Cover Reveal and a #giveaway

Hi. Barb here. First post of the new year from Key West.

Today is the cover reveal for Kensington’s next holiday novella collection that includes a story by me, Halloween Party Murder. To celebrate, I’m giving away mass market paperback copies of the previous three books that I was part of in the series, Eggnog Murder, Yule Log Murder, and Haunted House Murder.

Here’s the cover. What do you think? So nice of them to use Wicked Authors’ purple, dontcha think?

This collection will be released on August 31, 2021. Here’s the description.

Small town traditions are celebrated throughout Maine during the holiday season. But when it comes to Halloween, some people are more than willing to reap a harvest of murder . . .

HALLOWEEN PARTY MURDER by LESLIE MEIER
Tinker’s Cove newest residents Ty and Heather Moon turn their Victorian home into a haunted house to raise funds for charity. But the Halloween fun turns to horrific fright when Heather overdoses on tainted drugs—and Ty finds himself accused of murder. Digging deep into the story, journalist Lucy Stone uncovers some sinister secrets in the Moons’ past linked to a conspiracy in her hometown . . .
 
DEATH OF A HALLOWEEN PARTY MONSTER by LEE HOLLIS
Everyone attending Island Times Food and Cocktail columnist Hayley Powell’s Halloween bash is dressed as their favorite movie monster from the Bride of Frankenstein and Jaws to Chucky and Pennywise the clown. But when partygoers stumble upon Boris Candy’s bludgeoned costumed corpse, it falls to Hayley to discover who among her guests wanted to stop the man from clowning around permanently . . .
 
SCARED OFF by BARBARA ROSS
Three teenage girls having a sleepover on Halloween night get spooked when high schoolers crash the house for a party. But no one expected to find a crasher like Mrs. Zelisko, the elderly third floor tenant, dead in the backyard—dressed in a sheet like a ghost. With her niece traumatized, Julia Snowden must uncover who among the uninvited guests was responsible for devising such a murderous trick . . .

I love writing these stories that fill in the time between the Maine Clambake novels. They work especially well because, given the holidays they celebrate, they fall during the off-season at the Snowden Family Clambake. At 25,000 to 30,000 words these novellas are half or a third the length of a typical cozy mystery and five to ten times the length of a typical short story.

Readers: What say you? Novellas yay or nay? Answer the question to be entered to win. If you say you hate novellas in your comment I won’t hold it against you. I’ll see it as a challenge!