A New Year

The setting for the first three Malone mysteries

 According to the old Farmers Almanac, "January was named for the Roman god Janus, protector of gates and doorways. Janus is depicted with two faces, one looking into the past, the other into the future."

Looking back:

In June of 2017, Post Mortem Press published Marnie Malone, my fifth Malone mystery, completing the series.Writing those books has been a labor of love but. . . .

Looking forward:

A new year is like the blank pages of a yet-to-be-completed mystery novel. It will be full of surprises. As the days (pages) go by, there will be many twists and turns. Some difficult situations to overcome. Lots of challenges but also so many possibilities.

I'm currently writing a new book, another mystery novel, which I started last year. It’s very different from the books in my Malone mystery series. It's a cozy, I’m writing it in the first person -  something I’ve wanted to do for a long time - and I’m having a lot of fun with it. 

Here's an overview of Secrets in Storyville:

Kate Morgan, a single mother, lives in the small town of Storyville, Ohio where she grew up. A want-to-be writer, she works as a sales clerk in the town’s only department store doing what she describes as “a job a monkey could do.” Although she’s bored with her job, she won’t allow herself to consider moving to the city where there are more job opportunities because she relies on her parents’ help in raising ten-year-old Mandy.

When her daughter announces to the family that she plans to do a family tree for a school science project, the reaction of Kate’s parents and grandmother shocks Kate and arouses her curiosity. Why are they so against Mandy’s project? Surely her family is too “normal” to have any skeletons in their closet.

Kate decides to support Mandy even if that means defying her parents. But what she’s about to learn will reveal a long buried secret and change her life forever.

I hope to finish the book in the next few months and to move on to the next phase: publication. That, like most things in life, will require me to make a decision. Will I send the manuscript to publishers or will I decide to self-publish? I'm not sure yet and I don't want to "put the cart before the horse." I want to enjoy every minute of writing the book!

Happy New Year!