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Welcome to my usual weekly newsletter. As it’s the last week of the month, I’m going to talk about one of my books. We’ll see what happens with the newsletter in a couple of weeks, as I’m going to be in Colorado Springs at the end of the Superstars Writing Conference. Both Blaze and I will be teaching at the conference.
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I will try to remember to get out a newsletter—I’ve even put a reminder in my phone about it. However, we’ll see.
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Death by Brisket is the book I’m going to talk about this month, as the ebook has just been released into the wild! Some of you may already have a copy of the book, as I first did it as a Kickstarter campaign, back in October 2025.
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I got the idea for the novel a couple of years before I actually wrote the book. Instead of diving into it, I first wrote Grilled Sand and Witches, which is book four of the Water Witch mysteries. (I’m currently writing book six, which will be the last book.)
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For the most part, I’m a discovery writer. I am not an architect. I do not plan out my books precisely before I write them. I write into the dark, and discover the book as I’m writing it.
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However, I do need to know some things before I start writing a mystery. Namely:
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Once I have those pieces, I can just fill in the rest as I’m going along.
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For Death by Brisket, I knew who died right away. Like, two years before I started writing the book. I could see that bridge and where the ghost was trapped. I also understood why he was killed.
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Honestly, though, I wasn’t 100% certain who had killed the victim until I about halfway through the book.
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That made the book more difficult to write, on the one hand. On the other hand, if I don’t know who did it, I doubt the reader is going to guess right away.
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Then there’s Samuel. All I’m going to say is that he just showed up. Wasn’t expecting him at all. Hadn’t planned on him. But there he was, and he makes sense in terms of the other character’s arc.
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So if you haven’t picked up this book, and you need something that’s a bit mysterious, a bit snarky, and with a whole lot of MEAT, this is your next read!
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I finished my latest hat. I’m really proud of this one, so I wanted to show it to y’all.
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The colors are kind of hard to see. They might look black and white in the pictures, but they’re actually a dark blue and a light blue.
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My husband requested this hat and picked the pattern, as well as the yarn. I try to use stash yarn whenever I can, but I actually bought this yarn for him.
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This first picture shows the owls as they were in the pattern, the two mirror images facing each other.
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This picture shows the other side, so you can see the owls facing away from each other.
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This is the most complicated colorwork pattern I’ve tried to date. It was 48 stitches across. I’ve now bought myself some stitch counters for the longer patterns. Figure I’m going to use those a lot (A LOT) with the next thing I knit, which is an octopus hat.
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I’d picked this pattern because I was thinking that I could teach myself the Jacquard ladder back stitch as part of this. I’m not sure that I will though, as it might not be appropriate. Or it might be. We’ll see.
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Anyway, I guess that’s all the news I have for today.
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The Kickstarter ends this week! Be sure to get in on the fun today!
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Five volumes. One hundred stories. Multiple genres. One long, crazy ride.
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Many of these stories have never been released out into the wild, as it were. Each volume is around 600 pages, 20 stories in each. That's a LOT of material for those of you who are looking for your next binge-read.
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Of course, there's a lot of SF. Three volumes worh, roughly divided into Earth, near Earh, and the Galaxy. Then there's a volume of fantasy, as well as the last one which is evenly divided between 10 superhero stories and 10 action/thrillers.
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We funded in less than two hours (thank you to the fans who got there early!) But you can still get in on the action. As I said, we're running until the end of January.
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A cozy mystery novel. With magic. And MEAT.
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The sherif classifies a young man’s tragic death as a suicide…
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…but the “supernatural hotline” informs Las Chicas de Carne that it was murder.
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They decide to investigate, in part because the death occurred in the same location as their next barbecue competition.
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Then one of the judges for the contest dies under mysterious circumstances.
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Was the judge killed by the same person? Or are the murders completely separate? And can Las Chicas solve not one, but two crimes while still cooking up their award-winnings meats?
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Death by Brisket—the start of a new paranormal cozy mystery series—takes the reader along for a tasty ride. Come and get your serving today!
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Book six of Operation Marrakesh is coming out January 2026! (Undaunted) So book one, Trial by Leviathan, is now on sale for just $0.99.
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A test run of an experimental weapon turns unexpectedly deadly when Marrakesh and its crew run across a Wronlori Leviathan, who charges in to destroy them.
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A game of cat and mouse ensues, the two ships hiding in a deep nebula.
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Captain Boru could leave the area, but he wants a bit of revenge, as well as a fight against a bigger battleship.
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Trial By Leviathan, the exciting first book in the Operation Marrakesh series, takes the reader on a thrilling military space adventure. Be sure to read all the books in this series!
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