Scone Cold Dead is almost here… and here’s the gorgeous cover of the ninth Gray Whale Inn mystery! If you haven’t joined the Readers’ Circle yet and missed May’s update, here’s a sneak peek of Chapter One… I hope you enjoy it!

In this installment, Natalie Barnes is living her dream life, creating scrumptious scone recipes and relishing cool summer days on quaint Cranberry Island, Maine… until she stumbles across a dead body tucked under the blueberry bushes.

Could the killer be one of her artsy out-of-town guests?

Or will the murderer turn out to be uncomfortably close to home?

I had lots of fun visiting with the folks on Cranberry Island, as always… and figuring out which scone recipes I wanted to include.  I’m including one of the recipes from the book, for Nat’s Sunburst Blueberry Lemon Scones; I hope it transports you to the Gray Whale Inn kitchen! You can preorder the e-book on Amazon now.  Scone Cold Dead will be available on Nook and Kobo as well as Kindle, and for those of you who love paper, never fear… the paperback will be available on release day.

I’m contributing a Dewberry Farm Christmas story called SLAY BELLS RING to Six Merry Little Murders, a Christmas bundle including five other well-known cozy authors.  It will be out in October, and is a great way to try out some fun new cozy authors if you haven’t already discovered them.  You can check the bundle out and pre-order it here! (Pre-order for Kindle will be available in July.)

In other news, Child #1 is briefly home this summer after a super-successful second year at college.  For the first time, though, she has had to coordinate her move herself, and has decided adulting is not her favorite activity.  (I totally agree.)

Child #2 survived his junior year of high school and has turned completely nocturnal, with only brief forays to the kitchen to microwave Trader Joe’s comestibles in the dead of night.  (I know this because I find the empty wrappers on the counter in the morning.)  I suspect this is going to make getting up at 7:30 to be a robotics camp counselor an interesting experience next week.  Ha, ha, ha! I can’t wait.

And how have I procrastinated? Why, by redoing my porch.  Here’s a pic; I love sitting out there with my coffee in the morning and thinking about the story I’m working on.  And because they’re Adirondack chairs, I can pretend I’m in New England!

On the writing front, I’m working on Wicked Harvest, the sixth Dewberry Farm mystery, which is set around Oktoberfest in Buttercup.  It should be out in September; I’m hoping to have the pre-order up at the end of July.  And with any luck, I’ll be launching a new series at the end of the year, too… stay tuned for details!

Hope this summer is off to a good start for you, and that you have lots of good reading material, free time, refreshing drinks, and a cozy place to curl up.  If you haven’t, please come join me on Facebook for regular updates; and follow me on Bookbub to get pre-order and new release alerts!