September Book News

“The habit of reading is the only enjoyment I know in which there is no alloy. It lasts when all other pleasures fade. It will be there to support you when all other resources are gone. It will be present to you when the energies of your body have fallen away from you. It will last you until your death. It will make your hours pleasant to you as long as you live.” — Anthony Trollope

*********

Footprints in History Kindle Cover jpg

New Release Footprints in History combines imagination and

my kingdom

Janice McCaffrey, Author

historic events during America’s Early Colonial Period, to tell of the author’s seventh great-grandfather, blacksmith and indentured servant, James Fitchett. James stands up for his convictions and influences early education on Staten Island, New York. While Thomas Gordon, an attorney representing his brother, one of the twenty-four Scottish investors, known as proprietors, strives for an honest government in the new colonial province of New Jersey. Their wives build a bond of friendship as they experience their new worlds where not all settlers share the same hopes and beliefs.

*****************

Feel free to wander to Jana Felt’s Bakery and Bar in Bigfork Sunday Sept 6th for an authors event. Join Deb Burke, Christine Carbo and myself for a social and an open read. We’d love to see you there. 
Get out, get social and talk about books and writing.
_________________

NEW! Pandemic Anthology features 40 writers from around the worldBe strong

STOP THE WORLD: Snapshots from a Pandemic, published in August 2020, features essays, poems, and short fiction from a diverse cast of writers, all attempting to process this year of the pandemic.

The brainchild of Montana mystery writer Lise McClendon, the anthology, STOP THE WORLD: Snapshots from a Pandemic, sprang from the depths of lockdown, with help from co-editors Gary Phillips, Kate Flora, and Taffy Cannon, on a bleak spring day in this infamous year. Over 40 writers from ten countries contributed short fiction, personal essays, and poetry to help us understand the struggles, isolation, sacrifice, and heartache of this strange time in our lives.

Some writers chose to mine their own psyches and experiences, whether the challenges of life in lockdown or their struggles with productivity and focus. Others felt called to wry, dark fiction or poetry. Across the globe the reactions portray a similar anger, pain, and struggle from writers from the US, Canada, Scotland, Ireland, France, Germany, Northern Ireland, Spain, Italy, and Romania.

Covid-19illustrationSeveral Montana writers contributed to the anthology: Tami Haaland, former Montana poet laureate, Craig Lancaster, Billings novelist, Tim Cahill, acclaimed travel writer, and Allen Morris Jones of Bozeman, who wrote two pandemic poems for the book. Lise McClendon also wrote a personal essay.

The anthology was published August 4 by Thalia Press. It is available in e-book from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple, and KOBO, and in paperback from Amazon and Bookshop.org.

Read a roundtable discussion with four contributors, Dan Fesperman, Tatjana Kruse, Matt Coyle, and Sarah M. Chen, moderated by Lise McClendon at CrimeReads.com

Thank you for your generous support. All profits go to charity.

_________________

February Book News

From LISE McCLENDON

I ❤️ February! For lots of reasons: special birthdays, Valentine’s Day, it’s short and sweet and chocolate is usually involved… plus JANUARY IS OVER! Woo hoo.

This winter I’m trying a new book strategy. I’m an independent writer so I can basically do whatever, right? Well, the pressure is on, always, to publish. Publish or perish, as the academics say. So to keep things lively I decided to take a secondary character out of my Bennett Sisters Mystery series and do a trilogy of novellas about him. He is a popular character, the love interest of the main sister, Merle. Pascal d’Onscon investigates wine fraud for the Police Nationale in France. The three novellas, or short parts of one whole, start out dealing with a scam label on a bottle of wine. It’s supposed to be from a champagne-only vintner but it is not bubbly, it is flat. DEAD FLAT, you could say.

So that gets the party started in the department of Champagne, in northeastern France. Much of the series takes place either in Paris or in the Dordogne region, but this trilogy moves around, from Champagne, to the Dordogne, to Brittany, and back to Champagne. We learn about Pascal’s two sisters (so many sisters!) who live far apart. And more about wine and champagne as that’s Pascal’s business.

Part One of DEAD FLAT came out in December. Part Two was released in mid-January, and the final part, three, publishes in late February. All are on Amazon.

Happy  February!

LESLIE BUDEWITZ: All mysteriesI’m with Lise in celebrating the joys of February. The light is growing stronger every day, which makes our little hearts so happy! If you’re in western Montana and you get happy meeting authors, come visit with me at the North Valley Public Library in Stevensville, at 11 am on Saturday, February 8. We’ll be chatting about mysteries and much more, and yes, of course, I’ll have books with me to refresh your rapidly-dwindling TBR pile!

Come chat — I love meeting readers, and a Saturday morning visit will help make February scurry by!

August Book News

 

Both Don’t Mess With Mrs. Sedgewick and Blame the Car Ride now are available in an audio version. Ratham Creek is in the producer’s hands now and also will be ready soon.  It has been a fun adventure to listen to my words being read aloud by talented Becky White.

I have codes available by Audible for free downloads if anyone is interested in receiving a free copy. I have eight codes left for Blame the Car ride and 12 codes for Mrs. Sedgewick. I will pass them out on a first come/first served basis. When they’re gone, they are gone. If you want one, please email me at mariefmartin312@hotmail.com

LESLIE BUDEWITZ: chai another day (cover without quote)Summer may have been late coming to NW Montana, but it’s gloriously beautiful now! And in these parts, we love our outdoor festivals. I’ll be at the Bigfork Festival of the Arts, Sat-Sun, Aug 3-4, from 9 to 4, selling and signing books, including my newest, CHAI ANOTHER DAY, the 4th Spice Shop mystery. Join me and 150 artists — potters, photographers, painters, jewelers, soap and candle makers and so much more — in the village of Bigfork! Plus tasty food and great live music.

And I’m pleased to report that my historical short story, “All God’s Sparrows,” winner of the 2018 Agatha Award for Best Short Story, is nominated for a Macavity Award for Best Short Story, given by Mystery Readers International. It’s set in Montana Territory in 1885, featuring real-life historical figure “Stagecoach Mary” Fields, and a young Ursuline nun who meet a woman and her daughter in trouble and devise an inspired solution. Read it free on my website or listen to me read it in a free podcast, courtesy of the publisher, Alfred Hitchock Mystery Magazine.

A Bolt from the Blue is here! Bennett Sisters Mystery #9 – by Lise McClendon

Exciting, like a thunderbolt! Or just a new book, always exciting at least for the author!

My latest is the ninth installment in the Bennett Sisters Mystery series, out August 1. This one follows last year’s BLAME IT ON PARIS, both featuring Francie Bennett, one of five sisters who are all lawyers. 

Francie is back in Paris, with her boyfriend this time, helping him with an annoying client. Axelle Fourcier left France after the student protests of 1968 and vowed never to go back. But now an elderly beloved aunt has died and left her an inheritance so she has no choice.

A Belle Époque apartment is only the beginning of Axelle’s discoveries. Her aunt collected pop art in the ’50s and ’60s. It seems the apartment might be the least of the inheritance that she must split with a cousin she’s never met. When a break-in and a murder occur, her worry that the French state is out to get her may be more than a little plausible.

Available on Amazon, KOBO, Nook, and Apple Books

AMAZON      NOOK        KOBO         iBOOKS

Find me at the Montana Book Festival in Missoula, September 12 – 15!

All my best,

Lise McClendon

PS: Like to cook? Get the Bennett Sisters French Cookbook free when you sign up here: SIGN UP

October Book News

Harvest Moon

2017 the Harvest Moon will occur October 5th.

********

Lise McClendon here… from the far southwest tip of Montana. Not the end of the world but you can see it from here! I’m still letting people know about my new women’s fiction/suspense novel set in France, the fifth in the Bennett Sisters Mysteries. It’s called The Frenchman, a title so bland it’s been used a million times. Hence, here is the link: THE FRENCHMAN. If you haven’t had a chance to read any of the novels, start with Blackbird Fly.

October brings an anthology of riffs on conspiracy theories that roiled through the Obama years, edited by the talented Gary Phillips. I have a short story in The Obama Inheritance: Fifteen Stories of Conspiracy Noir, set in a fictional Montana town called Forked Tongue. It is, needless to say, about Russian trolls and fake news (maybe not so fictional… 🙄) Walter Mosley is the big name in here but there are lots of fascinating takes on aliens, ninjas, and Michelle. Something for everyone, for sure. And, yes, Obama is blue on the cover!

From the publisher: “In an era where the outlandish and fantastic has permeated our media 24/7, where mind-bending conspiracy theories shape our views, THE OBAMA INHERITANCE writers riff on the numerous fictions spun about the 44th president of the U.S. Although Obama himself does not appear in most of these stories, contributors spin deliberately outlandish and fantastic twists on many of the dozens of screwball, bizarro conspiracy theories floated about the president during his years in office and turn them on their heads.”

It’s available for pre-order now. It goes live in ebook and paperback on October 10, and will be in Montana bookstores (or by special order.) Have a lovely, leafy autumn 🍂🍃🍁

Leslie Budewitz: Congratulations, Lise!

Christine Carbo and I just returned from the Montana Book Festival in Missoula, where we were part of a conversation about the contemporary mystery set in the west. In mid October, we’ll both be attending Bouchercon, the annual world mystery convention, being held this year in Toronto! And I’ll be leaving the board of Sisters in Crime, the international writers’ organization focused on the recognition, advancement, and professional development of women crime writers. It’s been an honor to serve — writing is a solo activity, but every opportunity I’ve had, and many of the joys, have come to me because of a group.

Wishing you the pleasures and joys of this sweet season!

 

September Book News

 

LESLIE BUDEWITZ: September is a month of mixed feelings in these parts. A signal of a fresh start almost as palpable as January, as the weather begins to change and the kids head back to school (we all feel it, don’t we, no matter what our age), mingled with a sense of loss, as another glorious Rocky Mountain summer slips behind us.

In Book News, Christine Carbo and I will be on a panel together, along with mystery writers Gwen Florio and Mark Stevens, at the Montana Book Festival in Missoula, Sept 29-30. (We don’t know the date or time yet, so check in with the Festival or one of us, if you plan to go.) We’ll be talking about modern mysteries set in the west, how place influences character, and much more. I hope to see you there!

Meanwhile, delighted to say that Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine will publish a short story of mine next year titled “All God’s Sparrows,” featuring the real-life—and larger than life—character, Mary Fields. I’ll share the pub date and ordering info as the date approaches.

Enjoy these last glorious days of summer, and thank you for spending them with us.

*****

mockup-20-13805321498764772-large

LISE McCLENDON Okay, it’s not quite slippers-by-the-fire weather yet but in case you’re stocking up for chilly weather, my new mystery, The Frenchman, is coming out very soon. This is the fifth installment in the Bennett Sisters Mystery series and we’re back in France this time. Merle Bennett is writing her own novel while taking a leave of absence in the Dordogne, so, yes, this is a story-inside-a-story. When that Frenchman, Pascal, runs into an old nemesis and goes missing, Merle must rally the troops to find him.  After an exclusive run I’m back on all e-book platforms (yay!) Amazon Nook KOBO iBooks  Also available in paperback. Happy autumn reading 🍁

*****

Book Signing by Karen Wills author of River with No Bridge  Saturday, September 16, 2017, 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at Montana Book and Toy Company, 331 North Last Chance Gulch, Helena, Montana.                  

river with no bridgeThis month’s issue of Cowgirl calls the novel a “compelling and touching story.” Booklist’s review of the novel called it “a gripping, sometimes heartbreaking story of immigrant survival in the West.” The August Historical Novel Society Reviews sums up with,   “I love pioneering stories and gritty women, and Ms. Wills’ engrossing tale provides both.”

Sunday, September 17th at 2:00 p.m. the Lewis and Clark Library at 120 South Last Chance Gulch will present Questions and Answers on Writing a Historical Novel with Karen Wills.

Karen looks forward, as always, to a visit with friends in Helena.

*****