The Cozy Mystery List Blog

Cozy Mystery (and Other Favorite) Books, Movies, and TV

Colorado Springs, or Bust!

We are in Colorado Springs, which I may add, is beautiful. I have mentioned before that I grew up in an Air Force family, so I moved a lot. (I always considered my grandmother’s home in Northwood, Iowa to be my “home base”.) My parents moved out here to Colorado Springs after my father retired, and I liked it so much – that I moved out here years later. Once here, I didn’t envisioned moving out of Colorado, but life has a way of branching us into different paths.

Traveling from New Mexico to Colorado is almost magical. You have to go through an area called Raton Pass. For someone who lives in the flat plains of Texas, Raton Pass is an invitation to all things wonderful. You no longer see the yellow diamond-shaped road signs with jumping deer on the side of the road. Instead, you see yellow diamond-shaped road signs with bucks (either elk or deer) that have at least eight point antlers. The road curves, ascends, descends, and even does the ascending and descending on curves! The terrain brings to mind the wonderful lines from the 1939 Wizard of Oz movie: “Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore. We must be over the rainbow!”

This isn’t to say the scenery getting to this point on our journey wasn’t memorable. Driving through long stretches of plains wasn’t all that great, but once you leave the plain plains, you go through what seems to be an old Hollywood movie set with nearby plateaus giving way to mountain ranges that were painted to look like they were miles and miles away. I almost expected to see Jimmy Stewart riding out on his trusty mare. (Can you tell I’m a fan of the Turner Classic Movie channel?)

Oh, and I am loving the weather! Such a nice change from humidly hot or hotly humid!

Month of September

My husband and I are getting ready for a short trip up to Colorado Springs to visit my mother and brother. I’m looking forward to it. We won’t be staying very long, but at least I will be able to see how things are going for her, now that she is on her own.

After Colorado Springs, we are heading up to Yellowstone Park. I have never been there. My husband has been there once, years ago. It is one of the places we have wanted to go for a while. We always had hoped to take our son and daughter with us, but once they got into high school, we found out that ship had sailed. We had never relished the idea of going while school was in session, so it was one of those plans that was never realized.

My son will be staying here, holding the fort down for us. It’s not much of a job now that Sprite isn’t here. She required a lot of attention – with all sorts of special needs and medications. (I still miss that little dog, and it’s been well over a year!)

I’m taking my laptop with me, so will be checking your comments, as well as responding to them >>> when I have the time! (The place where we are staying supposedly has very slow internet connections.)

Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe’s The Wolfe Pack

Do you have “the author” in you?

Last month, I received an e-mail from The Wolfe Pack with the following message, and thought I would pass it on to you all. (And, yes, the Awards Chair is Jane K. Cleland, author of the Josie Prescott Antiques Mystery Series!)
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

May 31 is the
Submission Deadline
for the 2013
Black Orchid Novella Award

[Please pass this on to anyone who might be interested.]

Call for novellas! Please submit your novella for the seventh annual Black Orchid Novella Award (BONA). We are looking for original works of fiction in the tradition of the ratiocinative detective, as exemplified by Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe. Your entry must:

  • Emphasize the deductive skills of the sleuth
  • Contain no overt sex or violence
  • Not include characters from the original series

First prize: $1,000 plus publication in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine.

Entries must be 15,000 to 20,000 words in length, and must be postmarked by May 31, 2013. The winner will be announced at The Wolfe Pack’s Annual Black Orchid Banquet in New York City, December 7, 2013.*

Please visit www.nerowolfe.org for official rules and procedures to submit your novella. For questions, contact the Awards Chair, Jane K. Cleland, jane@janecleland.net.

* If no acceptable candidates are received, AHMM and The Wolfe Pack reserve the right to declare no winner in any given year.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

So, if you think you have an author hiding deep inside of yourself, then stop reading this entry, and go grab yourself a pen and paper >>> Somehow grabbing a computer keyboard  doesn’t sound as “author-y” to me.

October 2012 Mystery Book New Releases

The following Mystery Books will be released in October 2012:

Lydia Adamson: A Cat Tells Two Tales (This will include both of the first books in the Alice Nestleton Mystery Series – A Cat in the Manger and A Cat of a Different Color.) (A Cat in the Manger is a Christmas theme mystery.)

Tasha Alexander: Death in the Floating City (This will be the 7th in the Lady Emily Mystery Series.)

Donald Bain & “Jessica Fletcher”: Domestic Malice (This will be the 38th in the Murder, She Wrote Mystery Series.)

Lorna Barrett (aka Lorraine Barrett & L. L. Bartlett): Murder in Three Volumes This will include the first three mystery books in the Booktown Mystery Series: Murder is Binding (#1), Bookmarked for Death (#2), and Bookplate Special (#3).

Melissa Bourbon (aka Misa Ramirez): Deadly Patterns (This will be the 3rd in the Magical Dressmaking Mystery Series.)

Duffy Brown: Iced Chiffon (This will be the 1st in the Consignment Shop Mystery Series.)

Dorothy Cannell: Sea Glass Summer (This will be a Stand Alone.)

JoAnna Carl (aka Eve K. Sandstrom): The Chocolate Moose Motive (This will be the 12th in the Chocoholic Mystery Series…)

Joelle Charbonneau: Skating on the Edge (This will be the 3rd in the Rebecca Robbins Mystery Series.)

Laura Childs: Postcards from the Dead (This will be the 10th in the Scrapbook Mystery Series…)

Patricia Cornwell: The Bone Bed (This will be the 20th in the Kay Scarpetta Mystery Series.)

Jeanne M. Dams: The Corpse of St. James’s (This will be the 12th in the Dorothy Martin Mystery Series.) (Actually, this is already available.)

James D. Doss: The Old Gray Wolf (This will be the 17th in the Charlie Moon Msytery Series.)

Elizabeth J. Duncan: A Small Hill To Die On (This will be the 4th in the Penny Brannigan Msytery Series.)

Ruth Dudley Edwards: Killing the Emperors (This will be the 12th in the Robert Amiss Mystery Series.)

“Jessica Fletcher” & Donald Bain: Domestic Malice (This will be the 38th in the Murder, She Wrote Mystery Series.)

David Handler (aka 1/2 of Russell Andrews): The Snow White Christmas Cookie (This will be the 9th in the Berger & Mitry Mystery Series.) (This is a Christmas theme mystery.)

Pam Hanson & Sunni Jeffers: Christmas Traditions at Grace Chapel Inn (This will be the 49th in the Tales from Grace Chapel Inn Series.) (This is a Christmas theme novel, not a mystery.)

Carolyn Hart: What the Cat Saw (This will be the 1st in the NEW Nela Farley Mystery Series.)

Ellen Hart: Rest for the Wicked (This will be the 20th in the Jane Lawless Mystery Series.)

Hazel Holt: Mrs. Malory and a Necessary End (This will be the 20th in the Sheila Malory Mystery Series.)

Elise Hyatt: A Fatal Stain (This will be the 3rd in the Daring Finds Mystery Series.)

Jane Isenberg: The Bones and the Book (This will be a Stand Alone.)

Sunni Jeffers & Pam Hanson: Christmas Traditions at Grace Chapel Inn (This will be the 49th in the Tales from Grace Chapel Inn Series.) (This is a Christmas theme novel, not a mystery.)

Iris Johansen: Sleep No More (This will be the 14th in the Eve Mystery Series.)

Jess Lourey: December Dread (This will be the 8th in the Murder-by-Month Mystery Series.) (This is a Christmas theme mystery.)

G. M. Malliet: A Fatal Winter (This will be the 2nd in the Max Tudor Mystery Series.)

Casey Mayes (aka Elizabeth Bright, Melissa Glazer, Chris Cavender, & Tim Myers): A Grid for Murder (This will be the 3rd in the Mystery by the Numbers Mystery Series)

Archer Mayor: Paradise City (This will be the 23rd in the Joe Gunther Mystery Series.)

James Patterson & Marshall Karp: NYPD Red (This will be a Stand Alone.)

Anne Perry: A Christmas Garland (This will be Anne Perry’s 10th Victorian Christmas theme novel.)

Sara Rosett: Mistletoe, Merriment and Murder (This will be the 7th in the Mystery Series.) (This is a Christmas theme mystery.)

Paige Shelton: If Mashed Potatoes Could Dance (This will be the 2nd in the Country Cooking School Mystery Series.)

Alexander McCall Smith: The Uncommon Appeal of Clouds (This will be the 9th in the Isabel Dalhousie Series.)

Tales from Grace Chapel Inn: Christmas Traditions at Grace Chapel Inn (This will be the 49th in this series. It is written by Sunni Jeffers & Pam Hanson.) (This is a Christmas theme novel, not a mystery.)

Charles Todd: The Walnut Tree: A Holiday Tale (This will be a Stand Alone.) (This is a Christmas theme mystery.)

Lis Wiehl & Pete Nelson: Darkness Rising (This will be the 2nd in the East Salem Trilogy)

To go back to the Cozy Mystery New Book Release page, click here.

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