Can the Brits and Yanks team up to solve a murder?
What should have been an easy week for small town detective Mark Taber and his amateur sleuth and innkeeper wife, Donna Tolllhouse Taber goes awry when a local garden club member is shot. One of the inn guests, a Scotland Yard detective’s insistence on helping could actually make things worse. Can ruffled feathers be smoothed before the killer strikes again?
Find out in Book Twelve of The Painted Lady Inn Mystery series, Two Many Sleuths.
M. K. Scott is the husband and wife writing team behind The Painted Lady Inn Mysteries. Morgan K Wyatt is the general wordsmith, while her husband, Scott, is the grammar hammer and physics specialist. He uses his engineering skills to explain how fast a body falls when pushed over a cliff and various other felonious activities. The Internet and experts in the field provide forensic information, while the recipes and B and B details require a more hands on approach. Morgan’s daughter, who manages a hotel, provides guest horror stories to fuel the plot lines. The couple’s dog, Chance, is the inspiration behind Jasper, Donna’s dog.
Anne is a young, Southern professional with just the right connections and a privileged point of view. Confident in her innate value, she has complete faith in her power to control her own future. After all, even with the challenges that come with working at a high-profile interior design firm located in the heart of Atlanta, she knows exactly where she’s headed. What she doesn’t expect is Dr. Brad Young, Jr.
Sparks immediately fly between the handsome young doctor and Anne when she’s assigned to troubleshoot for his surgical practice, but chemistry can only get you so far. As their relationship develops, so too does a burgeoning conflict and confusion over the uncommon roles their mothers play in their lives. Over the course of an emotional weekend and the exposure of a secret lurking in his past, Brad is forced to make a life-changing adjustment as Anne discovers the devastating betrayal of a trusted plan.
By Design is an emotional romance guaranteed to warm the hearts of anyone who has ever experienced the breathtaking intensity of new love.
J Boykin Baker grew up in the small town of Wilson, North Carolina. She knew from the age of seven, after seeing the old movie “Pillow Talk,” that the only career for her was interior design. After college, marriage, and babies, her dream of being an interior designer came true with the start of her own design firm in Atlanta, Georgia. As timing would have it, she just happened to be in the right place – at the right time – with the right look and ended up designing hospitals, corporate offices, and high-end residential projects across the nation.
During her years as President of Baker Interiors, Inc. she had the privilege of working with countless women. Due to a caring nature, she was led to mentor young women through familiar struggles of a reoccurring nature. Eventually, she carried her love for women and children even further when she founded a non-profit, Widow’s Mite Experience, Inc, to provide emergency water relief for families in the United States and around the world. With the help of hundreds of women volunteers, this ministry is now active in 32 countries.
Originally from Bloomfield, New Jersey, Hallie was introduced to the performing arts by her Broadway performer parents. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Acting from the University of Southern California’s School of Theatre in Los Angeles and now works as a professional film and television actress and audiobook narrator. She has narrated more than forty titles over the past four years across various genres. When she’s not behind the camera or the microphone, Hallie helps other artists hone their acting technique and on-camera auditioning skills. Hallie is a proud member of SAG-AFTRA.
Infamy. An evil or wicked act. Terrorists bent on revenge have found a way to make planes disappear from the sky, without a trace. And when one winds up buried in a Wisconsin cornfield, it’s a race against time to rescue the passengers from certain death.
When international law
attorney Sheikh Harun Ali is lured to the Amazon and warned of a frightening
plot against the United States, he and his wife, Marianne Benson, enlist the
assistance of their neighbors, covert agent Cade Matthews and his wife,
Constitutional Law Professor Janet MacLachlan. Ultimately, these feisty lawyers
are pushed to the wall, desperate to find a plane that has been buried in an
unknown cornfield, the passengers still on board. The terrorists’ hatred for
the Alis is absolute—the Alis once left their organization bankrupt and
broken—but they hate America more. And their fiendish games are just beginning.
They are seeking a much bigger prize, one that could destroy a nation and
possibly the world. An act that will live in infamy.
Excerpt:
Cade grasped his water bottle withboth hands. “Before his brother died, he said eight words.”
Harun nodded. “They are going to make American planes disappear.”
Dianna’s eyes grew wide.
Anders rubbed a hand over his face,then through his long dark hair. His deep green eyes stared up at the ceilingof the plane. “Fucking hell. Nine-eleven all over again.”
“That is our fear,” Harun said.“However, so many precautionary measures are in place in this country, simply hijacking planes and flying them into buildings is no longer easy. They must have a different plan.”
Cade emitted a heavy sigh. “And that is what we need to figure out. What exactly do those eight words mean? For example, he did not specify that the planes would disappear in America, which could mean that they will disappear abroad or over oceans.”
Anders sat up straight. “And disappear could mean many things. Crash. Hijack. Pull a Malaysia. How many ways can you make a plane disappear?”
Seelie Kay is a nom de plume for a writer, editor, and author with more than 30 yearsof experience in law, journalism, marketing, and public relations. When shewrites about love and lust in the legal world, something kinky is bound to happen! In possession of a wicked pen and an overly inquisitive mind, Ms. Kay is the author of multiple works offiction, including the Kinky Briefs series, The Garage Dweller, A Touchdown to Remember, and The President’s Wife.
When not spinning her kinky tales, Ms. Kay ghostwritesnonfiction for lawyers and other professionals. She resides in a bucolic exurb outside Milwaukee,Wisconsin, where she shares a home with her son and enjoys opera,gourmet cooking, organic gardening, and an occasional bottle of red wine.
Ms. Kay is an MS warriorand ruthlessly battles the disease on a daily basis. Her message to thosediagnosed with MS: Never give up. Youdefine MS, it does not define you!
J.D. Robb (a/k/a Nora Roberts) The Dallas series. Eve Dallas is a kick-ass cop in the future who happens to be married to a hot hunky gazzillionaire with an Irish accent. What’s not to love?
Q. Why should we read your books?
Because they will open new worlds to you and hopefully, makeyou laugh, cry, and blush!
Q. Have any of your characters been modelled after yourself?
A part of me appears in all of my characters. it’s hard to hide my sense of humor or my sense of morality.
Q. Beatles or Monkees? Why?
OMG, are you kidding? The Monkees. Davy Jones. Every schoolgirl’s crush. Sure, his music was cheesy, but for a young kid, he was heavenly. The Beatles are, of course, the better band, but they really weren’t on my radar until I got older.
Q. Who should play you in a film of your life? Meryl Streep. She’s the only one who could!
Q. Why do you write romance?
Because I am fascinated by the games people play to find and secure a lastingr elationship, which is not always love. There’s the chase, the courtship, the falling, the surrender. That’s what I try to capture in my stories.
Q. Do youprefer a certain type of romantic hero?
I adore smart,dashing gentlemen who aren’t afraid to live on the edge. They can be a bad boy,a billionaire, a prince, or a secret agent. That hint of danger just hooks me!However, I also love strong, independent women who aren’t afraid to fight forwhat they want, even love.
Q. Why did you write “Infamy?”
The characters featured in this story—Sheikh Harun Ali and his wife, Marianne Benson–are both lawyers who focus on international law and their practice is devoted toc ompensating the victims of terrorism. So I was looking for a new hook,something on the horizon that could pose a serious threat to the world and in particular, the United States. I found it in an article on advances in“cloaking” technology or making planes disappear. For years, we have had stealth planes that do not appear on radar, but can be seen in the air ifa nyone is looking. I wanted to take that a step further: What if someone created a means to actually cloak a plane and hide it from everyone’s view?What if that technology fell into the hands of terrorists? And “Infamy” was born.
Q. How doesyour former profession as a lawyer impact your writing?
After 30 years,the law and the legal world are so firmly embedded in my brain that I can’t flush them out. That has become the lens through which I view the world and that naturally guides my characters and plots. Little peculiarities that I have witnessed in lawyers and the law always work their way into my stories.
Q. Any plansto write outside the romance genre completely?Actually, I ghostwrite non-fiction for other professionals—doctors, lawyers, financial gurus—so I dip my toes into a lot of different genres. However, I have bee nitching to write a book about a relative who founded a religious cult. I researched it for years and found a lot of information that had been buried. I have a pile of paper a foot high. Someday, I need to go through it carefully and start writing. I have the interest, just not the time
Sometimes an anthology is more than a collection of great stories.
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Experience sizzling romances, journey through fantastic magical realms, and solve engaging mysteries in this collection of stories that encompasses all genres. Bestselling authors and new voices have come together to deliver an incredible and exciting collection that’s bound to keep you on the edge of your seat and turning the pages.
Best of all, know every cent of your purchase is going to a child who needs it. 100% of all net proceeds will go to non-profit organizations that will reunite immigrant families detained and separated at US borders.
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Daniel Ashe has reason to believe he is incapable of falling in love. He certainly has no romantic interest in Annie, the odd Irish woman he hired to walk his dogs – but every night he comes home to find she has left him a new and fantastical story about their secret lives. His dachshund is a buccaneer on the high seas, his retriever recounts a past life as a circus lion, and Daniel is cast time and again as a romantic hero.
As her stories become the highlight of his day, Daniel realizes that Annie is embedding hints about her own astonishing past, and he has to ask himself if he’s truly incapable of falling in love after all.
Kathryn Donahue is a freelance writer and former tongue-in-cheek advice columnist for The Deepwell Press. Her humor essays have been published in First Sunday, and she won the Spotlight Award for her one-act play The Sty. Her debut novel, The Dog Walker’s Diary, is a Forward finalist for Indie Book of the Year. It earned a coveted star review from Publishers Weekly, ( “… a diverting delight from beginning to end,”) and a four star rating from RT Book Reviews, (“… one of the most remarkably unique contemporary romances this year.”) Ms. Donahue is completing a new novel, and working on a screenplay.
Your stories are back in here, but during their short hiatus to my office I showed them to my boss. After reading them, Peter took off his glasses and said, “So you’re telling me that this woman leaves you a new fairy tale every night?”
“Yes. Every night.”
“Then you know what she is, don’t you?”
“What do you mean?”
“This Irish woman. Do you know what she is?”
I shook my head. “What are you talking about? What is she?”
“Wake up, Daniel. That dog walker of yours is a Scheherazade.”
Annie, you didn’t respond to my invitation, and in looking back I can see how easily it could be misconstrued. If I were a woman, alone and in a different country, I might not agree to meet a semi-stranger for coffee either, even if I had been entertaining him for days with fantastical stories.
So please, allow me to make myself less of a stranger.
I am known by a small but select group of females as a heartless jerk incapable of falling in love. Each in turn soon gave up on me, more with a sad shake of the head than with dishes flying. It has happened so often that I have to concede the ladies are right. Apparently I have skipped or tripped over some developmental step that makes me incapable of true intimacy. I’ve made my peace with that, and recently have been lucky enough to meet Victoria, a lady who seems to suffer the same affliction. (Does that make us soul mates or soul-less mates?)
And here’s an interview with the author!
Who is your favorite author?
I spread my love around. Historical fiction, literary, or works that put me in ancient China or India or England during the Age of Enlightenment. But what I enjoy the most are stories told with wry humor, and it doesn’t get funnier than John Kennedy Toole’s A Confederacy of Dunces. Only wished he had lived to write many more. When I saw the movie, Cold Comfort Farm I couldn’t rest until I had the book in my hands. More recent books that kept me laughing include Jenny Lawson’s Let’s Pretend This Never Happened, Fredrik Backman’s A Man Called Ove and my favorite, Graeme Simsion’s The Rosie Project.
How do you describe your writing style?
In the dark – literally because I’m an insomniac who writes overnight, and figuratively because I’m not one to make outlines or have the plot figured out ahead of time.
Why should we read your books?
While you might have to pay a bit of attention at the beginning of The Dog Walker’s Diary, once you understand the quirky style, I think it will take you on an enjoyable ride.
Have any of your characters been modelled after yourself?
Sure. My point of view character has my insomnia, and both main characters have my sense of humor. Daniel Ashe is afraid of redheaded women. Thanks to a dream and an accident he had as a teenager, he half-believes redheads have powers left over from the days of Druids. That trait came directly from my husband. He married into a family of redheads, and he thinks we’ve all been blessed by the gods.
If you could exchange lives with any of your characters for a day which character would you choose and why?
Annie Doherty. She doesn’t have a boring bone in her body.
What books have most influenced your life?
Pride and Prejudice gave me a sense of romantic love. That’s big when you’re being courted. You don’t want to end up with Mr. Collins when you can have Mr. Darcy!
If you could select one book that you could rewrite and add your own unique twist on, which book would that be and why?
Every one of us has her own unique story. Mine itches to get on paper, and I have no desire to retell anyone else’s.
Beatles or Monkees? Why?
The Beatles. Authentic to the bone. (Does anyone pick the Monkees?)
Who should play you in a film of your life?
Saoirse Ronan. But I’d rather she play Annie Doherty.
It’s Read an Ebook Week (also known as “every week” around here!). And Smashwords has a fantastic promotion with thousands of books – including mine! – on sale!
HER BROTHER’S KEEPER is book #3 in the Jane Barnaby Adventures – international intrigue and thrills with our heroine, an archaeology student who keeps finding herself in hot water.
In the first two books of the series, Jane’s had to face off with international art thieves, con artists, mysteries dating back to World War 2, and even an actual Nazi. This time, all she wants is a peaceful family vacation in Spain. She’s invited her father, his fiance (who’s only a couple of years older than Jane herself) and her twin brother, who she doesn’t quite get along with. She’s hoping a few days of sun and beaches will lead to family peace.
Unfortunately, things go awry when her brother gets himself seduced by a stranger in the hotel bar – who turns out to be a Russian jewel thief. And things only go downhill from there…
You can listen to a sample on Soundcloud, and you can see an amazing video of my narrator, Cait Frizzell (who’s a professional opera singer) on YouTube. Seriously, if you don’t click anything else in this post, and you don’t care about my book, you still NEED to watch the video of Cait showing off her vocal talent. You’ll thank me afterwards, I promise.
This is a little illustration of our heroine (on the left), and her future stepmother (on the right). As usual, Jane is running headlong into trouble…
Finally, here’s an excerpt from the book:
She put on her bathrobe and slippers and headed for the shower. En route, she noticed that her brother’s door was open. Or, more likely, it had never been closed last night. If the unrumpled sheets and un-unpacked luggage were any indication, he hadn’t come back to the house at all. Which meant – no, that wasn’t possible.
It couldn’t be. He couldn’t have spent the night with that woman, could he? As far as she knew, he’d never picked up – or been picked up by – a strange girl at a bar. Or anywhere else, for that matter. He’d never had a one night stand. It wasn’t in his nature. And he absolutely wasn’t the type that a predator like the blonde in the miniskirt would go for.
What other explanation was there, though? If he’d gotten so drunk he couldn’t walk back to the house, someone at the hotel would have called the house to come collect him. It had happened before. The hotel staff all knew about Bill Welldon and his archaeology volunteers, and if someone got themselves “into a state,” as Bill put it, they always made sure the unfortunate volunteer got back to the house safely.
Maybe he really had hit it off with the woman, unlikely as it seemed. Being on vacation changed people sometimes. Knowing he’d never see the woman again, and with a few drinks in him, maybe he’d found a new confidence that had led him to take a chance he’d never have taken otherwise. And maybe it had worked out. Stranger things had happened, after all. Not that she could think of any examples at the moment, but surely they must have.