Sunday, August 24, 2014

New Release: Forty & Out

     
Someone is targeting Toledo, Ohio’s single women when they turn forty, tucking them into bed and turning birthday greetings into obituaries. Newly-assigned Homicide Detective Veronica Jadzinski vows to prevent the body count from increasing and to prove her transfer from Narcotics wasn’t a fluke—departmental regulations, disparaging lieutenants, and a rigid new partner be damned.
Jadz rebels against the imposed teamwork until her stubbornness lands an informant in the hospital. She learns to trust her new partner while balancing the unwanted attentions of an almost-ex-husband, a needy widowed mother, and a drama queen sister as the detectives fight to unravel the bizarre murders.
A suburban death brings a third detective to the reluctant team, and with him the missing link between the victims. When the killer targets Jadz's sister, things get personal. Jadz must heal an old family rift to stop the murders, and in the end regains a belief in herself and in those who really matter.
       
Available on Barnes & Noble and Amazon
Also available on Deadly Writes Publishing link: 

 


C.L. (Cyndi) Pauwels’ debut novel Forty & Out has just been released through Deadly Writes Publishing. Her short fiction has appeared in Mock Turtle ‘zine, Over My Dead Body!, The View from Here (UK), and other journals. In 2009, she published a non-fiction book, Historic Warren County: An Illustrated History.  Sugati Publications has selected two of her essays for their Reflections from Women anthology series. In addition to writing, Cyndi’s portfolio career includes book editing (The Enduring Legacy of Kahlil Gibran and The Essential Rihani), teaching freshman composition as an adjunct at a local community college, and serving as assistant director for the Antioch Writers’ Workshop. She lives in Yellow Springs, Ohio, with her husband of thirty-six years, George, and three spoiled dogs. They have two grown children and one grandson.

Forty & Out evolved out of a short story Cyndi published in the now-defunct Ohio Michigan Line magazine in 1990. The first full draft was completed during National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) in 2006 and it has gone through numerous rewrites, revisions, and beta readers since then. The second book featuring Jadz and her colleagues is underway!

           
Leave a comment for a chance to win a copy of "Forty & Out."


Sunday, August 17, 2014

Mystery Author of the Month: Madeline Gornell



Madeline Gornell

Madeline (M.M.) Gornell is the award winning author of Uncle Si's Secret, Death of a Perfect Man, Lies of Convenience, Reticence of Ravens, and Counsel of Ravens. Her first Route 66 mystery, Reticence of Ravens, was a finalist for the Eric Hoffer 2011 fiction Prize, the da Vinci Eye (cover art), and the Montaigne Medal (most thought provoking book). And Lies of Convenience was a Hollywood Book Festival Finalist and along with Uncle Si's Secret, a PSWA Fiction winner. Counsel of Ravens is a London Book Festival(honorable mention) and Los Angeles Times Book Festival Genre Fiction (runner-up). She continues to be inspired by historic Route 66.

M.M. is a lifetime lover of mysteries, and besides reading and writing, she is also a potter with a fondness for stoneware and reduction firing. She lives with her husband and assorted canines in the Mojave High-Desert near the internationally revered Route 66. 
You can visit her online at her website: http://www.mmgornell.com, or her BLOG: http://www.mmgornell.wordpress.com, or email her directly at mmgornell@earthlink.net.

Madeline says:
"Mainly my books are stand alone, with Reticence of Ravens and Counsel of Ravens the only two that are connected. I'm feeling pretty sure at this point, I'm a stand-alone kind of writer, and don’t have any plans to write another sequel—but I’m old enough to know saying “never” is fool hardy, indeed! And I do have a couple raven’s titles running around in my mind.

Route 66 does, though, remain the current “juice” for my imagination, and my next novel again takes place in the Mojave—in a fictional place between Ludlow and Needles I’ve created, called Shiné (shy-knee). The working title is Rhodes —The Mojave-Stone. I thought it would be a thriller, but it’s turning into a mystery. I should have known!"


Amazon Buy link (all listed there) is http://tinyurl.com/okypqsm

Madeline is offering a copy of "Counsel of Ravens" to one lucky commenter.