Tag: cozy mystery

Books on sale! Babies on blankets!

See, this is what happens if you wait more than six months to write a blog post. Lots of crap adds up and then you don’t even know where to start. Then the summer hits and you’re busy. Then the autumn hits… and you’re even busier. Then you attend a big authors’ conference and go on a cruise and a few more Greek letters hit the streets. Then you remember you’re a disorganized procrastinator… and all hell breaks loose.

Welcome to my life.

For today, boys and girls, we’re simply going to throw out a quick list of Stuff That Happened that might still interest you. (Well, it interests ME, so that’s close enough for government work.)

Biggest News: Welcome to the World, Little Princess!

Last night we welcomed a granddaughter safely into the world. We’re delighted she’s here, and we suspect she will have the entire family wrapped around her delicate fingers before Christmas. Or, to be honest, before lunch.

Second Biggest News: Books on Sale!

If you like cozy mysteries (and who doesn’t, besides maybe Stephen King), there’s a big sale going on this weekend! One of ’em is my Red Ink Mystery book, The Tell-Tale Heart Attack. Grab it (and other books listed here) for under three bucks this weekend (today through Sunday)! Each book cover is a clickable link.

https://www.avamallory.com/mystery-promos

Third Biggest News: TWO new cozies coming in 2022!

I’ve got two more cozy mysteries in the Red Ink Mysteries series coming up in 2022: The Old Man and the Seat Belt and also A Farewell to Arms and Legs. I have the preliminary artwork for the first one, but I learned a valuable lesson: NEVER tell your cartoonist to “do what he wants” with your cover art. Then you end up with dead guys entangled in seat belts and you have to go back and work that into the plot. Plus, where did that cat come from?

Last Biggest News (is that a thing?): Silly Sci-Fi?

Would you like a little ridiculousness with your science fiction? Sure you would. I’m also working on this fun book, and I’m hoping it sees the light of day sometime in 2022. Keep busy, keep calm, and keep reading!

Contest ends tonight! Totally not kidding!

Nearly 60 e-books.
A free e-reader.
Enough reading to get you through the summer and beyond.

Because it’s not like you’re going on a cruise any time soon, right?

Clickety-click right here: —-> https://www.booksweeps.com/giveaway/june-2020/women-sleuth-mysteries/

There’s a different contest starting on Monday, so don’t miss this one while it lasts (the rest of today/this evening)!

No purchase necessary. Void where prohibited. All rights reserved. Lather, rinse, repeat. No parking without permit. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200. Phrase your answer in the form of a question. Bridge freezes before road surface.

You get a book! And you get a book!

Yay! Charlotte’s Website, the third book in the Red Ink Mysteries cozy series, is finally available for preorder here. If you order now, it’ll mysteriously drop onto your Kindle on May 22. I don’t know how that works. I think it’s some sort of magic. It scares me a little. And excites me too. Kinda like my husband.

For you old-school types, the print edition of Charlotte’s Website should also be available on May 22. Although this whole pandemic thing has meant no in-person book signings or book festivals, I can still send you an autographed bookplate sticker thingy to put inside a print copy of any of my books. Ask for one (or more!) here. I won’t even make you beg… much. Just remember: these are for print books. Don’t put a sticker on your Kindle. It will end badly.

Next week, you can easily (and economically) catch up on the entire Red Ink Mysteries series by taking advantage of sales on both of the previous books in the series. Can’t you feel the excitement?

https://amzn.to/35S1lAF <—-Find The Scarlet Letter Opener HERE!
https://amzn.to/35SDLDK <—-Find The Tell-Tale Heart Attack HERE!

Mark your calendar. Set an alarm on your phone. Tell all your friends. Throw a socially distanced party. Drive around your neighborhood with banners attached to your car.

Whatever you do, don’t miss these sales!

And while you’re buying and reading and buying some more, I’ll be feverishly working on more books. It’s not like I have anything better to do these days. It’s either more writing… or quarantine baking… or <shudder> housecleaning.

I’ll choose the writing every time.

And you, my friend, should choose to read. I can think of a few books you might be interested in…

SALE! Everything Must Go!

Well, not EVERYTHING. It’s print-on-demand, so they won’t be selling out any time soon. But hey, let’s pretend. Either way, it’s a big sale on some mighty great Kindle editions.

First is Secret Agent Manny, which is on sale until Saturday, September 7. Grab a measly 99¢ out of your bank account (plus tax) and the Kindle edition can be YOURS … immediately! If you’re into instant gratification, then click on over and start reading in seconds! I’m so excited for you!

Just 99¢ until Saturday, September 7!

And … hold onto your hats! To celebrate the arrival of the second book in the Red Ink Mysteries series (The Tell-Tale Heart Attack), I’ve knocked the price of the first in that series, The Scarlet Letter Opener, down to … [drum roll] …

FREE … until Thursday, September 5!

Big Sale Next Week!

Procrastination PAYS OFF!

If you’ve been lollygagging around and haven’t ordered Secret Agent Manny or The Scarlet Letter Opener (book 1 in the Red Ink Mysteries series) yet, next week is your lucky day! (Wait, whut?)

From Sept. 1–7, Secret Agent Manny will be just 99¢ for the Kindle edition!

From Sept. 1–5, The Scarlet Letter Opener will be FREE! If you’re itching to read The Tell-Tale Heart Attack (book 2), now you can grab the first book in this series next week for FREE!

No need to set a reminder on your phone (although, hey, I’m not gonna stop you). I’m sure I’ll inundate you with reminders all next week. That’s how much I care.

Who is Muriel Preston?

She’s younger than I am.
She’s prettier than I am.
And thinner. Much thinner.
She has gorgeous long hair, flawless skin, beautiful blue eyes, and keeps her nails long but still manages to type a lot faster than I do.

She drinks espresso shots throughout the day, listens to smooth jazz, used to be a chain-smoker until she quit cold-turkey about ten years ago, and joins the gym every January, though she stops showing up at all by March.

She’s been married—twice—but both times realized the guy was just too big a distraction from her work. Each of the men wasn’t surprised when she left. They’re all still good friends, and on rare occasions she’ll take them both out to dinner or a movie. At the same time. Then they all get creeped out about it and don’t have any contact for at least six months.

She is an enigma wrapped in a conundrum.
I, on the other hand, am a conundrum wrapped in bacon.

—

So, who is this mysterious Muriel Preston?

Well, okay… she’s me.

Starting this winter, the not-so-mysterious, nothing-like-me, completely fictitious Muriel Preston will start churning out light, short cozy mysteries. Just because she can.

My own cozy mystery series, The Red Ink Mysteries, is now officially two books long. (The Tell-Tale Heart Attack is finally available, folks.) The third book, Charlotte’s Website, is due out by Christmas.

But our new friend Muriel? She’ll be churning ’em out a lot faster. She has nothing better to do, after all. She lives for her work. Lucky for me.

Her first series, the Totally Tech Series, will contain five separate quick reads. I’ll update here as these become available. For now, take a gander at her tentative titles:

And the Beat Goes On . . .

This past week I released both the print and Kindle editions of my cozy mystery, The Scarlet Letter Opener. Not the first novel I’ve written, but the first novel I’ve put out there in the big, wide world.
And it feels a lot like watching your firstborn grow up, move out, get married … all those overused empty-nest clichés. It feels like all of them, but a lot more personal because, if your novel flops, you can’t blame it on anyone else but yourself. Nature, nurture, whatever. It’s all crap when you release a novel. Well, you can try to blame it on the cover designer or your beta readers, but that’s just a passive-aggressive device to avoid blame, and it’s not fooling anybody.
Anyway, a few of my trusted friends  [read: I’m pretty sure they’re not going to kill me in my sleep] finally convinced me that it was time to step up to the plate and shoulder the blame.
Wait… this isn’t coming out the way I had expected. Not really enticing anyone to read the book, am I?
Let me skip all the boring crap about how a writer’s creative yet blocked mind works and get right to the important stuff. The pertinent facts and rules:
1. The Scarlet Letter Opener, a cozy mystery, is now available on Amazon.com.
2. Please buy it and/or borrow it from Amazon.com.
3. If you buy and/or borrow it and enjoy it, please leave a favorable review on Amazon and/or Goodreads. Authors rely heavily on those reader reviews (especially the good ones).
4. If you buy and/or borrow it and don’t enjoy it, keep it to yourself, all right? Nobody wants to hear your negativity.
* * * * *
In other, semi-related news, another novel should be showing up within the next few weeks. This one’s a lot more serious. The cover reveal should happen later this week. Rules 2–4 above will still apply. You’re officially on notice.