Furbidden Fatality Really BIG Giveaway

 TWO WEEKS!!!! That's how long it is until FURBIDDEN FATALITY  is out in the world. So if you've been around this blog at all before, you know what that means. It means I go completely nuts and do a huge, seriously over-the-top giveaway for my readers.

I'm so very excited about this new series, and I really hope that people will help me to spread the word (you know, so everyone will go out and buy it and read it and stuff). To encourage that, I will be giving away All the Things. No seriously, check it out.

ALL THE THINGS

Koshka tried helping. It didn't really work.

Because I wanted as many people as possible to have a chance at winning, I'm going to be giving out multiple prizes. If you enter, you might win a $10 Amazon gift card, a tote bag, a notebook, a mousepad, a cute stuffed kitty with a magnet, a download of the audiobook, or the grand prize, a Fire 7 Tablet. The more options you choose on the Rafflecopter form (and the more days you share on Twitter), the more chances you have to win.

The giveaway is open worldwide (except the audiobook download, which only works in the US, I'm afraid). I hope you'll all join in the fun, and tell everyone about the new cozy mystery series and Furbidden Fatality.

Don't forget to preorder if you can (publishers love preorders, so authors love them too). If you can't, put it on your wishlist, or ask your local library to order a copy. I already dropped a copy off at my library, so they'll have one. Don't forget that your local Indie bookstore can always special order you a copy too.

Amazon |Amazon Print |Penguin|Nook |Kobo |Apple

A lottery winner uses her good fortune to save a local pet sanctuary, but when a body is discovered on the property, she just might be in the doghouse in this first book in a new, charming cozy mystery series from author Deborah Blake.

Kari Stuart’s life is going nowhere—until she unexpectedly wins the lottery. The twenty-nine-year-old instant multimillionaire is still mulling plans for her winnings when rescuing a bossy black kitten leads her to a semi-abandoned animal shelter. They need the cash—Kari needs a purpose.

But the dilapidated rescue is literally going to the dogs with a pending lawsuit, hard to adopt animals, and too much unwanted attention from the town’s dog warden. When the warden turns up dead outside the shelter’s dog kennels, Kari finds herself up a creek without a pooper-scooper.

With the help of some dedicated volunteers, a cute vet, and a kitten who mysteriously shows up just when she needs it, Kari must prove her innocence all while trying to save a dog on death row. Now she just needs to hope that her string of unexpected luck isn’t about to run out.

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Furbidden Fatality Sweepstakes

 Well, this blog got more or less abandoned during the crazy times of 2020, but now it's a new (marginally less crazy?) year and I'm hoping to post here a little bit more often. Admittedly, much of what I would have put up here is now going on to my PATREON 

 Hopefully I'll post more here too, although if you've never checked it out, you might want to.

 Anyway, let's start out with something fun! As of tomorrow, it will be six weeks until Furbidden Fatality comes out. Furbidden Fatality, in case you've lost track, is the first book in my new cozy mystery series from Berkley. It's set in an animal shelter in the Catskills and I think you're really going to love it.

What you're sure to love is that Berkley is doing a sweepstakes for the book, and will be giving away e-galley copies to two lucky winners.

  You can enter HERE    The sweepstakes runs through January 29th.

As always, I'll also be doing some giveaways of my own (including a Fire Tablet) and I've gotten some cool swag including tote bags, mouse pads, and notebooks. Which one would be your favorite, if you could pick only one?

That cute little sheep was a Yule gift from my Llewellyn editor Elysia

I'll be posting more about the book, what inspired it, and what kinds of events are coming up (all virtual, of course) so check back often or sign up to follow the blog if you haven't already.

I hope you are all well and that this new year brings you only good things. Stay safe!

Deborah

COVER REVEAL!

I can finally share the cover for the first in my new cozy mystery series coming in February from Berkley Publishing.

I hope you love it as much as I do! Be sure to tell me what you think.

Big Huge Wonderful News

First of all, some smaller but still great news--I found out last week that Freya, the mama cat I fostered (and Diana's mother) was finally adopted from the shelter. She went to a house with no other cats, which is what she really wanted, and I am sure she is going to make her new person really happy. She was a great mama and a really sweet cat, but after being a stray, she was too defensive with other cats in her territory to be able to stay here, even if I hadn't thought six cats was even crazier than five... So this was absolutely fabulous news, and it made me almost as happy as my other news. Almost.

As many of you know, I lost my contract with Berkley for the fiction books (Baba Yaga and Rider series) about three years ago. Since then I have been diligently writing and sending out partials of various novels (contemporary romance, humorous romance, women's fiction) to various publishers, with no luck. Lots of great rejections telling me they loved my writing, but it is a very tight market, yada yada yada. (I have lots of other author friends in the same position, so I in no way take this personally. Publishing is tough right now.)

I was, in fact, beginning to worry that my fiction career was over, although thankfully the nonfiction is still going strong. (Did I mention that I love you people?) I dabbled a little bit in self-publishing, but I just don't write fast enough to be a success at that.

Last October, my agent Elaine sent out a partial manuscript for a book that was something completely new and different for me. She had suggested that my voice would be a good fit for cozy mysteries. To be honest, I kind of thought she was crazy. But if you have a good agent, you try and do what they say.

Last week, we got word from Berkley's mystery imprint that they wanted the first three books in the "Rundown Rescue" series. So ladies and gentlemen--I'm BACK!

Who is celebrating with me?

Release Day for Veiled Enchantments!

It’s release day for Veiled Enchantments, the last book in the Veiled Magic series!

This day has been a long time coming. Veiled Magic, the first book in the series, was actually the third novel I wrote and the one that got me my wonderful agent, Elaine Spencer. (It was based on an award-winning short story I wrote for The Pagan Anthology of Short Fiction.) It was originally called Pentacles and Pentimentos. She loved it so much, she had me go ahead and write the second one, which ended up being Veiled Menace.

And then we couldn’t sell it. So I put it away and wrote some other things, and then eventually we sold the Baba Yaga series to Berkley, and even more eventually, Berkley decided that they’d put the Veiled Magic books out as eBooks, and I finally got to share some of my favorite books with the world. All that time ago, I had written up a page of notes about book three, and hoped to write it someday.

And look, here we are! I’m so happy to be able to share this third book in the trilogy with you, so you can all find out how Donata’s story ends up. I hope you love it as much as I do.

In this exciting novel in the Veiled Magic series, Witch and police officer Donata Santori travels to Maine to help solve a deadly mystery, where her magical abilities are tested like never before.

Still reeling from her unwitting involvement in murder and subsequent break up with a half-Dragon art forger, Witch-cop Donata Santori is grateful for the distraction when her ex-lover requests her help. Not only are Magnus's beloved dead suddenly haunting the Ulfhednar shapechangers in his tiny rural hometown in Maine, their patron god Odin has turned his back on them, and the members of their once tight-knit enclave are at each other's throats. Literally.

Magnus is relying on Donata's experience in dealing with the gods, along with her magical ability to summon the dead, to help him unravel this mystery in time to save his clan. Donata only hopes to survive the ordeal so she can return home to the city and her quiet job at the precinct.

But first, she must discover who or what is behind the terrible attacks on the Ulfhednar. And the clock is ticking, in more ways than one...

Buy Links:

Barnes & Noble |Amazon |iBooks |Penguin 

A BIG Announcement

 So, I have some bad news and I have some good news. 

The bad news is that Berkley, who published all of my fiction series, has decided not to contract for the third Broken Rider book. Publishing is a numbers game, and the numbers from the previous books just weren’t good enough to justify putting out the third one. This isn’t something I take personally—you’d be amazed how many of my author friends, many of them better writers and more popular than I am, have lost their contracts in the last year. The third book in the Veiled Magic series, Veiled Enchantments, will be out in March, and that’s the last of the books from Berkley, at least for now.

I’ve actually known about this for some time, although I haven’t talked about it online. And the good news is that I decided that there was no way I was going to leave my readers hanging—so I wrote Alexei’s story anyway. Surprise! 

I’ve been quietly working on it (this is the unnamed project I’ve mentioned a few times) over the last four months, and I will be self-publishing it sometime soon; probably in the next couple of weeks. I’ll be sure to let you know when it is live. It will be available as an ebook pretty much everyplace, and as a print book from Amazon. I even found a great cover artist who was able to come up with a cover that matched the first two in looks, although it was impossible to get quite the right “Alexei.” (Sadly, Jason Momoa wasn’t available to pose…)

Here’s the cover—what do you think?

Cover by Earthly Charms

I’m a little sad to be putting out the last of the books in this world, which I’ve really enjoyed writing in, but at least those of you who have been following the series from the beginning will be able to get the ending to the story.

Of course, I do have a few more ideas, so if this one is successful enough, you never know, I might decide to self-publish another one…so perhaps this isn't the end at all.

Here’s the blurb for the book:

The Riders: Three legendary brothers who kept the Baba Yagas safe. The Riders’ immortality was stripped away, along with their mission. But they are still much more than Human, and their story is far from over…

His brothers may have found new paths to follow, but Alexei Knight isn’t even looking. If he can’t have the life he was meant to lead, there is no second choice. So he is bent on drinking and brawling his way across the country until he winds up on Cape Cod in a bar called The Hook and Anchor, where he finds challenges he was never expecting, a feisty red-haired bartender, and maybe a lot more than that…

Bethany McKenna left behind an almost-completed law degree to return home and care for her cranky disabled father and run his bar for him. If that wasn’t enough, she also agreed to foster a very pregnant Great Dane. She has enough to deal with without adding in a giant bearded brawler, no matter how appealing he is. Yet somehow he ends up living in the guesthouse, taking care of her father, and sneaking his way into her heart…

Alexei and Bethany both think the lives they wanted have come to an end, but after dealing with a mysterious sea monster, pirates, dragons, and some adorable puppies, they might just discover that love is the greatest adventure of all…

I’ve had so much fun writing this book, which I think of as a gift for all those who have been taking this journey with me. I hope you enjoy Alexei’s story.

Who is looking forward to the book, now that you know it is coming out?