Katherine's Book Backyard

All the Books!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 03 Dec 2024 17:42:00 +0000

I was lucky enough to have parents who read to me and who prioritized having books in the home because they were readers too. (My mother was an insomniac, and read a mystery a night. My father favored history and biographies. My brother is a huge reader, fiction, non-fiction, it doesn't matter.

I am a huge fan of libraries because even with an allowance, I couldn't buy all the books I wanted to read as a kid. I loved going to the library. One or the other of my parents took us every week and I've had a library card since I was old enough to write my name with one of those chubby pencils. My parents also had a very laid-back attitude toward content. If I COULD read it, I could read it, if you know what I mean. When my high school required permission slips for my honors history class to read William Styron's Confessions of Nat Turner, they signed the slip without thinking twice.

Styron was a graduate of Duke University, as am I, and in my freshman or sophomore year, he came to the school and read to us from his work in progress, which turned out to be Sophie's Choice. I don't remember that much about the evening, just that the prose was so clean and clear and sexy without being pornographic. I was already thinking about being a writer--or rather, making a living as a writer--and I was thrilled to be in the presence of "a real writer," even though my own mother made a living as a columnist for one of the local papers.

I like to give books as presents. And I like to give money to organizations that support literacy and reading.

If you have a young child, you probably know about (the awesome) Dolly Parton project Imagination Library. Her foundation provides a free book a month for children up to the age of five. She created the foundation in honor of her father, who was "the smartest man she knew" but unable to read, which kept him from achieving his dreams. You can sign up for the program here. (It's not just in the US, but in the UK, Canada, the Republic of Ireland, and Australia.

Everybody's favorite actor/literacy advocate, LeVar Burton has just launched a Kickstarter campaign to reboot the beloved PBS show Reading Rainbow. (Not everyone is a fan, see crankypants Washington Post article here) and it's gotten a lot of buzz. You can even get a cool t-shirt. Here's the link to the kidkstarter campaign if you want to read the pitch and/or donate.

Haymarket Books has a program they call Books Not Bars and aims to get books (they publish) into the hands of people incarcerated this holiday season. But there ae also organizations that work to provide books for prisoners that come from all kinds of publishers. The rules are pretty strict. Holy books of all faiths are always welcome, as are books like dictionaries. How-to-draw books are regularly requested. Here's a good article posted by the PDX organization that provides books.

Welcome to the giving season!!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 01 Dec 2024 12:27:00 +0000

have reached the point in my life where I really don't need anything. Books are always welcome, gift certificates for massages and facials are appreciated, and I never say no to a box of chocolates. But I love it when people give gifts in my name, particularly when they know the causes I support. I'm for feeding hungry people. I support literacy. I think science is important. I read banned books. I believe we're in a climate crisis.

If you're looking for a gift for that hard-to-buy-for person, here are my go-tos.

Organizations that feed people.

Jose Andres' World Central Kitchen. If there's a natural disaster or a humanitarian disaster and people are hungry, Jose and his team are there. Charity Navigator rates it 4/4 (100%) in all categories.

Meals on Wheels provides meals for seniors and it's a godsend. Charity Navigator rates individual programs and they consistently score in the mid-90s to 100%.

Project Angel Food provides medically tailored meals for those facing critical and life-threatening illnesses. Charity Nasvigator gives them a 100% rating.

All for Lunch works to end school lunch debt and donations pay off that debt so everyone can get a lunch that doesn't consist of "sunbutter" sandwiches. Charity Navigator has not yet rated.

Stuff Your Ereader: Witch Edition

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 30 Nov 2024 13:56:00 +0000

Free books--who doesn't like them? Get them here.

Paranormal romance of all sorts, including the first in Kat Parrish's Ostrander Witches series, Deus Ex Magical. DEM is a short, sweet read (with a tiny little bit of spice) and it was a ton of fun to write. It takes place in Seattle (where I've been) and Martinique (where I'd like to go.)

I love these "stuff your ereader" events because they feel like going on a shopping binge except there are no credit card purchases to pay off down the road. Instant gratification and more books to read.

All the books have witches in them. Check them out here.

A holiday for one?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 29 Nov 2024 17:50:00 +0000

This is the cover for the story I wrote for the Gingerbread Kisses collection. In the anthology, the story is called "A Holiday for One" becuase my brain kept auto-filling every time I had to fill out a form or turn in the manuscript. In the blurb, the story is credited to Katherine Tomlinson instead of Katherine Moore, my USAT bestselling author alter ego, which is sort of annoying, although the name is correct in the book itself.

This is the first time I've done "vector" covers for my Christmas stories and I'm pleased with the cover. It's one of a series I've written in a new location--Silver Springs, Colorado. I expect there to be about two dozen stories set in that world. I still love Silver Birch, Washinton, but I wanted to play around in a new location. I'm hoping my readers will fall in love with the new location and the new cast of characters and the new stories I'm telling. They'll all be written around the holidays, beginning with the winter holidays (New Year's Day, Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day) and divided by season. I have a special fondness for Halloween and Christmas, so expect a lot of stories set in fall and at the end of the year.

Let the holiday season commence!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 29 Nov 2024 11:08:00 +0000

Gingerbread Kisses

And what better way to begin than with a Black Friday-Cyber Monday sale on this collection of sweet holiday romances (with gingerbread a common theme because who doesn't like gingerbread?)

I'm particularly fond of the gingerbread cake form, which I always made with a combination of molasses and honey, which I thought made it especially tasty. And a ton of ginger. Because there is no such thing as too much ginger. My mother always made a lovely, luscious lemon sauce to drizzle over the cake, but I've been known to make cream cheese frosting with bits of crystalized ginger chopped up in it. But it's great plain.

The story I wrote for this collection is A Holiday For One? It's centered on one of my favorite themes, which is found family. My parents died when I was pretty young and my younger brother, who lives a continent away, is a Grinch. He and my SiL are always traveling to some warm place at Christmas, so I haven't celebrated with him since we were both at the kids' table at our grandmother's. So I've been one of the orphans and strays at friends' tables, and hosted a few holiday parties myself, including one epic one that my neighbors talked about for years!!

Expect more Christnas stories for me as December unrolls. I have two stories in another anthology that's coming up. But for now--Check out Gingerbread Kisses for 99 cents. Get Gingerbread Kisses here.

Fantasy writers unite for those impacted by Hurricane Helene.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 10 Oct 2024 17:54:00 +0000

Over 1,000 pages of romantasy!

In the heart of the storm, love shines its brightest.

Of Storms and Stardust is a collection of over 30 enchanting fantasy romance short stories and novellas, where beloved tropes ignite the imagination—engagement balls, enemies turned lovers, slow-burn romances, and destined fates. From forbidden love and second chances to cozy fairy tale retellings and trials of destiny, each tale offers a spark of hope and heart.

100% of proceeds will support those impacted by Hurricane Helene, reminding us that even in the fiercest storms, love and community can weather anything.

You can find the anthology here.

Cinderella stories--a new collection

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 12 Aug 2024 10:41:00 +0000

Do you like "Cinderella" stories?

Here are three very different takes on the beloved fairytale, two with a modern spin and one that's straight up romantasy.

Fashionista--set in present-day Chicago

Midnight Princess--set in modern France

Bride of the Midnight King--set in a mythical land run by vampires.

Three empowered women who just need a little magic to make their dreams come true. The romance is a bonus!

Collected for the first time--these retellings of a beloved fairytale were fun to write, and will--I hope--be fun to read.

The collection is part of a series of retellings that includes Three Beauties (Beauty & the Beast) and coming soon, Three Dreamers (Sleeping Beauty) and Three Towers (Rapunzel). The books join my stand-alone retellings, The Road Past Winter (East of the Sun and West of the Moon), and Wolf Bride (a romantasy version of Red Riding Hood).

I was lucky to snag the cover from Sharon Brownlie of Aspire Book Covers. I've bought a lot of covers from her in the past in all the genres I write, and this one fit the mood of the collection perfectly.

You can find Three Dancers here. It's free on KU.

Don't worry, it's just saffron

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 02 Aug 2024 12:29:00 +0000

When you're a cook, but you also write cozy mysteries, sometimes you can't help but look at your ingredients and see something that someone else might not see.

I was making a Persian sweet a friend is fond of, a recipe that begins with a simple syrup of saffron, sugar, and water. (As you can imagine, I don't make this often. A TINY bit of saffron cost me about $11 and while the recipe didn't need much (1/4 of a teaspoon), there was barely enough for a second batch later.

I dissolved the saffron in hot water first, and then dumped it into the pan with the sugar. And this is what it looked like. And my first thought was that it looked a lot like blood on snow. Because that's how my mind works.

And that got me thinking about the first time I wondered what the freezing point of blood was. I was writing a story for my own amusement in high school and it was pre-Internet. So I did what I always did when I was stuck on a question--I called the reference librarian at my local library. And I asked her at what temperature blood froze.

There was a LONG pause but she didn't ask me why I wanted to know. I've since talked to retired librarians who've told me some of the questions they got, questions that made mine look completely normal.

Which got me thinking. do many people want to know the freeze point of blood? So I googled it. Here's the first answer I found, which is pretty thorough. Surprisingly, blood has a lower freezing point than water. Interestingly, because we're often taught that our blood is very similar chemically to seawater, seawater freezes at 28.4 F, wchich is almost6 three degrees lower than the freezing point of blood. Just in case you were ever curious.

Interview with Kaye George, multi-genre author and extremely interesting person

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 29 Mar 2024 00:45:00 +0000

I have never met Kaye George in person but I feel like I've known her forever. We came close to meeting a few years ago when I was in Tennessee, not too far from where she lives, but somehow it never happened. She did me the favor of writing a story for a charity anthology I edited and was thrilled when she asked me to submit to an anthology of eclipse stories she was putting together to coincide with the total eclipse. (Day of the Dark). When she asked me to contribute to this year's follow-up, Dark of the Day, I was extremely honored. She asked me back!!! And by the way, Dark of the Day is available in both ebook and paperback on April 1.) Almost every time I talk to her, I find out something new and interesting. And she posts the best memes! So, I wanted to introduce you to her and her work. And she graciously answered my questions the week before Dark of the Day goes live.

Kaye George is an Agatha nominated novelist and short story writer. She is the author of the Imogene Duckworthy Mystery series (Agatha nomination for best first novel), Eine Kleine Murder by Barking Rain Press (Silver Falchion Award finalist), Death in the Time of Ice (People of the Wind #1) (Agatha nominee and Silver Falchion finalist) and the Fat Cat Mystery series by Berkley Prime Crime (as Janet Cantrell).

Kaye has been a janitor in a tractor factory, a mental health center secretary, a waitress many times, a bookkeeper, and a short order cook. She's also been a mainframe computer programmer and a nurse's aide along the way.

She is also a world traveler, Wordle enthusiast, violinist, composer, arranger, as well as a parent and grandparent. She attended Northwestern University where she met her husband Cliff and married him the final week of their senior year. His postings took them all over the country, including to Minnetonka, MN, which she says is her favorite. She lost Cliff in 2017 to Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases in 2017.

How did you end up taking violin lessons? Did someone in your family play? Did you play on a family heirloom?

My parents were too poor to afford music lessons, but my dad was adamant that all his kids were going to get lessons. We all started on piano. Then, in 4th grade, string instrument lessons were offered to us through the school. My mother had bought a violin in Los Angeles when she was whiling away the hours waiting for me to be born. She was also working as a nurse at the Good Samaritan. She never learned to play it, but there it was, so I used that for the first few years. Neither of my parents were very musical, but my brothers both learned piano, then other instruments: sax, guitar, trombone, drums.

One of my grandchildren is incredibly gifted, musically. He can hear anything, then sit at the piano and play it. He’s also playing violin and trumpet. They all at least can read music and play piano.

My daughter, a clarinet player in high school, and recorder later, took up violin, viola, AND cello during the pandemic. It’s awfully hard to learn those instruments later in life, but she’s giving it a go and doing very well.

You’re not onhly a violinist (like Sherlock Holmes) but a composer and arranger. Have you ever used that knowledge in your books? Do you play regularly? Keep your hand in composing and/or arranging?

Yes! You’re forgiven for not knowing about those books, since the publisher went out of business a few years ago. I recently finished the third book in my Cressa Carraway Musical Mystery series. I wrote the first two quite a few years ago, and they’ve been out of print for ages. But White City Press, a publisher I recently signed a big contract with, is bringing the first two and this new third one out soon. My main character is a composer, a conductor, and a keyboardist.

They will be called Song of Death, Requiem for Red, and Swan Song.

Nobody’s a native Californian, but you are. Where were you born?

I was born in the Good Samaritan Hospital on Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles. My dad used to say I was born in the City of Angels in the Golden State. It sounded so romantic to me! My mother told me she saw all kinds of stars there, Bing Crosby and Bob Hope, I think. But I only lived there for three months, so don’t remember any of it. Although my Aunt Kathryn, the aunt who took nieces and nephews on grand road trips in the summers, drove me there when I was ten, from Illinois, where we lived. It was my first time seeing the Pacific Ocean, and everything else between there and Illinois.

What did you study at Northwestern? How did you meet Cliff?

I ended up in Russian studies, wanting to be an interpreter.

You mean our first date? That was…odd. He had gone to school with one of my roommates and had a crush on her, but she was pinned to another guy. One night, Nancy, who had also gone to their high school (in the Chicago suburbs), was at our apartment and said she wanted to see Mary Poppins and would I go with her. She was pinned to a guy at another college, and Cliff was supposed to be looking after her, so she suggested that he come to.

I said, I don’t really know him. So I wasn’t sure. Then she came up with this wacky idea for us to take him on a date. We picked him up, sat on either side of him at the movie and both held his hand, then we both kissed him goodnight after we walked him back to him apartment.

I thought to myself, that was really dumb. I’m never see him again. He called the next weekend and we started dating after that.

We got married on campus during finals week our senior year and he went into the Air Force. This was during Vietnam.

Minnetonka sounds like where Rocky and Bullwinkle are from. Why was it your favorite of your postings?

I was just talking to my Knoxville son the other night about all my kids moving to Minnesota so we be closer, as I often do. I now have kids and grandkids in Texas, Tennessee, Virginia (DC), and even one in Spain. He brought up the mosquitoes and the cold. But I love it there. It feels like home. Maybe because I’m a large part Scandinavian. Also, because mosquitoes don’t bite me.

Kaye is a member of Sisters in Crime, the online Guppies chapter, as well as the Smoking Guns Knoxville TN chapter, which she helped organize. She served the Guppies as treasurer, then president for a two-year term. If you're not familiar, it is an online chapter of Sisters in Crime devoted to assisting and supporting unpublished and newly published mystery writers.

Tell me about your work with the SinC “Guppies” group. Did you have mentors yourself?

I owe my role as a published author to that group! I love the Guppies! (They DID teach me about overusing exclamation points, but I don’t always do what I’m supposed to.) I have many mentors within that group, and a few from my time in a critique group in Austin, Texas, as well as everyone in a close-knit email group of seven. Kathy Waller, from that TX group, is a reader for me. I used to exchange manuscripts with Jan Christensen, but she suddenly passed away recently. I miss her a lot!

Your latest anthology, Dark of the Day, comes out April first, just in time for the total eclipse. Will you be able to see it?

Oh yes, I’m not missing that! I’m flying to Austin and we’ll drive to the house of a good friend of my son and daughter-in-law for the event. They live in Dripping Springs and will get a good view of the totality. I ordered new eclipse glasses and a T-shirt for the day!

The 2017 total eclipse came here, to Knoxville! Most of my family gathered on my son’s front lawn and had a perfect view. And the most eerie experience of our lives.

I’ve always been interested in the stars and planets, and all that stuff up there. I subscribe to Earth and Sky (https://earthsky.org/) to keep up with astronomy things. I think I learned of them on NPR where they used to broadcast a segment regularly. It was automatic to want to support them with the proceeds of the anthology. But I can’t recall why I decided to do that first one, Day of the Dark. Someone talked me into it, I’m sure. I also quickly found a publisher.

I swore I would never do another one, but I remember who talked me into it this time: Joseph S. Walker. He also got the publisher interested, Lance Wright, at Down and Out Books.

What inspired the People of the Wind (Neanderthal) mystery series?

I’ve always loved rocks and fossils. A friend in high school took me on a fossil-hunting trip very close to home once, with her parents, who were into that. I found a gorgeous trilobite and I was hooked! I’ve collected rocks and fossils my whole life. Once, when we were moving, a mover picked up a box and asked, “What’s in here, rocks?” Um yes, that box (and a few more) was full of my rocks.

My interest in Neanderthals stemmed from the mapping of a genome in 2010. Many new facts about them were uncovered and I was hooked. Completely hooked. I wanted a way to present these remarkable people closer to the way they were, rather than the conventional club-wielding brute who dragged women by the hair. The books were murder mysteries, just because that what I’ve learned how to write. I believe there was one other Neanderthal mystery published when I started these. I read it and it portrayed them as the usual dopes. For a long time, I think mine was the only Neanderthal murder mystery series. Maybe it still is. And new discoveries continue to be made about them.

Your website is elegant and functional. Did you put it together yourself?

That’s so nice to hear! Yes, I love doing stuff like that. A left-over from my computer programmer days. I used to be a mainframe programmer for a living, and like to dabble in PCs for a hobby. They are NOT the same! I learned HTML and did my first one from scratch. I use the WIX interface now. Much easier.

Was Cliff your alpha reader? Now that you've been a widowed, have you ever "written your grief" as mystery writer Louise Penny has?

One of the major design flaws I will complain about if I ever talk to the designer, is that men don’t usually live nearly as long as women do. I’m sure there are a lot of lonely women who wish they still had a spouse. Not that men don’t lose their partners, too, but I have only experienced my own version.

No, he never read my stuff. But he encouraged me to do my writing every step of the way. He sometimes gave me suggestions when I talked to him about plot and characters, but they…well, they weren’t very good.

The way I wrote my grief, after two grief support groups and so very, very much help from friends and relatives, was to pay that help forward. I put together a booklet that contains the ideas and thoughts that comforted me, that got me through the first ragged year or so. I list it online as cheaply as I possibly can, and also give a lot of them away. It’s published as an e-book and as a paperback. (Handbook for the Widowed).

And some silly questions

Do you have any pets?

I’m petless after a life of many cats and dogs, and a few fish, turtles, one bird, some newts, and probably some others. This is kinda gross, but I’ve told my kids, when they say I should get a cat or a dog, that I am now officially done with pee and poop. I sure draw on the ones I’ve had in my writing, though.

You sometimes write cozy mysteries, a genre where many of the protagonists seem to be good cooks. Are you a good cook? What’s your favorite thing to make (or eat, if you don’t enjoy cooking?)

I don’t much like[cookin]. I love baking, but now that I live alone, I don’t do much. I can’t eat all of a cake, or pie, or batch of cookies. I love chocolate, because I’m human. At this stage, I like anything that comes in a small serving size and doesn’t take a lot of prep.

What’s your favorite scent?

Lavender! I have lavender hand lotion and bath salts, and luxuriate in the smell.

You lived in Texas a while. What’s your take on Dr. Pepper?

A hard, hard yes! Dr Pepper is the nectar of the gods. (I agree, although I once heard the flavor described as carbonated prune juice and I can never quite get that out of my mind.)

Coffee or tea?

Tea, just because coffee has always upset my tummy. That shouldn’t happen, since I’m a large part Swede and they drink a ton of it. I’ve lived on ice tea for years, but I suspect it hasn’t done my chronic cough much good, so I’ve cut way back.

Do you follow sports?

Not really. I like to watch hockey and like the Dallas Stars and the Minnesota Twins, since we lived there. We had season tickets to the minor league hockey team in Wichita Falls. Those games were very fun!

And what’s next?

After the eclipse anthology Dark of the Day?

I have a suspense novel coming out from Rowan Prose Publishing! That genre is a complete departure for me, but I love to read it, so had to give it a try.

I’m presently working on another cozy series with a cat. This cat is telepathic and named Velma. She’s a Rag Doll, inspired by the Rag Doll, Daisy, that my son’s family recently got. Daisy and their huge chocolate lab, Henry, are working on a truce.

I can't wait--mysteries and cats are catnip to me.

Check out Kaye's website for free short stories, news of upcoming events and new releases as well as free short stories, study questions for book clubs, and links to her articles and interviews.

Read Kaye George. Here's a list of her books.

She's also had more than 50 short stories published. he first Austin Mystery Writers anthology, Murder on Wheels, which she helped organize, won a Silver Falchion at Killer Nashville. Here's where you can find her stories.

Find Kaye:

March freebie promotion!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 18 Mar 2024 14:19:00 +0000

If you're like me, your favorite four-letter word is FREE.

Here's a freebie romance promotion running for the next couple of days.

Easter Sweets List from Chef Jin!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 16 Mar 2024 14:45:00 +0000

I am a big fan of the baked goods prepared by Chef Jennifer Pasquill, an award-winning pastry chef who ives in the Pacific Northwest. We know each other in real life and are birthday twins, both of us born on September 12th. (Virgos rule!)

every year, Jennifer prepares seasonal boxes of sweets you can customize to your taste. She even has gluten-free options (this month it's a yummy coffee cake and her scrumptius candied walnuts.) There's also an "off the menu" option for a small "chef's assortment" of cookies that includes shipping for just $25.

You will not be disappointed. Everything she makes is incredible.

Here are the two lists of items, plus info you need to order. Get your Easter orders in by March 26 to meet her mailing date.

And if you're a fan of chocolate truffles (and who isn't?), this is your last chance to order them until weather gets cold again.

(There is nothing sadder than getting a box of melted chocolate you have to scrape off the waxed paper.)

She'll orovide a tracking number and put in personalized messages if you're sending the sweets as a gift. (She only ships to continental US.)

And if you're a fan of a particular sweet from a previous list, shoot her an email and ask her you can special order anything. (I'm fond of a couple of things that she only has at Christmas, but I know she bakes year 'round.

Spring!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 16 Mar 2024 12:22:00 +0000

In my parents' house, a forsythia hedge separated their back yard from one of our neighbors. It was about five feet high and in spring it was solid yellow. It was always the first thing that bloomed, always just a week or so before the pink and white dogwood trees started to blossom, and about the same time as daffodils and violets. The Pacific Northwest is pretty stunning in all the seasons, but the spring with its apple and cherry blossoms and flowers is one of the best.

Two new logos

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 11 Mar 2024 19:02:00 +0000

When I went to 20 Books to 50K in Vegas, everone seemed to have a logo--on their business cards, on their websites, even in front of their books. Everyone was talking about "branding," and it felt like if I didn't have my very own logo, I was going to be left behind.

So I went to my favorite place (Etsy) and commissioned an artist to make me two different logos. One is for my regular books--the Love is in bloom logo, and the other is specifically for my Christmas romances.

Christine Morgan made the designs (for a very fair price), and I could not be happier with them. She's a star seller and also does book covers. You can find her here.

Years ago, I read a really intersting magazine article (remember print magazines) where the writer had gone to five different people--celebrities and regular people alike--and asked them about their support system--who helped them be their best selves. then the magazine photographed them with their "entourages" and it was everything from their mailmen (who picked up packages sent out by a home business) to massage therapist. I could not exist as a

professional writer if I didn't have a small army of cover designers, my formatter Amit Dey, my various editors and beta readers and general cheerleaders. (My aunt buys all my books!!)

The entrepreneurs and artisans on Etsy and Fiverr work hard for their money and offer incredible value and deals. I could not do what I do without them.

A new series from Katherine Moore

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 10 Mar 2024 15:30:00 +0000

In addition to my Silver Birch stories, I'm starting a new collection of cozy workplace romances, all with the "enemies to lovers" trope. The series title is: Corporate women. The series kicks off with Lydia from Legal, the tale of a corporate merger and two feuding lawyers who knew each other in high school (#second chance romance) and can't deny their attraction to each other, even though they hate each other.

The series continues with Sara from Systems, Anna from Admin, Rita from R&D, Sofia from Sales, and Faye from Finance. Book Covers Online did Lydia from Legal's cover, Dawn Taylor created the follow up books.

I love vector-based covers for this type of story. I feel like they convey the tone of the story and that they're on the sweeter side of romance. (Although not always. I just read a hilarious spicy romance featuring a southern woman who is in love with a hometown boy who is definitely a bad boy. (It's called Enemies with Benefits by Roxie Noir. Check it out. Noir brings both the snark and the spice and as someone who was brought up in Virginia, the southern stuff really rings true as well. It's one of a series about a family with a bunch of interesting sounding sons.)

It's been fun plotting this series and trying to get in what it's like to work in different departments at a big corporation. Before I went freelance, I had a lot of jobs. (Back in the day, I worked as a temp. Remember Kelly Girls?) I worked at banks. I worked at utility companies. I worked at an insurance cmpany. I worked for government agencies. At one of my temp jobs, all I did, all day long, was type type up purchase orders for various different screws and bits and pieces of hardware needed to make Magnasync movieola machines (which are now virtually obsolete.) I would amuse myself by mentioning that the names of the suppliers sounded like Nordic porn magazines (Benthic Screw is the only one I can remember) and oddly, no one thought that was funny.

We got a half hour break for lunch and we started at eight in the morning. I was a long-term temp there and valued because I typed fast. But I burnt out. And when one of my coworkers was killed by a car blowing through the crosswalk on the street in front of the office, I took that as a sign to request another assignment. On the plus side, I met a woman who became one of my closest friends, so there was that.

Corporate life has changed in the details since I worked in an office, but some things have stayed the same, even in this post-pandemic age of hybrid workdays and Zoom calls. There are still managers that inside on having staff meetings when the agenda could be covered in an email message.

There are still managers who schedule those staff meetings at four o'clock on a Friday afternoon and are very surprised that no one is really paying attention.

There are still horrible "trust building" events and corporate retreats and Christmas parties (command performances, often without significant others). There's office politics. There's ... you get the idea. I think the experience is universal, and hope to make the situations fresh and funny and yes, romantic.

Pre-order now, out December 12th

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 10 Dec 2023 19:06:00 +0000

The Christmas just keeps coming!!! Katherine Moore has got a lot of Christmas stories out this season. In this anthology, she returns to Silver Birch with a story of second-chance romance, "Countdown to Christmas." You can pre-order it here.

Here's the pitch:

*ੈ✩‧₊˚༺ 𝕲𝖞𝖕𝖘𝖞 𝕻𝖚𝖇𝖑𝖎𝖘𝖍𝖎𝖓𝖌 𝕻𝖗𝖊𝖘𝖊𝖓𝖙𝖘 ༻*ੈ✩‧₊˚

*ੈ✩‧₊˚༺ 12 𝕯𝖆𝖞𝖘 𝕺𝖋 𝕮𝖍𝖗𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖒𝖆𝖘 𝕬𝖓𝖙𝖍𝖔𝖑𝖔𝖌𝖞 ༻*ੈ✩‧₊˚

𝕻𝖗𝖊𝖔𝖗𝖉𝖊𝖗 𝕹𝖔𝖜: https://books2read.com/12DaysXmas
𝕽𝖊𝖑𝖊𝖆𝖘𝖊 𝕯𝖆𝖙𝖊: 12𝖙𝖍 𝕯𝖊𝖈

𝕭𝖑𝖚𝖗𝖇
𝕮𝖍𝖗𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖒𝖆𝖘 𝖎𝖘 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖙𝖎𝖒𝖊 𝖋𝖔𝖗 𝖌𝖎𝖛𝖎𝖓𝖌 𝖆𝖓𝖉 𝖗𝖊𝖈𝖊𝖎𝖛𝖎𝖓𝖌 𝖌𝖎𝖋𝖙𝖘.

𝖂𝖍𝖆𝖙 𝖇𝖊𝖙𝖙𝖊𝖗 𝖌𝖎𝖋𝖙 𝖙𝖔 𝖚𝖓𝖜𝖗𝖆𝖕 𝖙𝖍𝖊𝖓 𝖑𝖔𝖛𝖊?

𝕮𝖍𝖗𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖒𝖆𝖘 𝖎𝖘 𝖆 𝖒𝖆𝖌𝖎𝖈𝖆𝖑 𝖙𝖎𝖒𝖊 𝖜𝖍𝖊𝖓 𝖉𝖗𝖊𝖆𝖒𝖘 𝖈𝖔𝖒𝖊 𝖙𝖗𝖚𝖊 𝖚𝖓𝖉𝖊𝖗 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖙𝖗𝖊𝖊 𝖆𝖓𝖉 𝖒𝖎𝖗𝖆𝖈𝖑𝖊𝖘 𝖍𝖆𝖕𝖕𝖊𝖓 𝖜𝖍𝖊𝖓 𝖎𝖙 𝖘𝖓𝖔𝖜𝖘.

𝕯𝖊𝖑𝖛𝖊 𝖎𝖓𝖙𝖔 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖕𝖆𝖌𝖊𝖘 𝖔𝖋 𝖘𝖙𝖔𝖗𝖎𝖊𝖘 𝖙𝖍𝖆𝖙 𝖜𝖎𝖑𝖑 𝖊𝖒𝖇𝖗𝖆𝖈𝖊 𝖞𝖔𝖚 𝖎𝖓 𝖆 𝖜𝖆𝖗𝖒 𝖍𝖚𝖌 𝖆𝖓𝖉 𝖒𝖊𝖑𝖙 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖈𝖔𝖑𝖉𝖊𝖘𝖙 𝖔𝖋 𝖍𝖊𝖆𝖗𝖙𝖘

 ⁺˚⋆｡°✩  ✸ 𝚂𝚝𝚘𝚛𝚒𝚎𝚜 ✸ 𝚏𝚛𝚘𝚖: ✸ 𝙺𝚎𝚕𝚕𝚢 ✸ 𝙺𝚎𝚕𝚜𝚎𝚢, ✸ 𝙰 ✸ 𝙶𝚘𝚛𝚖𝚊𝚗, ✸ 𝙺𝚊𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚒𝚗𝚎 ✸ 𝙼𝚘𝚘𝚛𝚎, ✸ 𝙷𝚊𝚕𝚎𝚢 ✸ 𝚁𝚑𝚘𝚊𝚍𝚎𝚜 ✸ & ✸ 𝙲𝚕𝚊𝚛𝚒𝚌𝚎 ✸ 𝙹𝚊𝚢𝚗𝚎 ✸  ✩°｡⋆˚⁺

Available now at your favorite digital store!

And the season begins with Xmas Tales

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 24 Nov 2023 14:52:00 +0000

In my USA Today bestselling persona of Katherine Moore, I decided to go all in on the Christmas romances this year. The goal is to publish a Christmas novella every day in December. I've been writing the stories all year and I'm excited to get them out into the world.

One thing I've noticed is that certain themes keep surfacing. One is that I write a lot about family. My parents died young and I miss them. My little sister died young too, and I really miss her. We were eight years apart in age but close in sisterhood. We spent most Christmases together the last decade of her life.

I also write about heroines and their grandmothers. I was brought up in a three-generation family, with my maternal grandmother living with us for huge swathes of time while my grandfather was in and out of the nearby veterans' hospital. My grandfather was old and rather remote, but my grandmother was very much involved in our lives. And she was a character and a half. I use a bit of her and her various sisters and friends every time I write an older woman. You can purchase it here.

You can also pick up the other stories (all of them bite-sized and available on Kindle Unlimited for your reading enjoyment).

Available December 4, 2023.

A Cozy Christmas Night

Preorder here.

This is one of two divorced couples/second chance love romances on offer this Christmas. The other is Merry Christmas, Darling, which is one of my Silver Birch stories.

You can preorder that here.

Probably one of my favorite stories on preorder is Gifts for Christmas, which is a love story, but it's also about a distressed community coming together and providing a lovely winter holiday for all its citizens. This is a story that was first inspired by the loaves and fishes, but also by the children's book Stone Soup. I first learned about that book becuase it was one of the books featured on Captain Kangaroo. I've remembered it all these years.

Both my grandmothers were award-winning bakers and fine cooks, and during the holidays, they set bountiful tables. I've akways been grateful for that bounty, and as I've gotten older, I have become well aware that too many people are hungry. There are all kinds of giveaways for the holidays, and people are usually generous with their donations to food banks around the season, but people are hungry all year long. I'm lucky in that there's a tiny food pantry near me, so donating is easy. But when I have extra money, I also like to support the work of Jose Andres' World Central Kitchen.

Upgrade your romance game!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 22 Nov 2023 15:24:00 +0000

Pre-order here!

Join me for a new Silver Birch story.

As the night sky lights up with a dazzling display of fireworks, these stories of unexpected encounters, fiery connections, and smoldering attractions come together to create an unforgettable anthology of summer love.

From sweet and tender moments to passionate fireworks that will set your soul ablaze, these stories capture the essence of summer romance.

Join these Authors as they weave their tales of summer passion and feel the sparks fly off the page!

Get it today!

Authors in this Anthology:

Brigitte Ann Thomas

Vic Leigh

Katherine Moore

M Leigh Morhaime

Rae Goldman

Leanora Cowan

Rose Bak

Cecelia Conway

MacKade

Becca Turner

Sofia Aves

Britney Bell

E.S. McMillan

The best season is here...

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 06 Oct 2023 14:54:00 +0000

Magic Discovered is live!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 29 Sep 2023 11:11:00 +0000

Out Now! Available with Kindle Unlimited.

https://books2read.com/u/m2qraG

Magic has always remained hidden from the world. That's about to change.

When magic is revealed, all hell will break loose as humans try to adapt to a world of witches, the fae, orcs, and dragons. Nothing will ever be the same again as they fight for survival against powerful beings with abilities they can only imagine.

Is this the end for mankind? Or can they learn to live with magic?

Magic Discovered is a limited collection of urban fantasy and paranormal fantasy stories.

Available now at your favorite digital store!

Get it here.

Available now at your favorite digital store!

Magic Discovered by S. K. Gregory, Kat Gracey, Sarina Langer, Kat Parrish, Kat Gracey and more!

The Babbling Brook Naked Poker Club Book One by Ann Warner

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 13 Sep 2023 14:25:00 +0000

I used to facilitate a mystery book club that was primarily composed of women in their late sixties and seventies. And before we got to the book discussion each month, we often got into a discussion of what they'd suffered under the patriarchy. This book is about women in a retirement home who ALL have stories like that, and they all have pasts, sometimes dark pasts.
I loved this book and cannot wait to read the sequels. The characters are women who could be in my friends group. There's the teacher who "took care" of the bully, accidentally paralyzing him but knowing that she saved a lot of other kids pain. There's the woman who hides an original Edward Hopper painting in her room. There's the woman who took up handwriting analysis as a hobby to occupy her retirement.

TThe book is free today on Kindle.

New Urban Fantasy Coming Soon.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 26 Aug 2023 15:10:00 +0000

It was 1993 when I read my first Urban Fantasy novel and it changed my life. I'd never heard of the the genre before. But I felt like it had been invented for my own particular pleasure. A mixture of mystery and fantasy!!!!

I loved the snarky voice of the heroine, Anita Blake, vampire hunter. I started looking for new UF authors and found them. Nancy Collins and her SUNGLASSES AFTER DARK, Carrie Vaughn and her Kitty Norville books, Jim Butcher and Harry Dresden. When I first ventured into longer fiction after writing short stories for about a decade, I went for urban fiction. All the stories in my L.A. Nocturne world are about vampires and werewolves and the humans they interact with in a paranormal "open" city. I love my paranormal Los Angeles, where the largest vampire in the city has taken over my favorite building in the world, the Griffith Park Observatory.

But then I started venturing out and got sidetracked for a while writing sci fi and paranormal fantasy and sweet romance. I love all those stories, but now I want to go back to UF for a while. I'm going to start with Witch and the Hunter, a story set in the Pacific Northwest, which is aplace I love, particularly in Autumn when everything is ablaze with fall color.

I won't quit writing the other books--I'm releasing short, sweet Christmas romances every single day in December--but it'll be nice to return to my first love. You never forget your first.

Total Fireworks...

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 11 Aug 2023 09:07:00 +0000

I really like writing romances revolving around holidays, but so far I've concentrated on Christmas and Halloween (my two favorites). But I've joined this anthology that'll be out next summer, and I couldn't be more excited. Using my USAT bestselling author pen name Katherine Moore, I'm writing a story that takes place at a small town Fourth of July festival with a city girl and her first love. fireworks ensue, although I write Hallmark-rated hijinks, so it's pretty sweet. (But there are a number of writers in the collection and the stories will come with all the levels of heat.)

You can preorder it here for 99 cents.

USA TODAY Bestseller List is BACK!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 28 Jun 2023 22:18:00 +0000

I am in a boxed set of mystery stories that was aiming for a list win that got derailed when the paper closed this list down. Now it's back, we're hoping we can still make it. You'll be hearing more from me, but here's a picture of my personal cover:

A Woman Presumed.

I took the title from an NPR story I heard about a double murder where the police found a victim and "a woman presumed to be his wife." And I thought...what if the dead woman wasn't his wife? And what if the person who identified the body knew that? I'm really excited by the story.

Here's the link to pre-order Talk Deadly to Me.

I love the cover for the collection. This collection is close to my heart because I grew up reading mysteries. Yes, Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys, but back then, there was no such thing as YA or Middle Grade reading, so once you were done with those, you pretty much graduated to adult reading. I was reading Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine and Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine and my mother read a mystery a night (because she was an insomniac.) I read everybody--Josephine Tey and Sue Grafton and Dick Francis and Agatha Christie (of course) and ... on and on and on.

Follow me on Facebook...

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 24 Jun 2023 15:17:00 +0000

I'm pretty low-key when it comes to pimping out my work. I'll post links if a preorder goes up, or if a friend of mine has a book I think you'll like, but 90 percent of my FB content is interesting stuff. Or things I'm interested in that I think you might be interested in too. But I'm currently trying to get a book deal and one of the metrics the editors are interesed in are HOW MANY FOLLOWERS you have. Which makes it sound like they're only interested in signing cult leaders. But I'd love it if you followed my Kat Parrish page here. Or while you're at it, follow my Kat Parrish Amazon page.

Coming soon--Chimera in Vella

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 23 Jun 2023 15:56:00 +0000

I'm giving Vella another trial after finding this cover (and another) from Chris at Novel Storm on Etsy. (Find it here.)

My story is a future, space opera-ish take on Robert Louis Stevenson's Island of Dr. Moreau. I've been playing with the idea for years!