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20 April 2023

Bowled Over Americano (Sara and Sean Cozy Mystery Series) by Carolyn Arnold!

 

About Bowled Over Americano

Bowled Over Americano (Sara and Sean Cozy Mystery Series)
Cozy Mystery
1st in Series
Setting – New York
Hibbert & Stiles Publishing Inc. (April 11, 2023)
Print length ‏ : ‎ 263 pages
Digital ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0BKQC62FH

Sara Cain isn’t your typical thirty-two-year-old woman. Murder detective by day, writer and… sleuth by night? Just as long as there’s enough coffee to keep her going…

 When her first novel gives her trouble, Sara goes for a walk to clear her writer’s block and ends up stumbling right into a real-life murder mystery. Magnum, an adventurous beagle, comes running off leash toward her in the local park, and she returns him home only to find his master dead on the entry floor.

 Cliff Cunningham was a championship bowler with a mean streak and a temper, and police are pegging his Golden Pin bowling trophy as the murder weapon. While any number of people could have clocked a strike by knocking him on the noggin, the prime suspect is a friend of Sara’s mother—and she expects Sara to prove the woman’s innocence. A tall order, as the case isn’t officially hers and belongs to a rival detective.

 But a promise is a promise, and Sara soon finds herself sleuthing undercover—and off the clock—in a world of polyester shirts and rental shoes. It’s not all bad, though, as she’s taking her friend and partner Sean McKinley along for the ride. They are better together than they’ve ever been split, and they’re not amateurs at finding killers.

Despite being up against small-town hijinks and colorful characters who threaten to roll their efforts into the gutter, they are having fun. That is, until they get close to the killer and a dangerous twist puts their lives at risk.

 A completely addictive caper full of twists that offers up a serving of murder, a dollop of romance, and a dash of humor. This perfect blend of robust and sweet is bound to hit the spot with readers who are fans of Verity Bright, Tonya Kappes, and Agatha Frost.

“Sara, there you are. I’ve been trying to reach you.”

At the sound of her mother’s panicked tone, Sara wished she’d answered her mother’s first call. “Is everything okay? Dad?”

“Yes, yes, we’re both good. But Gladys, I’m afraid Gladys isn’t.”

Given how worked up her mother was, it somehow felt wrong to inquire who Gladys was, but for this conversation to have any footing… “Who is Gladys?”

“Gladys is in my book club. But that’s not important. She’s going to be charged with murder.” Her mother spoke so fast, she put flapping hummingbird wings to shame.

“Just take a few deep breaths.”

“No, Sara, you don’t understand. I can’t. Gladys didn’t kill him. She’s innocent, but this brute of a detective has her pegged. He can see nothing else but her.”

“I’m sure everything will work out. The detective will follow the evidence, and if Gladys is innocent, they will release her.”

“You’re not hearing what I’m telling you. The detective thinks she’s guilty, and he’s lining up evidence against her.” Her mother overreacted sometimes.

“I’m sure that’s not the case.”

“I’m telling you it is, Sara.”

She took a calming breath. “Then tell Gladys to have her lawyer petition the district attorney or the police chief.”

“This detective is from your department.”

Sara wished to defend everyone with Albany PD, but she couldn’t in good conscience. “What is their name?”

Detective Davenport.”

Sara dropped onto her couch. Her wine, in hand, begged to be sipped, but why did she have this feeling that would have to wait? “Who is it Gladys is supposed to have killed?”

“Her ex-boyfriend.”

“Name, Mom?”

“Cliff something…”

“Cliff Cunningham?”

“Yes, yes, that’s the one.”

Goose bumps trickled down her arms. Leave it to Detective Davenport to do a shoddy job and narrow in on a suspect within the first twenty-four hours. For him, that was standard operating procedure.

“Please, get over to the house. Gladys is here. Her lawyer got her out for the night, but at the rate this detective is going after Gladys, it’s only a matter of time, Sara, and she’ll be in a jumper. Gladys is too old for prison, and orange… It’s no one’s color.”

CAROLYN ARNOLD is an internationally bestselling and award-winning author, as well as a speaker, teacher, and inspirational mentor. She has several continuing fiction series and has many published books. Her genre diversity offers readers police procedurals, hard-boiled and cozy mysteries, thrillers, and action adventures. Her crime fiction series have been praised by those in law enforcement as being accurate and entertaining. This led to her adopting the trademark: POLICE PROCEDURALS RESPECTED BY LAW ENFORCEMENT™.

Carolyn was born in a small town and enjoys spending time outdoors, but she also loves the lights of a big city. Grounded by her roots and lifted by her dreams, her overactive imagination insists that she tell her stories. Her intention is to touch the hearts of millions with her books, to entertain, inspire, and empower.

She currently lives near London, Ontario, Canada with her husband and two beagles.

Author Links

Website https://carolynarnold.net/

Blog https://carolynarnold.net/blog-posts/

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/AuthorCarolynArnold/

Twitter https://twitter.com/Carolyn_Arnold

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/authorcarolynarnold/

GoodReads https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4893460.Carolyn_Arnold

Purchase Links – Amazon – iTunes – B&N – Kobo – Google – Smashwords 

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19 April 2023

Of Wings and Shadows Of Cinder and Bone #5.5 by Kyoko M. Cover Reveal! #OfWingsAndShadows #OfCinderAndBone #missykyokom @SilverDaggerBookTours #SilverDaggerBookTours

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Of Wings and Shadows

Of Cinder and Bone #5.5

by Kyoko M.

Genre: Science Fiction, Contemporary Fantasy 

In a modern-day world teeming with marauding dragons, there is only one solution: The Wild Hunt.

The United States government has decided to hold a tournament called The Wild Hunt to determine who will be responsible for the capture of wild dragons by the Knight Division. The four challengers Noah Wilson, Charlie Howard, Su Jin Han, and Beowulf have to catch five deadly dragons alive if they want to win the tournament and become the new Knight Division dragon hunters. Their journey will take them through the mountains of South Carolina, the seas of Key West, the caverns of Ruby Falls, the Redwood forest, and finally, the murky bayous of Louisiana. Will they succeed against their competition, or will the dragons of the Wild Hunt be too wild to tame?

Of Wings and Shadows is the sixth book in the Of Cinder and Bone series. It takes place in medias res of Book Five, Of Claws and Inferno. It follows Of Cinder and Bone, Of Blood and Ashes, Of Dawn and Embers, and Of Fury and Fangs.

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Kyoko M is a USA Today bestselling author, a fangirl, and an avid book reader. She has written the Amazon bestselling Black Parade urban fantasy series as well as the Of Cinder and Bone science-fiction dragon hunting series. She has a Bachelor of Arts in English Lit degree from the University of Georgia, which gave her every valid excuse to devour book after book with a concentration in Greek mythology and Christian mythology. When not working feverishly on a manuscript (or two), she can be found buried under her Dashboard on Tumblr, or chatting with fellow nerds on Twitter, or curled up with a good Harry Dresden novel on a warm Georgia night. Like any author, she wants nothing more than to contribute something great to the best profession in the world, no matter how small.

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Sisters of the Lost Nation by Nick Medina Book Spotlight!

 

Part gripping thriller and part mythological horror, a young Native girl hunts for answers about a string of disappearances, all while being haunted herself.

Anna Horn is always looking over her shoulder. For the bullies who torment her, for the entitled visitors at the reservation’s casino…and for the nameless, disembodied entity that stalks her every step—an ancient tribal myth come to life, one that’s intent on devouring her whole.

     With strange and sinister happenings occurring around the casino, Anna starts to suspect that not all the horrors on the reservation are old. As girls begin to go missing and the tribe scrambles to find answers, Anna struggles with her place on the rez, desperately searching for the key she’s sure lies in the legends of her tribe’s past.

     When Anna’s own little sister also disappears, she’ll do anything to bring Grace home. But the demons plaguing the reservation—both old and new—are strong, and sometimes, it’s the stories that never get told that are the most important.

     In this stunning and timely debut, author Nick Medina spins a tale of life as an outcast, the cost of forgetting tradition, and the courage it takes to become who you were always meant to be.


SISTERS OF THE LOST NATION – Non-Exclusive Excerpt


Day 1

5:04 p.m.


The house shook from the force of the slammed door. Grace, upside down on the sofa, one foot over the headrest and her head hanging over the edge of the middle cushion, stopped babbling into the phone and moved the receiver from her ear.

"Saw it again?" she said, and smiled at her big sister in a way that some might have found mocking, but which Anna interpreted more affectionately, as though the smile were part of an inside joke they'd shared for years.

"It was a raccoon," Anna said, panting, trying to believe her own words instead of the nagging doubt at the back of her mind telling her that what she'd seen was much more human than that.

"You only come home this sweaty when you think you've seen it."

"It was a raccoon," Anna insisted. "Maybe an armadillo."

Grace flicked her eyebrows and went back to babbling into the phone, speaking in a dialect of breakneck gibberish called "Idig." Anna knew how the language worked. The infix "idig" was inserted at certain points within each word to disguise it. "Ball" became "bidigall." "What" became "whidigat." "Hello" became "hidigellidigo." Grace and her best friend, Emily, had become fluent in the ridiculous language. Anna could interpret a word or two when she listened hard, but she wasn't quick enough to completely decode her sister's conversations. Their parents were even worse. They hadn't a clue what Grace was saying.

Grace had started speaking "Idig" a year before Anna first entered the condemned trailer. Anna loathed the sound of the cumbrous language. Partly because Grace chose to share it with Emily instead of her, and partly because it was so fake. It turned Grace into something fake as well, eliciting phony expressions, gestures, and laughs.

More upsetting was that Grace had started sneaking out through their shared bedroom window, coming and going through the night, sometimes staying out until dawn, never telling Anna where she was going or when she'd return. And Anna, hoping to win Grace back, never snitched, despite knowing deep down that she should.

"Dinner in ten. Grace, hang up the phone. Anna, check on your grandmother," Dorothy, Anna's mother, said from the stove.

Anna tossed her bookbag onto her bed. She could hear her father making a racket in the yard, the thin walls no match against his resonant voice. Her brother, Robbie, was out there with him, aiming at things in the trees.

Anna pushed aside the old bedsheet tacked up in the entryway between the former dining room and the kitchen where her mother was spooning Hamburger Helper onto plates. "Everything all right?" she asked.

Grandma Joan's eyes snapped open, and her head sprang forward. A glistening tongue slid over dry lips as bony shoulders hitched up to earlobes. "I fell asleep again. Don't even know what time it is," she said, her voice ragged in her throat.

Anna let the sheet fall behind her, thinly closing off the former dining room, cramped with a bed, an armchair, a small table, a slew of boxes, and a wheelchair in the corner. "You closed them again?" Though the day would only remain lit for a little longer, Anna moved the curtains aside to welcome a bit of life into the drab room.

"What's it matter?" Gran said. Her words, slow and slurred, leaked through the gap between her lips on the right side of her mouth, which drooped a half inch lower than the left side. Anna was almost used to her grandmother's new way of speech, but though it'd been six months since the stroke, she still wasn't used to that saggy piece of lip. Sometimes the droop made her angry. Sometimes she was just glad Gran could still speak.

"Sunlight helps you feel better," Anna said.

"Did you read that?"

"It's a fact." Anna swept breadcrumbs from the table next to Gran's chair, then dropped onto the edge of the bed just a foot away. "Good day or bad?" she asked.

"Hard to tell anymore. How was school?"

Anna sighed. "Eight more months."

The left side of Gran's mouth curled up in a show of support. Her left hand, wavering, reached for the top of Anna's head while the right one, marginally withered, remained still atop the armrest. Anna lowered her head. Gran's hand absently brushed through Anna's hair, as it had so many times when Anna was small. Knotty knuckles and crooked fingers swept well below Anna's shoulders, like always before, only now Anna's hair ended at her ears, not the small of her back. Still, Gran's hand brushed through the air in search of the braids that once hung there.


Excerpted from Sisters of the Lost Nation by Nick Medina Copyright © 2023 by Nick Medina. Excerpted by permission of Berkley. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.


author photo to Ashley Suttor 2022


Born in Chicago, Illinois, Nick Medina appreciates blues-based music, local folklore, and snowy winters. He has degrees in organizational and multicultural communication, and has worked as a college instructor. 


He enjoys playing guitar, listening to classic rock, exploring haunted cemeteries, and all sorts of spooky stuff. 


Connect with him on nickmedina.net, Instagram @nickmedinawrites), and Twitter @MedinaNick).

Where No One Will See by Felicia Watson Guest Review and Guest Post!

 

Where No One Will See by Felicia Watson
Publisher:  DX Varos Publishing (April 11, 2023)
Category: Mystery, Detective Mystery
Tour Dates April 17-May 19, 2023
ISBN: 978-1955065788
Available in Print and ebook, 271 pages

  Where No One Will See

Description Where No One Will See by Felicia Watson

Lucia Scafetti, a Philly private eye, has tried to move out of the shadow of her infamous crime family. She has her own business, her beloved dog Rocco, and she’s starting to date the cute lawyer down the hall. Her life is upended when her notorious hitman father disappears while in search of the diamond and gold coins he stole from his last victim. 

 Lucia races to unravel the mystery of her father’s disappearance before a crooked and powerful cop beats her to it. Though Lucia’s allies are scanty and her enemies numerous, she tries to resist the questionable help on offer from her Mafiosi family. It looks like Lucia must finally decide on which side of the law she truly belongs, knowing the wrong choice could send her to prison – or an early grave.

Guest Review by Laura Lee

'Where No One Will See,' by Felicia Watson is an unexpected joy in the form of a noir-style detective mystery.

Lucia Scafetti is a 20-something woman living in the mean streets of West Philadelphia in the summer of 1995. Working as a private investigator, Lucia sees her fair share of criminals and low-lifes, but truthfully, she had quite a bit of experience with that group from the time that she was born.

See, Lucia comes from a family of criminals, one of the biggest being her father who has been in prison for the last 18 years. Lucia's father, Carlo was a hitman for many years, and supposedly stole a diamond and some rare coins before being arrested.

Upon being released from prison, Carlo visits Lucia to insist that she hand over some personal items of his that were willed to her after her grandmother's death. After Lucia tells him that she doesn't have what he's looking for, Carlo leaves in a huff and a few days later, the man's car turns up abandoned.

Carlo's family believe that he was killed, but Lucia is hesitant to agree, knowing how wily her father is. But, when another body turns up and Lucia, herself is implicated in the crime, she realizes that she must find both her father and the missing diamond to save both of their skins.

I loved the atmosphere of this novel! Watson has a real talent for creating a setting that is so real, you feel as if you are there while reading. Lucia is a fantastic character and I couldn't help but root for her as the story progressed. I really wanted her to succeed in her business and with her new romantic interest, Hank, a lawyer who just set up office in her building.

This was a five-star read for me! 

Awards for Felicia Watson


EVVY Award for Science Fiction, 2020 -We Have Met the Enemy 


2022 Independent Press Book Awards, Distinguished Favorite Science Fiction Series 1st Place for the entire Lovelace Series

Guest Post by Felicia Watson

How to Make Your Characters Believable

My advice on crafting believable characters is a two-parter.

Number one is to ensure that your characters are realistic: in addition to those strengths and virtues we love to give them, they must have weaknesses, shortcomings, and especially flaws. Not flaws like oh, they’re clumsy or they don’t stand up for themselves but true moral failings that help drive the plot.

Number two, is for you, the author, to know them, intimately. Not only know who they are but why they are that way. The better you know your characters, understand what motivates and drives them, the more flesh-and-blood people they will become for you. That knowledge precludes an author treating their characters as mere chess pieces who move around the board as the plot directs.

But wait, you say – shouldn’t the characters serve the plot? Yes and no. (You saw that coming – didn’t you?)

Yes, the characters should serve the plot, but they must do so in ways that are internally consistent with their personality, values, and life experience. For example, let’s say you’ve just come to that part of your story where the plot calls for someone to jump into the fray and fight the over-powering villain, possibly sacrificing themselves for the greater good. How exciting! Problem is you took my advice to imbue your characters with moral failings so you’re left with a character who is a self-serving coward, with no hints that more may lie beneath that selfish exterior. If you go ahead and use that character anyway then, sorry, epic fail as an author, even if the story remains compelling.

Of course, the problem is that most offences of “whiplash characterization” aren’t as cut-and-dried as that example so it can be easy for an author to overlook. We’re so immersed in the plot and the writing that it’s easy to think, ‘Sure, my character would pull that 180 – why not? I’m the boss and she’ll do whatever I need her to do.’ Yes, you are the boss, but the better way to handle that is for you to lay the groundwork for that scene. Make the reader believe in your character’s motivation by building the right character from the ground up. That doesn’t mean you should build a one-dimensional perfect hero – I stand by my advice that failings are important. Perfect characters leave no tension, no drama, no stakes for the reader to be invested in. The trick is to build an imperfect hero who might be able to save the day, but they must stretch themselves to do so. A balance like that can be difficult to achieve but the resulting story is so much richer and more captivating.

That art of building three-dimensional characters brings us back to the necessity for the author to intimately know their characters so they can inhabit them fully as they write. Know your character’s background, their internal drivers. What trauma drives them? What are they looking for in life? Who or what would they die for? Who do they love, unconditionally, passionately? Is it no one but themselves? What do they hate? What makes them laugh? What keeps them up at night? What scares them? Can they lie easily and well? Can they tell when someone else is lying? What unconscious biases do they have? In a flight-or-flight situation, what is their go to response? What are some of their favorite phrases? Are they eloquent or tongue-tied, well read and educated, or slangy and street-smart?

If you outline as I do or even if you pants your way through your story it’s easy to get so excited about plotting out your story that characterization takes a back-seat in the heat of the moment. And that’s okay – as long as you catch it before it’s too late. The time will come when you have to do the hard thing: scrap a scene or an entire plotline because you realize that your character couldn’t or wouldn’t do that thing or react that way at all. At this point you’re allowed to bang your head on the keyboard, mutter a few choice words and internally scream at how freaking hard writing can be. Then you need to take a deep breath and get busy rewriting that scene, replotting that arc, fixing that character. The work is hard but the reward is high. The day will come that you’ll have that moment, like I did recently, when a reader will say something like, “I was really disappointed in that character when they did that thing, but it was so them.” That’s when you’ll know that you’ve gotten it right.

©Felicia Watson

 

Where No One Will See by Felicia Watson

Felicia Watson, author of the ground-breaking romance, Where the Allegheny Meets the Monongahela, and the award-winning scifi novels, The Lovelace Series, started writing stories as soon as they handed her a pencil in first grade. 

When not writing, Felicia spends her time chasing after her not-so-brilliant, but darling and beloved dogs, being chased by her truly brilliant, darling, and beloved husband. She is known to friends and family as an amateur pastry chef and still finds time for swimming and her day job as a scientist. 

 Website:  https://www.feliciawatsonwrites.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/FeliciaTes
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FeliciaWatsontheAuthor/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/feliciatheauthor/

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