June 2020 Author News and Updates

Hello, Readers. I hope you are all well, staying safe, and enjoying your “new normal” summer. At the beginning of June, I created a survey that I sent to my blog and newsletter subscribers. I also posted it on my social media sites. From that survey, I learned that many of my readers would prefer my publishing the first series of a new cozy. Although I just signed a contract for a medical, non-cozy mystery (but even my non-cozies feature cozy elements), I’m working on the final revisions for a new cozy that I’m hoping to submit in early July.

The survey also showed that readers want more of my author news and regular work-in-progress excerpts, so I’ve decided to post updates to this blog twice a month and updates to my newsletter monthly.

Here’s the blurb I’ve written for my forthcoming mystery, Memory Makers, that will be published by Next Chapter. Note that my publisher may edit this blurb when it’s published and that the cover has yet to be created.

Twenty-five years ago, Lauren Phelps and her sister Patty were kidnapped from their backyard on Long Island. Lauren escaped her captor, but Patty was killed. Ever since that day, Lauren has suffered from nightmares of the “Shadow Man.” In an effort to recall his face and avenge her sister’s murder, Lauren, now a kidnap investigator, enrolls in a clinical trial for a new memory drug.

Leaving her two kittens in her mother’s care and her partner Rick Dexter working on the case of a kidnapped boy, she travels to the offices of Memory Makers in California. As she receives the injections of the Memory Maker’s serum, she begins to experience flashbacks of repressed memories about her family and their neighbors. Along with these flashbacks, she receives threats from an anonymous source that point back to her childhood trauma. Suspecting that someone at Memory Makers is behind these warnings, she becomes involved with a fellow trial participant who seeks to recall what happened the night his wife was murdered. 

Will Lauren remember the face of the “Shadow Man” before her sister’s killer acts again and finishes what he started twenty-five years ago?

I’ve also compiled a tentative schedule of writing goals. Because life often gets in the way, these goals are subject to change, but I’m trying my best to meet them. Here’s a breakdown of my goals through 2022:

June 2020 Memory Makers (Medical Mystery) – submitted and signed contract with Next Chapter Publishers

July 2020 The Case of the Cat Crazy Lady: Rainbow Gardens Pet Mystery #1 – (cozy mystery) submit to agents/publishers

August 2020  self-published non-fiction cat book

October 2020 Cobble Cove #5– (cozy mystery)- submit to Solstice Publishing

January 2021  Supernatural mystery – submit to publishers

April 2021 Rainbow Gardens Pet Mystery #2 – submit to publisher

July 2021 Time travel mystery – submit to publishers

October 2021 Rainbow Gardens Pet Mystery #3 – submit to publishers

January 2022 Second in series of time travel mystery – submit to publishers

While these goals don’t reflect any of my short stories and articles, I also plan to write them and would like to compile a collection of my short mysteries. I’m also hoping to write another Cobble Cove short mystery Sneaky’s Summer Mystery, later this summer and maybe another non-fiction cat book.

Among other news, I’ve received three Certificates of Excellence from the Cat Writers’ Association and am in the running for the highly prized muse medallion as well as prizes from contest sponsors. Winners are selected during their Virtual Awards Ceremony on Saturday, August 8, 2020.

For those of you who haven’t read my psychological mystery, Sea Scope, the ebook will be on sale for 99 cents from June 30 to July 4 and makes a great summer read.

In the next Author’s Update, I will post some excerpts from my new cozy mystery work-in-progress.