The Authorized Version

I’m playing a new game called blog tag today I’m "it"! I was invited by the lovely Stacy Juba who included my essay in her ebook 25 Years in the Rearview Mirror, 52 Authors Look Back http://ning.it/OxPZSt If you enjoy magazine columns and Chicken Soup for the Soul books, then you're sure to enjoy our collection of essays, designed to warm your heart, raise your spirits and compel you to examine your own life. Read about school days, quirky jobs, romance, raising a family, hard times, the writing journey, and find out what makes your favorite characters tick.

Stacy tagged me on her blog about her Next Big Thing. You can read about her YA hockey book Face-Off here: http://ning.it/QwEDoj

And now, for my Next Big Thing

I’m very excited to announce the upcoming release of a new book in my Lord Danvers Victorian True-Crime series: A Tincture of Murder.

As with all the Lord Danvers books, A Tincture of Murder recounts a true crime from Victorian England with a fictional murder woven around it. This gives Charles and Antonia, Lord and Lady Danvers, plenty to work on. And in this case you get a bonus because A Tincture of Murder contains two true crimes.

The setting is the lovely city of York in 1856. But it isn’t all elegant dinner parties and balls for Lady Antonia this time. A fire has devastated Lord Danver's ancestral home forcing him to reconsider his younger brother's appeal for help— no matter how absurd it might be for an Earl's son to take Holy Orders and insist on actually living in his parish. Freddie is in trouble and family honor is at stake.

When Charles and Antonia arrive in York— by his favorite mode of transportation, a hot air balloon— even worse news awaits them. The young cleric has opened an Asylum for Poor, Degraded Females in one of the worst slums of York. Antonia is quickly drawn into helping feed the starving women and look after the destitute children who come to The Magdalen House for refuge. But what of the women who have died there under strange circumstances? Can the asylum survive when news of these deaths spreads?

Along with the entire city of York Charles and Antonia are swept into the riveting disclosures of the trial of William Dove where legal principles that still affect trials a century and a half later are debated. Questions that must inevitably lead to solving the deaths plaguing The Magdalen House— are these natural causes or is an insane poisoner at large in York? Perhaps even among Charles and Antonia's own acquaintances?

Readers who love the gritty portrayals of Victorian London in Ann Perry’s William Monk mysteries will be fascinated to visit similar circumstances in York with the charming Lord and Lady Danvers.

A Tincture of Murder, In the meantime, here’s a truly sneak peak at what the cover might look something like— but I’ve been assured Lord Danvers will not have a five o’clock shadow. Hardy would give his notice: 

To read about the earlier books in the series, please go to the books section of my website http://ning.it/M9Ws6V and scroll down.                                                                                                  

Ilene Schneider will be talking about Unleavened Dead, the next in her Rabbi Aviva Cohen series http://rabbiauthor.com

Becky Carey Lyles has a new book coming out following her most successful Winds of Wyoming

Which she’ll be telling us about at http://www.widgetwords.wordpress.com

And the best-selling Kathi Macias always has exciting things in store, including a new Christmas novel http://kathimacias.com/category/easy-writer/