All the news in fits of print!

I met with my (fun, funny and savvy) publisher, Karen Syed, last week and found out Freezer Burn will be officially released in September 2009. But wait, there’s more: we will have a pre-release launch party in July! I’m very excited, especially since I know just where to have it – the Backs Building at Kraemer Park. Why there? Because I can rent it for, like, fifty bucks, and it’s where the first body is discovered. Cool, huh?

So, I’ll have my big launch party in the building (I’m still thinking of creative ways to work murder, mayhem and Dean Martin music into the soiree), then I’ll invite my friends back to my house to truly enjoy Peri’s weakness for dirty martinis… and their weaknesses for beer, wine, and munchies!

Then I’ll pack up some books and head to the Gray Eagle Lodge, where I will do an event at the Lodge. Why there? Because the bartender, Mark Tieslau, suggested a dirty martini as Peri’s favorite drink. It was a perfect suggestion, in that karmic-soprano-chorus way: Peri used to have a housecleaning business, so she likes clean houses and dirty martinis. Score, yes?

In the meantime, Peri’s life as a housekeeper, and her subsequent career change, are chronicled in a short story, “Cleaning up at the Franks”, which has been included in an anthology, MISSING, from Echelon Press.

This anthology includes short stories by a lot of really good authors, and all the proceeds from the sale of this book go to benefit the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. You see, in addition to being a savvy businesswoman, Karen wants to give back to the community, so each year she finds a charity that will allow us to advertise that we’re raising money for them by publishing an anthology in their honor. Last year’s THE HEAT OF THE MOMENT benefitted the families who were affected by the San Diego wildfires. This year we’re trying to help the people who find the lost. Click here to buy a copy – you’ll get to meet Peri!

Just to give you a teaser, here’s the opening sentence:

Either Grant was getting better with his aim, or he hadn’t been using this toilet for at least two days.

 

There. Now you’ve gotta figure out who Grant is and why he can’t concentrate long enough to pee in a bowl.

 

Gotta run, children. Much to do!

And, in related news…

By mid-July, I had a severe case of the “antsies”. I kept working on other stories, writing my columns, but a little voice in the back of my head kept whining that it wanted to get started on edits for the book, wanted a release date, wanted something, dammit.

I sent an email to Karen, hoping to sound casual about “just checking in” and wondering “if there’s anything I can do to help” and a lot of smoke and mirrors that really just meant, “I need dates and action plans.”

Here’s what she sent as a reply:

How fast could you write a short story? 5000 words.

Huh? How was that even relevant to what I’d asked?

It wasn’t. Karen was putting together an anthology of stories about missing persons to profit the John Walsh Center for Missing and Exploited Children. So, no royalties/advance/$$ for this, but a chance to be charitable with my words, and to appear in a book with the likes of J.A. Konrath and Michele Scott. How could I resist?

I wrote a short story with my main character, Peri, back when she had her housecleaning business. It was a good way to introduce her, as well as to establish how she became a P.I.

Missing! will debut at Bouchercon, the mystery writer’s convention, to be held in Baltimore, MD, on October 9-12, 2008.