An Upcoming Release, Complete with Coffins!

To all who've written to ask me what I'm working on these days, I'm thrilled and happy to finally be able to show you. Take a look at the cover for HAPPILY NEVER AFTER, book number #5 in the Nicki Styx series!

I took a break from this award-winning paranormal series for a while to write about hot devils and steamy angels, but I just couldn't seem to let Nicki Styx die. :) I never gave Nicki and her fiancé, Joe Bascombe, their happily ever after, and neither character was willing to just quietly go away and rest in peace. (Ha!) Neither was Evan, or Grandma Bijou, or the myriad of spirits that need Nicki's help to cross over.

I'd hoped to release HAPPILY NEVER AFTER earlier this year, but what started out as a short novella centered around Joe and Nicki's wedding has blossomed into a full-length murder mystery. The troublesome spirit of an elderly soap opera star has decided that Nicki can't have her happily ever after until she gets hers, which forces Nicki to mingle with the strange yet moneyed members of the Atlanta-area country club set. Since a novel obviously takes longer to write than a novella, I hope you'll be patient. (Look for this one in early 2014.) In the meantime, I just couldn't wait any longer to show you the gorgeous new cover, and let you know that I'm working on a new Nicki Styx book! :)

Since I can't give you any pre-order links yet, I've got some early Halloween goodies to give away instead. (Oh, c'mon - you knew there would be goodies!) The most delightful night of the year is barely two months away, and I've already started my preparations! My annual Halloween bash includes a trip through "Madame Zelda's Haunted Graveyard", and I have lots of ghouls and goblins who stop by for candy and giggles -- I have to stay on top of new ways to tickle a few funny bones while sending a chill down their spines!

Look at these adorably awesome little Coffin Keepsake Boxes, which I couldn't resist filling with appropriately ghoulish treasure: a bottle of deliciously tart Decayed Bone Powder, a skull bracelet, skull and crossbones necklace, dark jewels, and a miniature skull. :) Each of these coffins has a glittery skull painted on the lid: one red, one purple, one green and one silver. They're the perfect little gift for the Halloween fiend in your life, especially if the fiend is YOU! I'm going to give three of these to three lucky readers, via drawing on Sunday, September 1, 2013. I'm keeping the silver one for myself, but if you'd like to win one of the other three, you need to answer a Nicki Styx wedding-related question. (Hey, no tricks, no treats!) :)

Go back to the day that Nicki and Joe got engaged in SILENT NIGHT, HAUNTED NIGHT (Book #4 in the series), and tell me what Nicki's engagement ring looks like. There will be an email link to enter the contest at the end of the excerpt. Good luck, ghoulfriends, and happy reading!