October 2024
Daisy Bateman/Stacie Grey – Book Deal Announcement: My The Last Normal Day, in which a group of friends meet for dinner the night before a devastating earthquake and six months later one of them realizes the resulting chaos has hidden a murder tied directly to the secrets they were all keeping that night, to Poisoned Pen Press, in a two-book deal.
Dale and Mysti Berry – Mysti Berry and Dale Berry will be joining Leslie Karst and friends on October 12 at the Capitola Library, 4-5:30 PM, for the Mystery Month Authors Talk.
Susan Alice Bickford – I published my short story, The Lucky One, in the Saturday Evening Post in September 2024.
Randal Brandt – I will be interviewing international best-selling Norwegian crime writer Thomas Enger for a Litquake 2024 event called “Bone-Chilling Nordic Noir.” The interview will take place on Thursday, October 17, from 7-8:30PM at Telegraph Hill Books in San Francisco’s North Beach. The event is free and open to all.
Diana Chambers – Ten years ago, The Secret War of Julia Child was a spark in my brain. I’m over the moon to announce the novel will be published October 22. But there’s more: last week, People magazine named it a BEST BOOK OF FALL 2024, one of five Must-Reads in historical fiction—among such amazing company I’m still dazed. If you’d care for more on Julia and her OSS service in WWII Asia—from India to Ceylon to China’s perilous front lines—her on-off romance with mapmaker Paul Child, as well as spy stuff, maps, a 40s Spotify playlist, recipes, Asian research travels and photos—and some of my own story—please follow this link to sign up for my occasional newsletters.
Michael Cooper – Book 1 of my series, Wages of Empire, was selected as a “Distinguished Favorite” by the 2024 NYC Big Book Awards for Historical Fiction, while Book 2, Crossroads of Empire (pub date – 11/19/24) was a finalist in the 2024 San Francisco Writers Conference Writing Contest for Adult Fiction.
Crossroads of Empire, the sequel to Wages of Empire, has already won recognition prior to its pub date of November 19, 2024, winning the 2024 CIBA Hemingway First Place Prize for 20th-century Wartime Historical Fiction and picked as a Distinguished Favorite for the 2024 NYC Big Book Award. Available for pre-sale on Amazon here!
Jack Erickson – I’ll be publishing the paperback of Bloody Mary Confession and promoting it in North Dakota for a Legends event honoring our undefeated football season in 1961.
Max and Amanda are America’s dream couple. Former college sweethearts, they marry and their careers skyrocket; Max as a star infielder with the Boston Red Sox, Amanda as a Hollywood actress. They seem to be living ‘the perfect life.’ They buy an elegant home in suburban Boston and furnish it lavishly. The next year Amanda buys a home in LA because of the time demands of her movie career. But the stress of almost constant traveling and living apart wear on their marriage. Although they still love each other, they’re living as single people on opposite coasts. They divorce and start new lives. Years later, the suspicious death of someone close to one of them reunites Max and Amanda. They meet in southern California at Amanda’s plush beachside home near Santa Barbara. They reminisce over candlelight dinners, Hollywood parties, walks on the beach, and wine tasting. One morning poolside they sip Bloody Marys — and one of them reveals a “Bloody Mary Confession.”
Vinnie Hansen – My story “Dire Wolf” is in Friend of the Devil: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of the Grateful Dead, released September 30. A must-have for Deadheads, and all readers of crime fiction. A great line-up: David Avallone, Linda Landrigan, Dominique Biebau, Vinnie Hansen, Josh Pachter, Twist Phelan, K.L. Murphy, G.M. Malliet, Joseph Walker, James L’Etoile, James D.F. Hannah, Faye Snowden, Kathryn O’Sullivan and Paul Awad, Bruce Robert Coffin, and Avram Lavinsky.
Looking for Halloween spookiness? Read my story “Scared Straight” in the October issue of Kings River Life Magazine.
Join me and authors Nicole Anderson, Ed Weingold, Ed Sams, Victoria Kazaian, Helene Simpkin Jara, and Nancy Lynn Jarvis for a panel presentation on Santa Cruz Ghost Stories at the Scotts Valley Library, October 19, from 3:30-5 PM.Claire M. Johnson – I will be appearing at Book Passage in Corte Madera on Sunday, November 3 @ 4 PM for a reading and discussion of the first book in the Fog City Noir series: Fog City. More information here.
I will discuss Fog City with the Mystery Club at Rossmoor on Monday, November 4 @ 7 PM in the Multi-purpose Room in the Gateway Complex.
Along with other NorCal authors, I will be appearing at the Lincoln University Library Literary Festival on Saturday, November 9.
Laurie R. King will be talking about the 30th anniversary of The Beekeeper’s Apprentice online on October 7, 4 PM Pacific Time, with the Saugus, MA Library, MA.. Register here.
Laurie also enjoyed moderating the MWA panel, A Mind for Mystery, What Makes a Successful Writer?, at the Martin Luther King Jr. Library in San Jose on September 7, an intimate and informative afternoon with panelists Vinnie Hansen, Leslie Karst, and Heather Haven. Joining the event were fellow MWA members and friends. Each writer took turns sharing their history, love of the craft, and career choices. It was an enlightening afternoon filled with laughs, warmth, and camaraderie.
Margaret Lucke – My story “Haircut” has been published by GUILTY Crime Fiction Magazine. Those who might like to read this flash fiction tale can find it here.
I am presenting a program called “The Art of Suspense: How to Keep Readers Turning the Pages” to the Palm Springs Writers Guild on Friday, October 11, from 1 to 3 PM. It will be held via Zoom so you can attend from anywhere. Details are here.
I will be one of the featured authors and panelists at the Local Author Showcase at the Hercules Library, 109 Civic Drive in Hercules, on Saturday, November 2 from 1 to 3 PM. Details are here.
Sharon Owen/Sharon St. George – Harlequin Worldwide Mystery now has all six books in my Aimee Machado Mysteries available after purchasing reprint rights from my original publisher, Camel Press (an imprint of Epicenter Press based in Kenmore, WA). The series is written under my pen name, Sharon St. George.
The books are also available in print and as eBooks from my original publisher through Amazon and Barnes and Noble, or by order from local bookstores.Gigi Pandian – The 8th novel in my Accidental Alchemist Mystery Series, The Alchemist of Brushstrokes and Brimstone, comes out October 1.
A stolen masterpiece, a brilliant woman written out of history, and a recipe for a lost color worth killing for…. Centuries-old alchemist Zoe Faust and her gargoyle sidekick Dorian face their most colorful case yet when they investigate the theft of a treasured portrait that’s Zoe’s last link to her brother.Terry Shames – On Tuesday, October 29, at 7 PM, I will be appearing at Mrs. Dalloway’s Literary and Garden Arts, 2904 College Ave., Berkeley CA. I will be interviewed by Michelle Chouinard (The Serial Killer’s Guide to San Francisco).
Robin Somers – Hi! My book Eleven Stolen Horses, a Wild Horses Mystery, was launched September 17 with Sibylline Press. The book was a finalist for Pacific Book Awards in the category of Best Westerns.
Kirkus Reviews called it “A great mystery.”
I’ll be reading from the book at my launch party at Bookshop Santa Cruz on Tuesday, October 15. More information here.
Laura Jensen Walker – Please join me at a signing for my historical debut, Death of a Flying Nightingale, Thursday, Oct. 10, at Capital Books on K, 1011 K St., Sacramento, CA, 95821.
Inspired by true events, this WWII novel—dubbed “riveting and affecting” by NYT bestselling author Susan Elia MacNeal—shines a spotlight on an overlooked group of courageous women heroes (some as young as seventeen) that history has forgotten.