Maggie Pill Mysteries

Sometimes an event gives me an idea for a book. The hurricane that hit the Tampa area in 2024 got lots of news coverage, and some of it focused on animals affected by the storm, often pets that lost their homes or their owners in the mayhem.  A running plot-line of the Cats & Crime series is that Lorilee can only have 8 cats, so she has to hide any extras that show up, as Esme does, on her doorstep. While cozies aren't particularly instructive for the most part, I have used them to highlight situations, so in this one, we learn about the re-homing efforts after the storm. I have great admiration for those who work to reunite pets with owners or find new homes if that isn't possible. Lorilee's empathy for homeless and damaged pets expands to concern for humans as well. Sometimes people who stay away from society do so because they care too deeply and must limit themselves to what they can handle. Raining Cats and Cats takes place after Hurricane Milton devastated the Ta...

 We winter in an RV park in Florida, and when residents there found out I was an author, I heard time and time again, "You should write about this place." So I did. An RV park is a strange microcosm of the nation (though our population is mostly from east of the Mississippi) in that people come from many different locales to escape winter weather. We're a mix of Canadian and U.S. We aren't Floridians. Most of us stay 3 to 5 months and then go back home. In the park people meet and mingle daily, but for most of us, that doesn't continue for the rest of the year. That means that you see people every day for say, four months, and then have no contact with them until your return next fall. I tried to recreate that feeling in Trailer Park Tales, my three-book mystery series. The events are seen through the eyes of four couples. That means eight narrators, which is a lot, so I give readers lots of hints as to who's who.  Using multiple narrators was purposeful, sinc...

  The third Cats & Crimes book is all GO on my end.  I've uploaded final e-book and print files. (Two separate entities, each with its own challenges.)  Checked the cover.  Edited the blurb on Amazon and Draft2Digital. Sent for postcards to mail to over 200 libraries within the next week.  It all happens October 1st. If you haven't ordered one yet, you can do so HERE The wildest thing is that Book #4 formed in my head as I was doing all this. It's a logical extension of the first three books, which I think readers will love, and I see one more book after that to complete the series. (I'm not a fan of writing a series after four or five books, though I will confess there are authors I love who keep it going and do a great job.) Anyway, I'll start work on that in a few weeks, when the promo for HAVE CATS - WILL CRIME-SOLVE is well under way.

 If you're a newsletter subscriber, you already know that Once Upon a Trailer Park is the giveaway on Bookfunnel right now, but only until August 11. If you're not on my newsletter list, you can still get your free e-copy HERE It's Book #1 of the Trailer Park Tales series, followed by Twice the Crime This Time and Third Crime's the Charm. If you've ever lived in any type of closed community, you'll enjoy the characters who show up in these books. I'm at work on Book #3 of the Cats & Crimes series, Have Cats - Will Crime-Solve. Lorilee and Jess have new adventures when a stranger moves into the neighborhood with the help and interference of Ditzy Mitzi and her son Nasty Greg.   The book goes on sale October 1, 2024, and you can pre-order it HERE .

BEFORE I FORGET YET AGAIN: Now is your best chance to find my entire ebook collection for a promotional price at @Smashwords as part of their Annual Summer/Winter Sale! Find my books and many more at https://www.smashwords.com/shelves/promos/ all month! #SWSale2024 #Smashwords.  I tell myself I'll be better about blogging, but...I probably won't. I do try to keep readers up-to-date on where the next book is in the pipeline, so here it is. Have Cats - Will Crime-Solve, Book #3 of the Cats & Crimes series starring Lorilee Riley, is with the content editor (That's the person I pay to make me frustrated). Content editors tell authors what needs to be changed in a book. People often ask, "Do you have to do what she says?" No, I don't, but when an objective, well-read editor says, "Look at this again," a writer should do that. Editors point out where we repeat ourselves, where we don't explain enough, where the plot gets hinky, and where charac...

Here are the answers to the newsletter quiz. If you don't get my newsletter, sign up for it! The NEWS in the newsletter is that THIRD CRIME'S THE CHARM releases on April 4th. HERE is the link to it on all major book-sellers' sites.