Congratulations, Judith! Jessie will contact you shortly to arrange your prize!
Jessie: In New Hampshire where there are more leaves on the ground than on the trees.
I’m filling in for Edith today while she recovers from hand surgery. It is my pleasure to welcome Carloyn Wilkins to the blog . Over to you, Carolyn!
INTRODUCING FESTIVE MAYHEM – By Carolyn Marie Wilkins
Writers are loners. We are perfectly content to sit alone with our computers while the rest of the world spins along without us. I am no exception in this respect. When I’m in the middle of a writing project, I become downright allergic to socializing! But when Kellye Garrett, Gigi Pandian and Walter Mosley announced they were forming a support group for crime writers of color, I joined immediately.
Over 200 authors have joined the group since its formation in 2018. Today, I’m excited to tell you about Festive Mayhem, a new short story collection featuring work by ten of our members. These holiday-themed stories range in style from the classic cozies to suspense, police procedurals and thrillers. Here’s a thumbnail sketch of what you’ll find inside:
- “The New Year’s Hex” by Carolyn Marie Wilkins. Carrie McFarland finds her New Year’s plans derailed when a psychic vision pulls the 1920s African American amateur sleuth into someone’s evil scheme.
- “Pipe Dreams” by S.G. Wong. In this hard-boiled Crescent City short story, infatuation and passion drive Minnie Chen straight into danger as she tries to best the City’s most glamorous private detective in a reimagined 1930s-era Chinese Los Angeles.
- “A Christmas Tip” by Elizabeth Wilkerson. A surprise Christmas bonus becomes too tempting for Philadelphia nursing assistant Brianna Byers to resist—even if accepting requires some skillful skirting of the law.
- “The Stranger in the House” by Stella Oni. This London House Mystery prequel stars Elizabeth Ojo, a Nigerian housekeeper at a posh guest house, who finds her Christmas intersecting with that of a mysterious resident in trouble.
- “What Lies Inside” by Kia Dennis. A tormented university professor falls deeper and deeper into a destructive obsession in this harrowing tale of love and longing.
- “A Pub, Bed & Breakfast & A Dead Body” by Forest Issac Jones. A dark past becomes the deadly present when North Carolina police detective Ike Coates and his intrepid young partner are tasked with determining the cause of a suspicious death.
- “A Deadly First” by Delia C. Pitts. Thanksgiving takes a fatal turn when New York private eye SJ Rook finds himself thrust into his first murder case in this darkly atmospheric tale of noir.
- “The Holiday Murder Mélange” by Myra Jolivet. This Sarah Doucette Jean-Louis short story follows the Creole P.I. around the San Francisco Bay Area on her quest to figure out who killed a man outside of her office.
- “Those Holiday Blues” by Jennifer J. Chow. Jasmine, aka “Jazz,” can’t escape the tragic past when an old boyfriend asks to meet on the anniversary of his mother’s death.
- “Holiday Holdup” by Paige Sleuth. In this Cozy Cat Caper Mystery Short, Imogene Little gets tangled up in a Christmas Eve bank robbery orchestrated by none other than Santa Claus himself.
When I read a story, I want to be taken into a different world. I enjoy the experience of meeting people from places I have never been, and exploring through their eyes, new cultural perspectives and new ways of seeing things.
Readers, what books, stories or articles written by authors of color have opened your eyes recently? Leave a comment below to enter the drawing to receive a free e-copy of Festive Mayhem.
Carolyn Marie Wilkins is an author, a musician and a psychic medium. She is the author of three mystery novels: Death at a Séance, Melody for Murder and Mojo for Murder. She has performed with the Pittsburgh Symphony and represented her country as a Jazz Ambassador for the U.S. State Department. In addition, Carolyn maintains an active private practice as a psychic medium and Reiki healer.
To find out more about Carolyn, visit her website: www.carolynwilkins.com