES AND A BAG OF BONES. Jade works really hard to keep her Christmas shop that she inherited from her grandmother solvent in the tiny beach town of Mermaid Bay. She had no intention of sleuthing. She’s too busy with the shop and its online business. But one morning, she and her rollie pollie French bulldog Chloe bump into what washed up on shore, a suitcase full of bones. And it happened on the day that the town’s Christmas in July festival is set to kickoff. The town’s grapevine goes into overdrive, and everyone is concerned about the ominous message. Then local business owners start to get targeted messages and creepy warning posters pop up in front of all the businesses. Panic sets in when the town’s prickly bookstore owner ends up dead behind the hot dog stand. She’s been strangled with a string of Christmas lights. All eyes turn toward Jade and her store, and she becomes determined to solve the mystery before it kills her business.
Jade will appear next in TWINKLE, TWINKLE AU REVOIR and A TISKET A TASKET, NOT ANOTHER CASKET.
How long have you been writing? How many books do you release every year? How long does it take you to write a book?
I’ve been writing since the seventh grade. (I wrote the Adventures of Share-a-lot Bones for my 7th grade English class.) I have loved mysteries since Scooby-Doo and Nancy Drew. (Plus, my dad was a police officer, and I thought everyone talked about murder and mayhem at the dinner table.)
I usually have 2-3 publications a year. One novel from each series comes out, and then I’ve been fortunate enough to have some articles and short stories published in anthologies.
Right now, I can write 2 to 3 cozy novels a year. When I started, it took me 5 years to write the first book, and another 2 to get it published. I worked on my writing and found that if I write every day with word count goals, I can finish a first draft in 5-6 weeks. (Now there’s lots of editing and revising after that.)
When the pandemic took over all of our lives, my company let us work from home full-time. I promised that I would use my commute time (about 2 hours a day with traffic) and my lunch hour to write and edit. I was amazed that I was able to write 3 novels during each of those years just by committing to a 3-hour a day schedule.
Thank you so much for letting me share my cozy mysteries with your readers. Both series have pet sidekicks like your fabulous series. The glamping series, features Bijou, the Jack Russell Terrier, and Chloe the French bulldog teases her arch-nemesis, Neville the Devil Cat, at ‘Tis the Season, the Christmas Shoppe.
Her short stories appear in the Virginia is for Mysteries series, 50 Shades of Cabernet, Deadly Southern Charm, and Murder by the Glass, and her novellas appear in The Mutt Mysteries series.
Originally from Virginia Beach, Heather has been a mystery fan since Scooby-Doo and Nancy Drew. She lives in Central Virginia with her husband and a pair of Jack Russell terriers.
Congratulations to Heather Weidner on Vintage Trailers and Blackmailers. The title is so cute, and the story is great.
Here’s my quick review of Heather’s newest book.
Jules Keene is focused on her vintage trailer camping resort. Her priorites shift when a dead guest is discovered in the woods and her aunt is questioned by the authorities. Jules decides to help catch the killer, but she already has a full plate. Now Jules must stop the culprit, keep her guests satisfied, grow her business, run for president of the town’s business council, and stay alive when the bad guys come after her. This book is a joy to read.
Here’s the blurb:
There is nothing like finding a dead body, clad only in a red satin thong, on your property to jolt you from a quiet routine. Jules Keene, owner of the posh Fern Valley Camping Resort in the Blue Ridge Mountains, is thrust into the world of the Dark Web when one of her guests, Ira Perkins, is found murdered in the woods near her vintage trailers. Jules quickly discovers that the man who claimed to be on a writing retreat was not what he seemed, and someone will go to any length to find what he left at her resort. Jules, along with her Jack Russell Terrier sidekick Bijou, has to put the rest of the missing pieces of a blackmailing scheme together before her business is ruined.
Jules’s resort, set in the heart of Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains near Charlottesville in the quaint town of Fern Valley, offers guests a unique vacation in refurbished and upcycled vintage trailers. Hoping to expand her offerings, she partners with her maintenance/security guy to create a village of tiny houses, the latest home DIY craze, but a second murder of a reporter interrupts Jules’s expansion plans. Curiosity gets the best of her, and she steps up her sleuthing to find out what Ira Perkins was really up to and what he was really hiding at her resort.
If you’re interested in reading Vintage Trailers and Blackmailers, here are the links:
Jackie Layton 