Where ever you choose to do your summer reading, enjoy!

New release from Lise McClendon
I’m thrilled to be here with the Montana Women Writers, who live far away from me on the other side of the state! (I live on the upper Madison River near Yellowstone National Park. I call it that hangie-down part of the state:-)) They’ve been gracious enough to include me here so here goes my news.

I have a new novel coming out in August, the third in my Bennett Sisters series. This is women’s suspense fiction about five lawyer sisters, named after the Jane Austen characters but only slightly. The first in the series was published as a stand-alone in 2009: Blackbird Fly. It has remained one of my bestselling books though so in 2014 I wrote a sequel: The Girl in the Empty Dress. Now comes the third book: The Things We Said Today. (There is a novella in between the last two, so technically this is the 4th in the series.)

I find the life choices women make to be endlessly fascinating. That is not to say men’s lives aren’t equally captivating but there is something about women’s choices that make them more complex, don’t you think? I grew up in the middle of three sisters so I made my first book about the middle Bennett sister, Merle (they call her Merdle=Merle+middle). I am not a lawyer myself — nor have I played one on TV — so the books are more about their lives outside work. Women in the hyper-competitive world of law are the stuff of legend. Look at all the politicians and their spouses who went to law school! Whether or not they practice law it gives them a solid background, and plenty of fodder for fiction. 

The first two books are set mostly in rural France, in the Dordogne, which shapes much of the stories as well. In each book I get to focus on, and learn more about, different sisters, and I have to say their personalities are all their own. All different, from the Bohemian who is set to get married in Scotland in The Things We Said Today, to the beauty who loves the law, to the Martha Stewart one and the wild child. In this story we get to see them all interact together, something readers have told me they wanted.

Although this is a series these are still in the ‘linked stand-alone’ category and can be read in any order. If you’re like most you’ll want to start at the beginning though. And I am offering a free e-book of Blackbird Fly to anyone who joins my newsletter mailing list. Check that out over here. The new book is available for pre-order now. Look for The Things We Said Today on August 15 in trade paperback and e-book everywhere.

LESLIE BUDEWITZ: In early August, I’ll be sharing my first Food Lovers’ Village short story, free, with my newsletter subscribers, so if you’re not already a subscriber, join me now! When Wendy the Baker’s family gathers after her grandmother’s funeral, she and Erin discover a decades-old secret that could prove to be still deadly.

On August 6-7, I’ll be at the Bigfork Festival of the Arts, sharing stories and signing books. Join me on the village streets — my booth will be in front of Frame of Reference Gallery on Electric Avenue. (And my hunny, Don Beans, will sing and play guitar at the Festival stage, at 1:00 Saturday!)

If you’re a fan of my Spice Shop Mysteries, set in Seattle’s Pike Place Market, I hope you’ll consider pre-ordering the third book, KILLING THYME, at your favorite indie or online retailer. It will be published October 4, in paperback, e-book, AND audio book. pre-orders are hugely important to authors, and may well determine whether the series continues. Read an excerpt and find out where to buy it on my website.

By the way, both ASSAULT AND PEPPER and GUILTY AS CINNAMON are now available in audio and large print, as well.

Stay cool — read a book!