Author: Cindy

I'm irritated because my posts won't publish.

I Resolve To…Murder

By Wendy Robertsroberts_pic

I’m not great at setting New Year’s resolutions. Actually, it’s the keeping of the resolutions where I fail. I can always lose a few pounds (okay, more than a few) and exercise more (okay, start exercising), and be less of a control freak (okay, maybe I can’t be less controlling).

However, there is one resolution I’ve managed to keep year after year. I kill people. Sure, it’s only on paper but that anger has to start somewhere, right? So if you cut me off in traffic, annoy me in the check-out line, tackle my son during a football game, or give me a bad review…well, chances are good you’re going to die. I apologize. Really I do. But, in my roberts_dead_and_kickingworld, that’s just the way it is.

Writing a series that involves crime scene cleanup means having to come up with dead people on a regular basis, and I have to admit that I enjoy this part of my job immensely. Even though the names have been changed to protect the guilty, I get real joy from releasing a little tension with a little murder.

Do you have any stress left over from the holidays? How do you work off the tension?

Thanks to Cindy for inviting me to blog. In addition to my latest release, DEAD AND KICKING, I’m pleased to offer the first in the series, REMAINS OF THE DEAD, to a winner who posts a comment.

Happy New Year!

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Leave a comment or question for Wendy to enter to win DEAD AND KICKING and REMAINS OF THE DEAD. If you’re reading Wendy’s post through a feed on Facebook, Goodreads, or another social network, please visit the comment trail at Muse Interrupted to be eligible for the draw.

To read Wendy’s bio and the back cover blurb for DEAD AND KICKING, please see yesterday’s post. To learn more about Wendy and her books, check out her website.

Wendy Roberts Guest Blogs Tomorrow!

Mystery author Wendy Roberts visits the blog tomorrow with her own take on New Year’s resolutions…and it’s pretty murderous, let me tell you. Wendy is giving away a copy of DEAD AND KICKING, the third in her GhostDusters series. As a bonus, she’s also giving away the first in the series, REMAINS OF THE DEAD.

About DEAD AND KICKING:

Sadie Novak cleans up crime scenes for a living, and often finds herself face-to-face with the dead. Blessed – or cursed – with the gift of second sight, she can’t seem to finish a job without being visited by an earthbound spirit.

Sadie’s going through a tough time. When her dad passes away, she’s left to juggle her widowed mother, her lying boyfriend, Zack, her struggling business – and the fact that her father’s spirit is reluctant to move on. Now, on top of all that, Zack’s former flame hires Sadie to dig out the home of her hoarder mother … and that’s when things get messy.

Sadie finds some unexpected things in the cluttered house – including the mummified remains of an infant, along with a very angry ghost who seems determined to keep Sadie away. Then, aided by a team of her fellow psychics, she unearths something even more terrifying: a host of secrets that someone will kill to keep buried.

About Wendy:roberts_pic

Wendy Roberts is the author of Penguin’s Ghost Dusters series. She resides in the Pacific Northwest with her four children, a sluggish guinea pig and an adorable Yorkshire terrier. She happily writes about murder and is hard at work on her next novel.

You can visit Wendy’s website at www.wendyroberts.com.

“Evil Landlady” Arrested for Fraud

Check out this article about the woman who tried to fleece Eldest Son last summer (I referred to her on this blog as Evil Landlady). He got his deposit back—only after we tracked her down at her house in September. Sounds like he was one of the lucky ones. He also helped another student get that student’s deposit back.

He was told a different story than the one cited in the article. He’d arranged to rent a room on her main floor, not the 2-bedroom suite in the lower level. She asked for half a month’s deposit, which was provided, then later told him the room had been ruined in a fire while she was out of town. Events similar to those cited in the story ensued, down to the “friend” contacting E.S. to say E.L. was traumatized by the fire, lost her cell phone, and the latest we heard before my husband and E.S. showed up on her doorstep was that she’d moved to a different town. Not!

Ah, karma.

Pop In, Pop Out

Of my blog, that is.

Two quick things.

  1. I received an unexpected (unsolicited) “manuscript submission opportunity,” shall we say, so I’ll be scarce around the blog until mid-January. Keep checking back, but if I’m only posting once or twice a week, you’ll know why.
  2. Mystery author Wendy Roberts is my first guest blogger of 2010. Wendy’s blogging next Wednesday, January 6th, and is giving away not only her December 2009 release, DEAD AND KICKING, but also the first in her Ghost Dusters series, THE REMAINS OF THE DEAD. Her promo post is going up Tuesday, January 5th. This is just a heads-up so you know when to come back.

Procter-King……….out!

Green Christmas

We had a green Christmas for the first time I can remember. We’ve nearly had a green Christmas at least twice before. I distinctly remember one year back when I was around ten, or eight, or twelve (hey, it was a long time ago, the memory’s rusty) when it didn’t snow until Christmas day. And then it snowed dump trucks on us! I was so happy. Of course, I didn’t have to drive in it.

Same thing happened about a decade ago. No snow until my brother and sisters had to brave the roads for Christmas dinner at my house. Then—kablooey. Tons of snow.

I know other areas of North America are getting pummeled with the chilly white stuff as I type. Is your part of the continent white or green?

Oh, before I forget, congratulations to Lisa G., who won the Super Secret Santa Give-Away on Nobody Writes It Better! My romantic comedy, BORROWING ALEX, was included in the give-away. I’ll get the book in the mail to you this week.

Thanks to everyone who entered. I hear we had a good turn-out, which means we’ll hopefully hold another give-away next year.

Christmas Fun with the ‘007s

I’m blogging at Nobody Writes It Better today…about cats and Christmas trees. I even wrote a Christmas cat poem! Hop on over to read it.

Today’s the last day of the Super Secret Santa Give-Away over at Nobody Writes It Better as well. Click here to learn how to enter. Barbara Wallace is drawing the winner’s name later today, and Gail Fuller will announce the winner on the NWIB blog tomorrow.

Merry Christmas, everyone!