June 2026
Dale Berry – This month, I am launching my new ebook: Bullets & Balloons: Crime, Culture and Comic Book History. Based on my MWA NorCal columns (and much cajoling from fellow MWA members) this expanded work now includes both art and information not found in the original articles.
Cover Design by our own Karen Phillips of Phillips Covers. Formatting by Mysti Berry, featuring cool interactive links and image enlargement. Available from Kobo, Direct2Digital, Kindle, AppleBooks/iTunes, BookVault and all the usual suspects. Visit here, and click on “Bullets and Balloons” to order and find out more! Woo Hoo!
Ted Haynes – On June 19 (Juneteenth) I will launch my sixth murder mystery, The Simulated Plantation – A Connecticut Engineer in the Antebellum. My heroine, Cory, a young Black computer programmer, is trapped in a super realistic simulation of an 1860 Cotton Plantation. Can she pull off pretending to be a white male algebra tutor while secretly improving the lives of the slaves? When a beautiful slave woman is murdered, can Cory identify the killer before the killer turns on her?
Booklife by Publishers Weekly says “(An) immersive story confronts injustice through lived experience… The disparities between Cory’s 21st century life and 1860 Alabama are vivid…(Cory) experiences profound awakenings.”
Gordon Jack – I am celebrating the release of my first cozy mystery, Poppy Montgomery Gets Even, publishing June 9, 2026 from Mysterious Press.
Eighty-year-old Poppy Montgomery has always taken a negative view of her life. Her father? A bully. Her husbands? Losers. Her daughter and grandson? Well, they’re probably her fault. And now the police have taken away her license, her daughter wants to put her in a retirement home, and the bossy new fitter-than-thou attendee at water aerobics is taking over her favorite class.
But enough is enough, and when her new friend, Ginny, is scammed on a dating site for seniors, Poppy decides it’s time to finally get even. With the help of Jeremy, her tech-savvy grandson, Poppy launches a vindictive little caper, scamming the scammers that prey on the elderly online. But when two women at Ginny’s retirement home seemingly meet unnatural ends and her newest target is implicated in the murder, suddenly Poppy’s fun online con job becomes a matter of life or death. It’s going to take the whole gang—Poppy’s two new best friends, her in-recovery daughter, and her basement-dwelling grandson—to pull off one last job, before one of them becomes the next victim.
A charmingly cozy crime story brimming with laughs and heart, Poppy Montgomery Gets Even shows that it’s never too late to turn over a new leaf, make new friends, and scam an international crime ring while solving some murders along the way.
James L’Etoile – On June 17, I will present a workshop to the Gold Country Writers on The Writer’s Toolkit: Building a Successful Book, with tips to take an author from that messy first draft to the bookstore shelves. I will offer strategies on where to start, editing, social media, author branding, agent, contracts, and the query process. The meeting is open to the public and will be held at Auburn City Hall—Rose Room, 1225 Lincoln Way, Auburn, CA 95603.
On June 23, I will join the Lincoln Public Library’s Summer Writing Program to present a workshop on Creating Short Stories. The library’s Summer Youth Writing Contest provides young writers with an opportunity to create a short story for possible publication in the library’s anthology. This year’s theme is The Plot Thickens. Here is a link to the writing contest rules and submission guidelines.
Rob Osler – I will discuss my USA Today Bestselling second novel in the Harriet Morrow Investigates series, The Case of the Murdered Muckraker, at San Francisco’s Main Library on June 9. More info
Rob Swigart – The Rune Harmonic, fourth in my Lisa Emmer series, was released on Amazon April 7, 2026.