Voice recognition mistake of the day: I was dictating ALT text for an image: “The book cover shows three teen girls, one with long hair and bear arms....” 🐻💪I guess it could be a shifter story!

My spouse and I are heading to Arizona soon to spend a few days with my mother and brother (coauthor of the Felony Melanie: Sweet Home Alabama romantic comedy novels). We’re planning to hike and eat good food! We had a cookie exchange recently, so I have a bag of mixed cookies to take along. I made Chai tea shortbread cookies for the exchange. The recipe is in the booklet “Recipes from the Cat Café,” (free download).

The Furrever Friends Sweet Romance series features the workers and customers at a small-town cat café, and the adorable cats and kittens looking for their forever homes.

Happy audiobook anniversary to me! One year ago, Something Deadly on Desert Drive (The Accidental Detective Book 2) was released🤗. To celebrate, Audiobooks has a 70% discount on the audiobook. A listener said, “What a wonderful book, I loved every single minute of it! The story is suspenseful, with a skillfully woven mystery, the humour is delightful, and I adore Kate and the Coffeeshop Irregulars, they are so much fun. Christina Delaine’s performance is first-class, her voice is perfect for this book.” Get the audio deal here until 1/1/26.

Or get The Accidental Detective in ebook or print at all retailers and read about a smart midlife woman reinventing herself, catching killers, and laughing with intergenerational friends. (Book 7 is coming March 2!)

In “Leave No Stone Unturned,” a Reluctantly Psychic short mystery, Petra and Haven are in Santa Fe to sell rocks and minerals at an arts market. When a woman approaches them with a strange story about unlucky lava brought back from a vacation, Petra uses her psychic power to sense that this stranger is truly in trouble. Get the story here.

For more on the “curse,” read Pele’s Curse: Don’t Take Lava Rocks from Hawai’i!

In the Reluctantly Psychic Mystery series, a quirky loner who can read the history of any object with her touch gets drawn into mysteries at the museum of oddities where she works. This short story provides a glimpse into the series world. Book 3 is coming Jan 7! You can preorder now at any retailer.

Rigby and Mercury get into EVERYTHING. Here Mercury has not only figured out how to open the garbage but has decided he needs to be in the garbage. Rigby seems to be wondering if there’s room for one more.

For a video also showing why we cannot leave the ferrets unsupervised anywhere click here. (This is posted on Facebook so it will ask you to sign in, but just click the X to close that box and you can play the video.)

Find More New Books and Authors!

The Billionaire Who Hates Holidays by Annabelle Monroe: “Grumpy billionaire Evan Bellamy's PR team wants him to fix his Christmas-hating image. He proposes a trade with Holly Bennett, who is planning his foundation's holiday gala: she plays his girlfriend at holiday events, he introduces her to the clients who can transform her career. No catching feelings. No complications ... A sweet billionaire holiday romance with fake dating wrapped in peppermint mochas.” Free with newsletter signup (unsubscribe any time) or 99c at some retailers.

My Greek Island Christmas by Effrosyni Moschoudi: “Two die-hard cynics when it comes to love meet on a small family farm on the alluring Greek island of Santorini, and the magic of Christmas goes to work. Cathy Roussos, a Greek-American single mom, swore off love many years ago after a painful breakup. She lives for her nine-year-old son. She takes a temp job as a housekeeper for the Christmas season at a small family farm on the island of Santorini. The last thing she expects is to fall in love with the standoffish son of the owner, a veterinarian living in Athens and a sworn bachelor. Can these two wounded souls find happiness together?”

It's Book Frenzy! Check out this huge collection of novels in all genres (including five of my mystery and romance series starters). Most are under $5, some are 99 cents or free! Browse sweet and spicy romance, science fiction, fantasy, mystery and paranormal.

Shadows and Secrets: Psychological Thrillers & Mystery Romance: Meet your next favorite author in these stories, each free with newsletter signup (unsubscribe any time). You’ll find mystery, thriller, suspense and science fiction in the stories here.

Rigby and Mercury again. Siblings, right?

In the Tales of a Reluctant Psychic Mystery series, a quirky loner who can read the history of any object with her touch gets drawn into mysteries at the museum of oddities where she works. Have you been reading the ongoing excerpts? If so, let me know by replying to this email so I know it's worth the trouble of continuing!

 A Stone Cold Murder excerpt Chapter 5  

  I stepped into the front room, the biggest room in the house. “I’m home!”

  Jet, my black cat, raced down the hall toward me. He stopped about eight feet away, crouched, stared at me with pupils blown wide, and took off back down the hall. I’d named all my animals after minerals and gemstones, but Jet also fit his speed. Amber, my orange-and-white cat, was sprawled on the sofa. I petted her and she yawned and stretched. Onyx would be hiding.

  I went into the room I’d allotted to the ferrets, since it had wood floors for easier cleanup. I could let them roam free in there unsupervised! Back home—or rather, in my prior apartment—they stayed in a cage while I was at work or school. Granted, they slept about twenty-three hours a day, and their cage had three levels with hammocks, blankets, toys, and litter boxes. Still, they liked lots of choices for sleeping, and they liked to explore or just check that everything was where it had been the day before.

  I’d piled blankets on the bed and the floor and scattered the ferrets’ toys. It took me a few minutes to track down all three of them. Tension eased out of me as we cuddled and played.

  The next room held the two guinea pigs and two rats in their cages. Jet joined me there, sniffing at his buddies as I snuggled them. I didn’t let the guinea pigs or rats out unsupervised. All my animals generally got along, but I couldn’t risk the littler ones accidentally triggering the predator instinct from the cats or ferrets. Also, rats could get through remarkably tiny spaces and it was hard to track them down. I’d once lost Gypsum for a full day before she crawled out of the sleeve of my winter coat hanging in my closet. I still don’t know how she got up to it.

  After I’d seen everyone but Onyx, I wandered through the house. I’d had enough to manage taking myself and my animals across the country in my van. I’d had a moving container delivered to my building in Washington. I’d filled it, a truck had picked it up, and it would eventually make its way to me here. Maybe it didn’t make financial sense to move my cheap stuff across country, but it only whispered secrets about me, and I already knew all of those. But since I was in Reggie’s home, I could search the place for clues. At the same time, I could see if anything seemed safe to keep.

  Furniture, some linens and towels (which I would not risk using) in the closet, dishes and the bare minimum of cookware in the kitchen, and small items such as soap dispensers and cleaning supplies. It was creepy knowing a man who might have been murdered had used these things. What did they tell me about Reggie Heap? Was anything a clue to his death?

  I wouldn’t use my psychometry now, when I had to get through the afternoon at work. Psychometry could be draining, depending on what I was handling. Something made in a factory and shelved at a store likely hadn’t spent enough time with any one person to carry emotion. A sweater worn occasionally might whisper of the wearer’s last feelings, while a jacket worn every day for years got steeped in the owner’s personality. But a powerful emotion lasting an hour could overwrite lesser emotions that built up for years. The intense emotions took the most out of me, whether a powerful one-time feeling or a buildup over a long time. Like they each stole a bit of my soul, one overly religious former friend had told me, but forget about her.

  I’d never gotten a jolt like the one from the fluorite though. I hadn’t known it was possible. It was kind of like knowing war exists and is terrible, versus joining the fighting. I needed to take an emotional step back if I was going to get through this. But later, I’d try searching the house with my extra sense—and hope I didn’t freak myself out so much I couldn’t bear to sleep there again.

  My lunch hour was disappearing. I headed for the kitchen, Jet at my heels and sometimes in front of my ankles. I’d tried to use up everything I could before leaving Seattle. Most dry goods had been packed, so my cupboards were empty, but I had a jar of peanut butter from my road trip. The refrigerator held food I’d brought with me: half a loaf of bread, some apples, and some hot sauces and marinades because I couldn’t bear to throw them away and have to purchase them again. I definitely needed groceries. Good thing I had a credit card. Peyton had given me some money for moving expenses, with the agreement that I’d stay for at least a year, but that was long gone and my bank account was frighteningly low.

  As I fixed my sandwich, I made a mental task list. It quickly got so long I moved it to my phone note app.

1.     Get groceries, including cat food. (I used mail order for the other animals’ special foods, and I had enough for a month.)

2.     Clean the house, get rid of furniture I didn’t want, and unpack.

3.     Learn my way around town.

4.     Find out a news source in town and see if anyone had been killed by a blow to the head, or if anyone was missing, in case Reggie wasn’t the victim.

5.     Learn more about Reggie Heap.

a.                 Search for his name online.

b.                 Search the house and his office for physical clues.

c.                  Search the house and his office with psychometry for emotional clues.

  That didn’t even touch on the work I had to do at the museum. I stopped before I got overwhelmed.

  Jet stood at his bowl and mewed.

  “You’ve had breakfast and it’s too early for dinner.”

  He meowed again, clearly arguing. Amber trotted in, ever hopeful that one day Jet would convince me. I hardened my heart against their adorable faces. If I let them win once, I’d lose my status as alpha animal. Assuming I was the alpha; some days I had my doubts, and the animals probably did too.

Please let me know by replying to this email if you've been reading the ongoing excerpts and want me to continue!

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Did you get your freebies? Find them all here: a cat café romance novella, an Accidental Detective short story, and 22 recipes from the cat Café.Plus get a Sweet Home Alabama short story and a preview of my brother’s comedy, Totally Rad Wormhole.

Learn more about the Accidental Detective humorous mystery series, the Reluctant Psychic Mystery series, the Accidental Billionaire Cowboys sweet romance series, the Felony Melanie: Sweet Home Alabama romantic comedy novels, and the Furrever Friends cat cafe sweet romance series.