Welcome to Authors’ Secrets! I’ve fantastic news. A WITCH’S QUANDARY is nominated for the prestigious RONE AWARDS in the paranormal short category!. Woo Hoo! To celebrate, I’ve put A WITCH’S QUANDARY on sale for 99¢ ! Yippee! Now comes the fun part, you the readers, get to vote on the final winners!
I’d be extremely grateful for your vote. May 9-13, 2022. In fairness of voting, you can only vote once. So please mark you calendars! Here’s the scoop on where and how to vote.
Mark your Calendars! On Week 5, May 9-13 of the RONE Awards voting, and A Witch’s Quandary is up. I’d love your vote!
- Go to https://indtale.com/user?current=node/1
- Create an account if you don’t already have one.
- Check your email and VERIFY the account.
- Click on https://indtale.com/2022-rone-award-reader-votingand scroll to WEEK 5.
- There are 3 categories. A Witch’s Quandary is in Paranormal Short: Click on it. Then go to the bottom of the category and click VOTE.
- THAT’S IT, YOU’RE DONE!
I really appreciate any and all votes! And to my fellow nominees, good luck!
A Little About A WITCH’S QUANDARY!
Gale’s engagement is off because she refuses to leave her thriving business in Ireland to follow Dillon to Scotland. Her family and friends are on the emerald isle. Yet, when Dillon returns with the whole story and asks for her help, she must follow her heart.
Becoming a Solicitor, then partner in the family law firm was never Dillon’s dream. Now it’s his nightmare. Called to Scotland, his father demands he take his rightful place in the firm or be disowned and disinherited. Something is terribly amiss in the firm and family.
During Gale and Dillon’s investigation, they discover the enforcer for the Demon Overlord is also delving into rumors the firm is acting illegally. Magic has been stolen, someone is being blackmailed, and a member of the Witch’s council is corrupt. If Gale and Dillon want a life together in Ireland, they have to unearth secrets threatening to destroy the firm and family in Scotland.
A Few Buy Links:
Universal link Amazon, BarnesandNobel, ibooks, and Kobo
How about a sneak peek between the pages of A WITCH’S QUANDARY? The hook!
“This is an outrage. It’s my firm.” Bram bellowed slamming his fist down on the table. Sparks flew in all directions creating a red-hot spider web of power crackling across the tabletop. Everyone at the table scrambled back or stood. Dillon caught the malevolent spark in his father’s eye a split-second after Gale. She had already brought her hands together, the room sizzled as she conjured a ball of fire and with a few words sent the witch fire and spell at him.
“What have you done?” Bram screeched as the fire and spell hit him center mass. “Witchfire too? Bitch.” He slid to the floor.
Iris ran to his side, tears spilling her cheeks, she wiped his sweat-soaked brow with a napkin. “You just couldn’t stop, could you? What did you do? Make a deal with the devil? We should have put a stop to it. To you. But…” She helped him into a chair. “I’m afraid you’ve messed with the wrong witch, this time. Brought this on yourself. You did. But I won’t let you take this family—the firm—down with you.” Giving his shoulders a little shake, she gazed into his shocked eyes. “What have you done?”
Bram slowly shook his head and murmured, “It’s my firm.” He raised his gaze and glared at Gale pointing a bony finger at her. “You’ll pay for this.” Then turned his attention to Dillon. “I told you nothing good would come from aligning yourself with this witch. Her blood is not pure. Diluted by the Fae power of her…” He broke off.
Dillon stood at Gale’s back his hands steady and supportive on her shoulders as she said nothing for several beats. Eventually, she turned her emerald green eyes to him and held his gaze. “I couldn’t let him divide the family with that dark magic. I tempered my deadly witch fire with the spell.” She tore her gaze from Dillon’s, touching her fingertips to the scorched marks radiating across the table stopping an inch from the edge all around. “If he’d succeeded, there’d been no turning back. If the tendrils of that spell had left the table and reached one of you…” She shook her head.
Appearing to gather his wits about him faster than the rest of his family, Sturgen surveyed the scene, wiped his brow with a monogrammed handkerchief, and sucked in a breath. “The firm is no longer yours.” He squeezed Olivia to him, starting for the door. “We’ve had enough for one night. Let’s adjourn until a full audit of the cases and firm can be conducted.”
Thank you all so much!
Pssst… While you’re here, don’t forget to check out my paranormal romance/mysteries click here.
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Posted in Authors' Secrets Blog and tagged A Witch's Quandary, fantasy, ghosts, magic, Mystery, Paranormal Romance/Mystery, Tena Stetler, Witches by Tena Stetler with .
Give a warm welcome to Karen C. Whalen, author of Toes on the Dash, first book in the Tow Truck Murder Mystery Series, released on April 25, 2022. Pull up a chair, grab a drink of your choice from the cooler, a Chocolate Chip or Peanut Butter cookie from the plate, and let’s find out a little about Karen and Toes on the Dash. Karen, how did you come up with this idea for this unique series?
Hauling cars for a living provides my amateur sleuth, Delaney Morran, with many opportunities to find the bodies of murder victims. And of course, Delaney is not able to keep out of the way of the handsome homicide investigator, so she solves the crime before he does.
How did I come up with the idea for this series? I met a few tow truck drivers.
In my previous life, I worked as a paralegal at a law firm that represented tow truck companies. These car haulers are an under-appreciated, crazy breed, with interesting stories to tell. One crusty character operated his office from his truck which he parked in the middle of a junkyard. His lobby was a carpet remnant, sopping wet and smelly, that led up to the truck door. The visitor’s chair was the passenger seat, dirty and worn. His filing cabinet was his sun visor. His professional demeanor was lacking. I’m sure all tow truck drivers are not alike, but this man was a character bigger than life, someone I will never forget.
That all of the tow truck drivers the law firm represented were men made me think…women in the industry would need to be tough to compete in this man’s world. But what if a woman did own the business? What if the woman was young and inexperienced? What if she wore high heels to set herself apart? Oooh, sounds fun, amiright? And that’s where the idea came from.
Then I met a few female tow truck drivers.
One woman tower told me she was bit by the towing industry bug and fell in love with the career. She hauled cars after a catastrophic flood while in her second trimester with her fourth child. Talk about a larger than life character! And she’s given me some exciting story ideas, too.
And so the first book was born. In Toes on the Dash, super-feminine and confirmed shoe-a-holic Delaney Morran receives an unexpected inheritance—the keys to a tow truck—from a dad she’s never known. Despite the fact she hasn’t changed a tire in all of her twenty-eight years, she decides to give the dangerous business a chance. When she finds her jerk of an ex-boyfriend’s body in the truck of the first car she hauls, she becomes the prime suspect. Delaney must toughen up her image as the tow truck operator in high-heels and find the killer in her otherwise safe mountain town.
Sounds like a winner, Karen!
Tell us a little about Toes on the Dash.
Super-feminine and confirmed shoe-a-holic Delaney Morran receives an unexpected inheritance—the keys to a tow truck from a dad she’s never known. Even though she hasn’t changed a tire, or even driven any kind of a truck, she’s determined to make the rough and dangerous business a success. When she hauls a vehicle with the body of her jerk-of-an ex hidden in the trunk, the small-town cops in Spruce Ridge, Colorado do not believe this a coincidence. They have her in their headlights as the prime suspect. When the news hits, her business stalls. As a woman trying to make a living in a man’s world, she drives her rig in four-inch heels to set herself apart. But she must toughen up her image and solve the crime or she’ll end up parked in jail.
A sneak peek between the pages of Toes on the Dash:
Stopping with my hand on the door, I sneaked a peek left and right, worried someone I knew would recognize me, then I took a deep breath and stole inside. Need I explain? This is a small town.
My eyes took a moment to adjust to the dark. One girl wearing a thong—thank goodness she wasn’t anyone I knew—was on stage. Mr. Hot Head sat at the bar with a tall beer, foam on top, glass full. Looked like he had just been served a fresh, cold one, and this early in the day, too. I backed out the door, ran for the tow truck, and zipped back to the alley as fast as I could.
I angled the truck in front of Hot Head’s Jeep and muscled the dolly wheels over to the rear end, crouching low to the ground, getting a whiff of the rank dumpster. Hot Head couldn’t see me from inside the building, but he had a sixth sense about me, and I was determined to keep under his radar. I jacked up the first dolly wheel and was on my way around the back bumper to jack up the second one, when bam!
I stumbled right into Hot Head. He had a tire iron in his meaty fist.
Here is the tagline:
She went from wearing stilettos to hauling stiffs
Buy Links: Amazon, Barnes and Noble and ibooks
About the Author;
Karen C. Whalen is the author of two mystery series for The Wild Rose Press: the Dinner Club Mysteries featuring Jane Marsh, an empty nester who hosts a gourmet dinner club, and the Tow Truck Mysteries starring Delaney Moran, a super feminine shoe-a-holic who drives a tow truck. Both are cozy mysteries about strong friendships and family ties set in Colorado. The first book in the Dinner Club series tied for First Place in the Suspense Novel category of the 2017 IDA Contest sponsored by Oklahoma Romance Writers of America. Whalen worked for many years as a paralegal at a law firm in Denver, Colorado and was a columnist and regular contributor to The National Paralegal Reporter magazine. Whalen loves to host dinner clubs, entertain friends, ride bicycles, hike in the mountains, and read cozy murder mysteries.
https://www.bookbub.com/authors/karen-c-whalen
It’s been great having you with us today. Good luck with Toes on the Dash.
Views: 1114
Posted in Authors' Secrets Blog and tagged Cozy Mystery, Karen Whalen, Mystery, Toes on the Dash, Tow Truck, Two Truck Murder Mystery Series by Tena Stetler with .
Give a warm welcome to Kris Bock, author of The Accidental Detective Series, Something Shady at Sunshine Haven, 1st book ! just released on April 7, 2022!
Pull up a chair, grab a drink of your choic from the cooler, a Chocolate Chip or Peanut Butter cookies from the plate and let’s meet Kris Bock and
learn about The Accidental Detective, her humorous mystery
series! Kris, tell us about yourself.
I started my writing career with children’s literature, writing
for kids as Chris Eboch and MM Eboch. My first published book is The Well of
Sacrifice – historical drama set in ninth-century Mayan Guatemala. It’s been
in print for over twenty years and is used in schools when they teach the Maya.
I’ve written over 100 educational work for hire books, and I’ve been a
ghostwriter for some popular children’s mystery series starring your favorite
young detectives.
I write for adults under the name Kris Bock. I’ve written
romantic suspense and a sweet romance series based around a cat café. I have a
humorous mystery series coming out this year, with four books scheduled. The
first is:
Something Shady at Sunshine Haven: The Accidental Detective Book 1
War correspondent Kate Tessler has followed
the most dangerous news stories around the world. But can she survive going
home?
Injured in a bombing, Kate returns to her
hometown in Arizona to recover. For the first time in her life, she’s starting
to feel her age (49), even though she’s living like a teenager again: staying
with her father, trying to understand why her sister resents her so much, and
running into people who still think of her as Kitty.
Seeing her mother in an Alzheimer’s unit is
the hardest part – until an old friend asks her to investigate suspicious
deaths at that nursing home. Is a self-appointed “Angel of Mercy” killing
patients to end their suffering? Are family members hastening their
inheritance? Is an employee extorting money and removing the witnesses? Kate
uses her journalism skills to track clues, but the puzzle pieces simply won’t
fit.
If Kate can’t uncover the truth, her mother
could be next on the killer’s list.
What inspired this mystery series?
Kate spent thirty years traveling the world as a war correspondent.
Now back in Arizona, she finds turning fifty as difficult than the mysteries
she solves. This character was inspired by my own experiences. Okay, the part
about turning fifty, not traveling the world as a war correspondent. I traveled
a lot when younger, but not to war zones. But as I faced fifty, I wanted to
create a mystery lead dealing with some of the same issues: aging parents,
concerns about financing retirement someday, and a body that doesn’t recover
like it once did. I also wanted to give Kate a reason to be adventurous and
fearless, thus the background as a war correspondent.
I didn’t necessarily intend to write humor, but both my
agent and my editor said they laughed a lot. That comes from how Kate sees the
world, which is how I see the world. Laughter helps with the pain.
Why did you set the series in the Southwest?
I’ve lived in New Mexico for over twenty years, three times
longer than I’ve lived anywhere else, so this is home. We live in a small town,
but I wanted to set the mystery series in a big city. In Arizona, I could
create a fictional city within the greater Phoenix metropolitan area. That
allows me to use this fictional city government for political issues, and make
the mayor an old friend of Kate’s, without stepping on any real toes.
Arizona also provides tons of mystery opportunities. The
large senior population attracts scams and abuse. You have the potential for
arguments over inheritance (or even murders to get that inheritance sooner).
The border with Mexico creates anxiety over immigration and various kinds of
trafficking. Plus you have all the usual potential crimes in any large
population. I’ll be able to keep Kate busy for years.
Where can people learn more about the series?
Book 1, Something Shady at Sunshine Haven, releases
April 7. It’s available for preorder now at
various retailers.
You can get a free short story and bonus material when you sign
up for my newsletter. This collection starts with a humorous ten-page
mystery short story set in the world of “The Accidental Detective” series. It
includes information about the books in the series, with the first chapter of
book 1. After that are three fun, short stories originally written for
children. Newsletter subscribers will also get a thirty-five page novella set
in the world of my cat café sweet romance series, and “22 Recipes from the Cat
Café,” if they choose.
Why did you write the cat café sweet romance series?
I’ve noticed lots of sweet, small-town romance series
involving dogs, but few with cats. I think it’s because dogs clearly bring
people together – think dog parks, walking your dog, obedience training – while
cats don’t.
Until you consider cat cafés. These are a relatively
recent trend, but you can now find a few hundred cat cafés all around the
world. Typically they partner with a shelter, so all the cats you can visit are
available for adoption. This gives visitors a chance to spend more quality time
with the cats before they choose one. Those of us who can’t keep a cat in the
home for whatever reason can at least visit some.
The cat café series is lighthearted sweet romance. Readers
call it heartwarming, fun, and delightful. Visit the Furrever Friends Sweet Romance series page on Amazon US or Amazon UK.
What else do you have in the works?
I’m writing a series with my brother, scriptwriter Douglas J
Eboch, who wrote the original screenplay for the movie Sweet Home Alabama.
These are prequel novels set when the movie characters are teenagers. Follow
the crazy antics of Melanie, Jake, and their friends a decade before the events
of the movie.
Sign up for our romantic
comedy newsletter and get Felony Melanie Destroys the Moonshiner’s
Cabin. These first two chapters from the novel Felony
Melanie in Pageant Pandemonium stand alone as a short story. In
the future, you’ll get fun content about upcoming Felony Melanie novels
and other romantic comedy news and links. Or find book 1 at Amazon US or All E-book retailers.
Kris Bock:
Kris Bock writes novels of mystery, suspense, and romance
with outdoor adventures and Southwestern landscapes. She has lived in ten
states and one foreign country but is now firmly planted in the Southwest,
where many of her books are set. Kris writes for children under the names Chris
Eboch and M. M. Eboch. She has published over 100 books for young people,
including ghostwriting for two children’s mystery series.
Website
Blog
GoodReads Author Page
BookBub
Amazon US page or Amazon UK page
Twitter
Facebook
Instagram
It’s been great having you with us today. Good luck with The Accidental Detective Series and the first book Something Shady at Sunshine Haven.
Views: 1086
Posted in Authors' Secrets Blog and tagged Kris Bock, Mystery, Something Shady at Sunshine Haven, The Accidental Detective by Tena Stetler with .
April Events & Nomination – Seems like I just put up my St. Patrick’s Day decorations. Now it’s time to take ’em down in preparation for a month of fantastic events, and I’m delighted to be part of these promotions. April has not one but two promotional events for readers. Lots of prizes–from Amazon gift cards, books, books, and more books. Let’s take a peek at the first event…
Calling all readers! Spring has sprung and you’re all invited to N. N. Light’s Book Heaven Spring Break Bookapalooza. 32 books featured plus a chance to win a $75 Amazon gift card.
I’m thrilled to be a part of this event. My book, AN ANGEL’S WYLDER ASSIGNMENT, will be featured today, APRIL 1st, 2022. I even talk about where I’d go on spring break if money were no object. You won’t want to miss it.
Bookmark this festival and tell your friends:
https://www.nnlightsbookheaven.com/spring-break-bookapalooza
Now lets SPRING into the second event:
Spring has arrived and N. N. Light’s got spring fever. It could be all the flowers in bloom or it could be the birds singing in the trees. Hurry and hop like a bunny over to N. N. Light’s Book Heaven and enter to win some amazing prizes including new releases, autographed print books, Amazon gift cards, and more bookish prizes by bestselling and award-winning authors. In fact, I’m one of the authors participating and you could win “enter your prize”. The list is long and personally, I’d love to win myself but alas, I can’t. So, I’ll just live vicariously through the lucky winners. If there’s a particular book or prize you’d like to win, be sure to say which prize you want when you enter via Rafflecopter. Enter below and GOOD LUCK!
Spring Into Freebies Giveaway:
https://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/92db7750162
Literary Giveaway Portal:
https://www.nnlightsbookheaven.com/literary-giveaway-portal
I’m simply over the moon with excitement at this next tidbit of news!
I’m thrilled and honored to announce A Witch’s Quandary has been nominated for the prestigious RONE Award in the Paranormal Short category from InD’tale Magazine! Please be aware, I’ll need your vote to make it the finals. Voting in this category begins May 9th. Please mark your calendars, but don’t worry, I’ll give you a gentle reminder when the date arrives.
Enjoy your first week of April! As I write this, I can’t believe how fast this year is passing. Camping season will be here in no time. WooHoo!
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Posted in Authors' Secrets Blog and tagged A Witch's Quandary, An Angel's Wylder Assignment, fantasy, magic, Mystery, Paranormal Romance/Mystery, Tena Stetler, Time travel, Witches by Tena Stetler with .
