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Writer's update--A Coastal Corpse is out tomorrow!

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Presales are open! The cover is done at last, and just in time! At this point it is open for pre-orders on Amazon and at Smashwords ; I'll be watching for other links as they go live.   In other writer news: progress is happening, slowly, on two mystery shorts I'm hoping to get out on submissions soon. If you have any leads about markets for mystery shorts, please let me know--there seem to be a lot fewer on-line zines in that genre than for SF/Fantasy!

New Release Spotlight: Murder at the Library, by Ellen Jacobson

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I've read and loved Ellen Jacobson's Mollie McGhie sailing cozies, and as a long-time library person (not to mention that whole Ninja Librarian thing) I'm excited to check out this new series!  SERIES BLURB: If you love all things bookish, check out this fun series set in the fictional town of Why, North Dakota. Thea Olson’s family founded Why’s library in the early 1900s and it’s always held a special place in her heart. Nowadays, she balances running her own consulting firm with volunteering part-time at the library . . . that is, when she’s not investigating murder!     About the book: Libraries are full of books . . . and deadly secrets. When Thea Olson agreed to volunteer at her local library, she anticipated shelving books, not stumbling across a dead body.   Concerned her brother, the acting chief of police, is in over his head, Thea is determined to find out whodunit. She investigates the murder with the assistance of her grandmother and the handsome new library dir

Flash Fiction Friday: Vengeance is Sweet

Here's a quick 200-word drabble I scribbled out a few weeks ago. I have a lot of pictures to sort and edit to share my recent PCT adventure with you!   Vengeance is Sweet She shouldn’t have come. Boredom seeped into her bones. She’d heard all the chit-chat, tasted all the canapés before.   The door opened and a man stepped into the room, and thoughts of boredom fled, pursued by disgust. Panic urged flight, anger froze her in place.   He hadn’t aged well. He looked at least a decade older than she was, and it had been a hard decade. Served him right.   He was coming to speak to her. He still had no self-awareness, and a suit that didn’t fit as well as he thought it did.   “Well, Darling, you’re looking good. Mm-hmm.”   Same old would-be playboy, now more hideously inappropriate than ever. She had to get away. She had to say something that would put him in his place forever. Her glance fell from the worn face to travel down the expensive suit

Cozy Review & Guest Post: The Body in the Back Garden

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  The Body in the Back Garden (A Crescent Cove Mystery) by Mark Waddell The Body in the Back Garden (A Crescent Cove Mystery) by Mark Waddell About The Body in the Garden The Body in the Back Garden (A Crescent Cove Mystery) Queer Cozy (“Quozy”) Mystery 1st in Series  Setting – The fictional town of Crescent Cove on Vancouver Island, Canada Crooked Lane Books (August 22, 2023) Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 272 pages ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1639104402 ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1639104406 Digital ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0BN582M9W In this queer cozy series debut perfect for fans of Ellen Byron and Ellery Adams, Luke Tremblay is about to discover that Crescent Cove has more than its fair share of secrets…and some might be deadlier than others. Crescent Cove, a small hamlet on Vancouver Island, is the last place out-of-work investigative journalist Luke Tremblay ever wanted to see again. He used to spend summers here, until his family learned that he was gay and rejected him. Now, following hi

Photo Friday: Gone Hiking

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The Ninja Librarian has hit the trail. We'll be back on the job next Wednesday. Meanwhile, a couple of old photos from other days on the trail. My husband shot these on a trip near Glacier Peak in 2017. ©Rebecca M. Douglass, 2023  As always, please ask permission to use any photos or text. Link-backs appreciated. Don't miss a post-- Follow us !

Non-fiction review: The Old Ways, by Robert Macfarlane

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  A follow-up to Mountains of the Mind , I grabbed the audio of this book to get more of the author's thoughts. Then I had to get the paperback because there were things I needed to read slowly, and flag, and return to. Title: The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot Author: Robert Macfarlane. Read by Robin Sachs Publication Info: Blackstone Audio, 2012.  Original hardback, Hamish Hamilton, 2012, 433 pages. Source: Library Publisher's Blurb: From the acclaimed author of  The Wild Places  comes an engrossing exploration of walking and thinking. In this exquisitely written book, Robert Macfarlane sets off from his Cambridge, England, home to follow the ancient tracks, holloways, drove roads, and sea paths that crisscross both the British landscape and its waters and territories beyond. The result is an immersive, enthralling exploration of the ghosts and voices that haunt old paths, of the stories our tracks keep and tell, and of pilgrimage and

Middle Grade Monday: The Lucky Ones, by Linda Williams Jackson

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It's been a long time since I had a middle-grade review, but I finally picked up a couple of audio books at the library and jumped back in.   Title: Author: Linda Williams Jackson, narrated by Reginald James Publication Info: Source: Publisher's Blurb: Award-winning author Linda Williams Jackson pulls from her own childhood in the Mississippi Delta to tell the story of Ellis Earl, who dreams of a real house, food enough for the whole family—and to be someone. It’s 1967, and eleven-year-old Ellis Earl Brown has big dreams. He’s going to grow up to be a teacher or a lawyer—or maybe both—and live in a big brick house in town. There’ll always be enough food in the icebox, and his mama won’t have to run herself ragged looking for work as a maid in order to support Ellis Earl and his eight siblings and niece, Vera. So Ellis Earl applies himself at school, soaking up the lessons that Mr. Foster teaches his class—particularly those about famous colored people like Mr. Thur