And the winner is...

Six Pack of Murder winners are...


Jake
Mary Preston
Dana Wilkerson Spille





Dark Descent winners are...

Rosalee Richland
JQ Rose
Marja McGraw


Congratulations and I hope you enjoy.  If you don't hear from me soon, please get in contact with me.

MWW Tour Stops

In case you missed any stops along the tour, here they are in order. 

Day One  The Romance of Mystery
Day Two   Mysterious Writers
Day Three   Marilyn Musings
Day Four  Rionna Morgan's Chanting of Muses
Day Five  The ExPat Returneth
Day Six  Earl Stagg's Blog
Day Seven  Anne K. Albert's Blog
Day Eight   Feeling the Fiction
Day Nine  Evelyn Cullet's Blog
Day Ten  Rest Stop
Day Eleven   W. S. Gager on Writing
Day Twelve   Patricia Gligor's Writers Forum
Day Thirteen  M. M. Gormell's Blog
Day Fourteen  Madison Johns' Blog
Day Fifteen   Modern Confessional

Mystery We Write Blog Tour - Parking The Bus

"I'm so glad we had this time together, Just to have a laugh, or sing a song. Seems we just get started and before you know it, comes the time we have to say, "So long". *

That's right, it's time to park the tour bus until next our next trip. I want to thank all those who shared their work on the blog. Wow, talk about some great reading. My TBR pile really grew these past weeks. I can hardly wait to dive in. 

I also want to thank each reader who stopped by. You are the reason we do what we do, well at least one reason. I  know many more stopped by than left a comment and I'm so glad you stopped by. For those of you who left comments...thanks so much.

Each author will be announcing their winners on their blog in the next few days and I'll be announcing my winners on the 12th. 

* Special prize for the first person to leave the origin of the opening paragraph in the comments.*

I'll be doing more excerpts, author interviews and miscellaneous mischief in the coming days and new year so stay tuned. 

Mystery We Write Blog Tour - Jean Henry Mead

Jean Henry Mead is a national award-winning photojournalist published domestically as well as abroad. She’s also the author of 18 books including the Logan & Cafferty mystery/suspense series, Hamilton Kids’ mysteries and western historical novels. Her nonfiction books include five books of  interviews and several history books, one of which served as a college textbook. She began her writing career as a news reporter and worked as a staff writer-photographer and editor for three newspapers in California and Wyoming.  She also served as editor for magazines and small presses and freelanced for the Denver Post.

Jean says, " Although I was born and reared in Los Angeles, I live on a mountaintop ranch in Wyoming, which is the setting for my latest Logan & Cafferty novel, Gray Wolf Mountain. Dana Logan and Sarah Cafferty are driving Dana’s Escalade down the mountain when someone shoots out a tire and the SUV rolls off the road. They’re soon rescued by an old man in an ancient, rusty pickup and they learn that he nurses wounded wolves back to life. Someone’s using the wolves for target practice, and later humans as well."

Here's an excerpt from Gray Wolf Mountain. 

Stooped and slim as a broom handle, he shuffled around to the opposite side of the truck in his frayed plaid shirt and greasy, ragged overalls. Dana flipped open her cell phone and punched in 911. Wouldn’t you know? No service in the area. They would have to accept the ride. Offering to help their benefactor, they were waved off as he removed an aging yellow cat the size of a short-legged cocker spaniel. He then hauled out a battered plastic box with a cracked lid. Placing the box and cat in the bed of his truck, he next retrieved several lengths of greasy rope with hooks attached to both ends. That left something wrapped in a filthy blanket. When it fell to the ground, they saw that it was a saber.

Sarah gasped and grabbed Dana’s arm. “We don’t want to put you to any trouble,” she said,  voice quavering.

He cupped a hand to his left ear. “What’s that you say?”

So he was hard of hearing. Sarah raised her voice and repeated what she’d said.

“No trouble, young lady. I need to clean my truck out, anyhow.”

“Young lady?” They looked at one another and grinned. “We haven’t been called young in ages.”

His returning grin had several teeth missing. “You two look mighty spry to me. Good lookin’ too, if I might add.”

That settled it. They would have to accept the ride, but neither wanted to sit next to him. The old man didn’t appear to have had taken a bath in months. Turning her back, Dana removed a coin from her wallet and flipped it on her wrist. Covering it with her palm she motioned for Sarah to call it.

“Heads.” Sarah said, crossing fingers.

Sighing with relief, Dana showed her the coin.

“No problem,” Sarah whispered. “My sinuses are so clogged from all this mountain greenery that I can’t smell a thing. Make sure you roll down the window.”

Jean will be giving away a copy of Gray Wolf Mountain at the conclusion of the blog tour on December 11, and will announce the winner at Mysterious Writers: http://mysteriouspeople.blogspot.com/

Gray Wolf Mountain is available in Kindle and print editions HERE.

Mystery We Write Blog Tour - Joyce Lavene

Joyce Lavene writes bestselling mystery with her husband/partner Jim. They have written and published more than 60 novels for Harlequin, Berkley and Charter Books along with hundreds of non-fiction articles for national and regional publications. She lives in rural North Carolina with her family, her cat, Quincy, and her rescue dog, Rudi. Visit her at www.joyceandjimlavene.com, Facebook/JoyceandJimLavene.com. Twitter: @authorjlavene, http://romanceofmystery.blogspot.com.

Here's an excerpt of A Haunting Dream:

The moonlight made a white band out of Duck Road as it moved through the center of town. I followed it, winding down the silent streets, until I reached the shore of the Atlantic. There was a hazy quality to the sea that night. The waves were so calm, it was almost like looking at the Currituck Sound on the other side of town. 

I stood on the shore and stared out at the water like so many of my Banker relatives had for centuries in the past. The Atlantic was the lifeblood of Duck and the other older towns on the island. Our ancestors scratched out a living here by taking in cargo that was lost to what came to be known as the Graveyard of the Atlantic. 

Hundreds of ships went down here. Some because of the treacherous waters, others because of the local pirates, and a few here and there due to Banker tricks that caused no small amount of disaster. People did what they had to if they wanted to survive. Those weren’t easy times. Cut off from the mainland—no bridges then—life had been difficult.

As I followed the line of the sky with my eyes, I saw what looked like an old wooden ship. It was huge and was under full sail. It looked heavy and cargo rich—a Spanish galleon, if I wasn’t mistaken.

“The Andalusia,” I barely breathed aloud. 

It was a legend, a ghost ship that went down with all hands onboard and a treasure of what most people believed to be over twenty-five million dollars in today’s currency. The ship was destroyed in 1721, never to be seen again as a real vessel. But many people had seen it down through the years, sailing across the water. People in Duck took it as an ill omen. 

All of my life had been spent here, but I’d never seen this before. As I watched it, thrilled and terrified at the same time, I knew it couldn’t be anything else. The ship, even though it looked heavy with cargo, wasn’t quite resting on the dark water. A light that wasn’t part of the moon glow filled it, creating an aura around it. 

I’d heard people say that seeing the ghost ship had transfixed them. They’d walked for miles looking at it. I felt the same way—captivated by the sight of it. I couldn’t look away. 

I started walking along the beach, trying to keep pace with the ghostly galleon. Except for that light and the glow from the moon, it was very dark along the water. I stumbled into a ditch in the sand, created by rain running off from the island. It was still very wet from the tail end of a hurricane we’d had recently.  I lost my balance and sank to my knees in the soft sand. 

I put my hands out to keep myself steady. I didn’t want to look away from the Andalusia, but I had no choice if I wanted to get back on my feet. 

I looked down at the sand and saw a face with wide open eyes looking back at me.

Blurb:

The mayor of Duck, North Carolina, Dae O’Donnell, is a woman with a gift for finding lost things. When her boyfriend Kevin’s ex-fiancée Ann arrives in Duck looking for a second chance, Dae suddenly finds herself facing certain heartache. And while her romantic life is in shambles, she’s even more concerned by the sudden change in her gift. After touching a medallion owned by a local named Chuck Sparks, Dae is shocked when her vision reveals his murder—and a cry for help. Dae doesn’t know what to make of the dead man’s plea to “Help her,” until she has another vision about a kidnapped girl—Chuck’s daughter, Betsy. With a child missing, the FBI steps in to take over the case. But Dae can’t ignore her visions of Betsy, or the fact that Kevin’s psychic ex-fiancé might be the only person who can help find her.

  You can get your copy here.

Win a copy of A Haunting Dream, the fourth book in the Missing Pieces Mysteries, by leaving your name at my blog: http://romanceofmystery.blogspot.com