The inimitable Joanna Vandervlugt interviewed me about Beneath Malabar Nets
Check out the Podcast HERE.
Moonlight and Misadventure now available!
My short story, ‘Chicken Coops and Bread Pudding’ is now available in Moonlight and Misadventure.
Whether it’s vintage Hollywood, the Florida everglades, the Atlantic City boardwalk, or a farmhouse in Western Canada, the twenty authors represented in this collection of mystery and suspense interpret the overarching theme of “moonlight and misadventure” in their own inimitable style where only one thing is assured: Waxing, waning, gibbous, or full, the moon is always there, illuminating things better left in the dark.
Featuring stories by K.L. Abrahamson, Sharon Hart Addy, C.W. Blackwell, Clark Boyd, M.H. Callway, Michael A. Clark, Susan Daly, Buzz Dixon, Jeanne DuBois, Elizabeth Elwood, Tracy Falenwolfe, Kate Fellowes, John M. Floyd, Billy Houston, Bethany Maines, Judy Penz Sheluk, KM Rockwood, Joseph S. Walker, Robert Weibezahl, and Susan Jane Wright.
Available on:
Moonlight and Misadventure Now Available for Preorder
I’m thrilled to be one of the authors included in the anthology, Moonlight and Misadventure, from Superior Shores Press. My story is called Chicken Coops and Bread Pudding. The anthology will be released June 18th 2021, but is available for preorder now.
Whether it’s vintage Hollywood, the Florida everglades, the Atlantic City boardwalk, or a farmhouse in Western Canada, the twenty authors represented in this collection of mystery and suspense interpret the overarching theme of “moonlight and misadventure” in their own inimitable style where only one thing is assured: Waxing, waning, gibbous, or full, the moon is always there, illuminating things better left in the dark.
I hope you enjoy the wonderful stories!
Available at:
Limited Time Offer: After Yekaterina Now Free
Click Here to get your free copy of AFTER YEKATERINA
In celebration of the publication of Ivan’s Wolf, book four in the Detektiv Kazakov Mysteries, the ebook of After Yekaterina, book one of the series, is now free at all major online retailers. Click HERE for the link to all major on line retailers.
The Detektiv Kazakov Mystery Series
Set in an alternate history Russia, the series is introduces Detektiv Alexander Kazakov, a loner detective committed to finding the truth for the dead and murdered. The series takes place in a world where Catherine the Great’s conquest of the Crimea woke the slumbering Ottoman Empire and brought the great Khans down upon Moscow. Two hundred years later the remains of the Russian population dream of Russia’s past glories, while their new country of Fergana lays like the gristle in a joint between the rumblings of the Ottoman and Chinese Empires. The death of a young Russian girl sets Kazakov on a series of investigations that have implications for the entire world.
Other books in the series:
The Tsarina’s MaskI’m Off on a Research Adventure!
Starting in January, I’ll be off on a research adventure in Southern India, Bali and Hong Kong. You might recall that Phoebe Clay, my character in my mystery novel, Through Dark Water, ended book one with an interest in global travel. This is my chance to scope out interesting locales for her next adventures. I’m planning to get back to Phoebe and co. and their mysteries on my return from Asia.
During my travels I’ll be posting regular photos and mini stories like those in the travel section of my website so keep an eye open for these on my website and on Facebook.
After Yekaterina Pre Orders on Sale at Reduced Price
Until March 31, After Yekaterina is available at a pre-release price of $1.99. After release the book will return to the regular price of $4.99.
What if Catherine the Great never fulfilled her destiny and the Ottoman Empire destroyed Holy Mother Russia?
In an alternate modern Russia surrounded by the still-powerful Ottoman Empire and the Chinese Empire of the Sun, a dead girl in a pink sweater draws disillusioned Detektiv Alexander Kazakov into an investigation that even the girl’s mother wants him to abandon.
Driven by the truth and a slowly rising body count, Kazakov must traverse a landscape of snow and brothels, and a civilization frozen by history to catch a killer no one suspects.
After Yekaterina is the first in the Yekaterina Alternate History series set in the fictional Central Asian Country of Fergana.
Interested?
Click HERE
Writing in the Past and Future
It has been an interesting week for me in terms of my writing. I’ve implemented a progress tracking bar on my website to help readers follow along with how the next book is coming in a new mystery series. This is the third book in the Russian alternate history mysteries, the first of which is After Yekaterina. That book is finished and has come back from my advance readers, so I’m doing some final tweaks and then it will be ready for publication. Watch for it soon. I’ll do an announcement. The second book in the series is called Mareson’s Arrow. That book is written and is about to undergo editing before asking first readers to take a look. The third book in the series is tentatively titled The Tsarina’s Mask. We’ll see whether that title sticks, but that’s what I’m calling it for now. I think I’m about three quarters of the way through Mask which means that the first draft should be done before the end of the month and then I can do first draft edits and get it to my first reader. Yay!
But here’s the problem and I need your help.
I don’t know what to write next.
Usually I just pluck the next project from the sky, but I have a number of projects that I would like to get to. I’d love to hear from you what you’d like me to work on. I won’t promise to write the book you suggest right away, but it will be higher up the pile with your input than it might otherwise be. Here’s what I’m thinking of in no particular order:
- Another magical creature romance in a similar vein to Surviving Safe Harbor.
- A Cartographer/American Geological Survey novel starring Vallon Drake’s best friend, Fi Murdoch.
- A new Phoebe Clay Mystery (most likely set in Myanmar.)
- Another installment of the Aung and Yamin mysteries.
So what do you think? Any preference of order of how I get to these? Please help me pick my next project!
Thanks,
Karen
A Great Deal for Mystery Readers
For those of you who like to stay warm by the fire with a good mystery to hand here is a great bundle of books that will keep you trying to puzzle out whodunit! Gumshoes Redux provides a bundle of mysteries by a band of intrepid mystery authors, including yours truly.
Welcome to the Redux version of Gumshoes with two new exciting novels added.
In the world of mystery fiction there are different types of detectives. Amateur sleuths, women and men, willing to put themselves on the line to solve a crime or even a murder, police detectives working the case following the clues seeking justice for the victim, private investigators hired to solve a crime. Whether they be amateurs or professionals they all seek the same result, to make the world right once again and bring to justice those who threaten us all. These 14 writers invite you along for the ride to mystery and adventure. We hope you enjoy these stories and seek more books by these talented authors.
Detektiv Kazakov Mystery – Book 3 Coming in 2019
It has been a while since I’ve posted anything, but there is exciting news to share. After many delays due to life getting in the way, the third Detektiv Kazakov mystery is ready to roll. The novel is called The Tsarina’s Mask. The book takes place a few weeks after the events of book 2 and finds Kazakov sent on assignment to the rugged southern mountains of Fergana to investigate the murder of an old tribal healer.
Here’s the blurb:
When Detektiv Kazakov finds himself assigned to a murder investigation deep in the winter-bound mountains of Fergana, it’s a chance to reacquaint himself with a part of the country he once loved. Instead of a welcome, however, he finds a tribal community overrun with Russian tourists and a groundswell of festering resentment among the mountain people.
No one wants to deal with a Russian detective from the city, regardless of his tribal connections, and that includes the local police. With too few suspects for the murder of a well-respected tribal healer, Kazakov must reach deep to build connections. The situation only worsens when his nemesis appears on the scene. A mounting body count sends Kazakov deep into the inhospitable mountains, but nothing prepares him for the secrets and betrayals he discovers bound up in the murders
The book is now scheduled for publication in mid March 2019. In the meantime, I will be seeking reader input from my advance team. So if you’d like to read this book before it hits the shelves (and hopefully leave me a review, too!) sign up for my newsletter Here (scroll down and fill out the form) to receive free books and the opportunity to become a member of my advance reader team.
A Tale of Two Covers
I seem to be having trouble with novel covers these days. I’ve struggled over a romance series that will be getting a rebranding this Spring (after going through the same thing last Spring—I’m still not happy.) Now I’m working on the cover for the first in a new alternate history mystery series. The first novel, After Yekaterina, is in for copy editing and I’m about 45% of the way through the first draft of the second novel, so I thought I’d get started with planning covers.
The books are noir police procedurals that take place in an alternate world where the Ottoman Empire defeated Catherine the Great of Russia. As a result the Ottomans kept their hold on central Asia—until they bumped up against the Chinese Empire of the Sun. In this world, the rag-tag remains of Russian Moscow have built a new motherland, Fergana, with New Moscow as their capital. Caught like the gristle in a joint between the two superpowers, Fergana provides fertile ground for a new Asian Great Game of spies and subterfuge. It takes lone wolf Detektiv Alexander Kazakov to deal with the bodies left behind.
I have two cover options below. One represents the loner working alone, while the other focuses on place and tone. What do you think? Which one best represents the concept I’ve laid out?
