Sweet Success

Margaret Mizushima’s Sweet Success

Congratulations go out to Margaret Mizushima on the publication of her new mystery novel, Burning Ridge: A Timber Creek K-9 Mystery (Crooked Lane Books, ISBN 978-1-68331-778-4, 280 pages). Burning Ridge is available at most online booksellers and many bookstores including Amazon and Goodreads.

Cover of Burning ridge by Margaret Mizushima

Colorado’s Redstone Ridge is a place of extraordinary beauty, but this rugged mountain wilderness harbors a horrifying secret. When a charred body is discovered in a shallow grave, Officer Mattie Cobb and her K-9 partner Robo are called in to spearhead the investigation. But this is no ordinary crime—and they soon become the targets of a ruthless killer.

Margaret MizushimaMargaret Mizushima is the author of the critically acclaimed Timber Creek K-9 Mysteries. Her books have garnered a Reader’s Favorite gold medal, a TopShelf Indie Book Award nomination, and have been listed as finalists in the RT Reviewers’ Choice Awards, the Colorado Book Awards, and the International Book Awards. Margaret serves on the board for the Rocky Mountain chapter of Mystery Writers of America, and she lives in Colorado where she assists her husband with their veterinary practice and Angus cattle herd. She can be found on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and on her website. Email Margaret at: margmizu@q.com

Sweet Success is coordinated by Managing Editor, Kathie “KJ” Scrim. If you have a Sweet Success to share please follow this link to submit or email to: SweetSuccess@pikespeakwriters.com

Catherine Dilts Celebrates Sweet Success

Blood and GasolinePikes Peak Writers is pleased to announce Catherine Dilts’ short story, “Do-Over”, is included in Blood and Gasoline. The anthology of 17 stories by different authors has been described as Mad Max meets Sons of Anarchy. Catherine typically writes cozy mysteries, but took a walk on the dark side with her story “Do-Over”. This is a tale of vengeance, and a survivor’s hope that enacting justice can erase a painful past.

Catherine DiltsCatherine Dilts is the author of the Rock Shop Mystery series, while her short stories appear regularly in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine. With a day job as an environmental regulatory technician, Catherine’s stories often have environmental or factory-based themes. Others reflect her love of the Colorado mountains. She takes a turn in the multi-author sweet cozy mystery series Secrets of the Castleton Manor Library with Ink or Swim. You can learn more about Catherine’s fiction on her website.

Sweet Success by: KJ Scrim, Managing Editor.
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F.P. Dorchak Releases Psychic as an E-book

PPW is happy to announce that F.P Dorchak’s action/adventure conspiracy thriller, Psychic, has come out in E-book!

Life…we are told…progresses chronologically. Between birth and death we take certain roads…bypass others. There is only one life, one reality.

But what if we have it all wrong?

Enter the world of psychic espionage…where people disappear…lives are destroyed…and facts are manipulated. Where one man stops at nothing to get what he wants, yet doesn’t know what he really has…and one woman’s belief in herself is severely tested….

Where all is never as it seems.

F. P. Dorchak writes gritty speculative fiction. Frank is published in the U.S., Canada, and the Czech Republic. His novels are Voice, Psychic, ERO, The Uninvited, and Sleepwalkers, and his first anthology, Do The Dead Dream? won the 2017 Best Books Award for Fiction: Short Stories. His short stories have appeared in the off-the-grid The Black Sheep; You Belong 2016, Words and Images from Longmont Area Residents regional anthology for 2016; The You Belong Collection, Writings and Illustrations by Longmont Area Residents regional anthology for 2012; Apollo’s Lyre.

Frank can occasionally be reached in séances, and his website. Email works great too: fpdorchak@fpdorchak

Sweet Success by: KJ Scrim, Contributing Editor.
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Terry Odell’s Newest Edition, Falcon’s Prey

Falcon’s Prey, is Terry Odell’s newest book in the Buckthorne, Inc series. Congratulations!!

Her Life is in danger … but so is her heart.
Police officer Lexi Becker is being targeted. Afraid her local police department has been infiltrated, she turns to the only man she can trust for help: Marv “Fish” Frisch, her former patrol partner. Danger is everywhere. Someone’s bugged her house. An illegal opioid network is thriving. People are dying. And an even more sinister plan is being put into action. Torn between hiding or coming to the aid of an orphaned child, Lexi leaves Fish’s protection. Will she survive long enough to tell Fish how she feels?

 

From childhood, Terry Odell wanted to “fix” stories so the characters would behave properly. She found this wasn’t always possible, as evidenced when the mystery she intended to write turned into a romance, despite the fact that she’d never read one. Odell thinks of her books as “Mysteries With Relationships.” Her series include Blackthorne, Inc., Pine Hills Police, Triple-D Ranch, and Mapleton Mysteries. Her short story collection, “Seeing Red” is a Silver Falchion winner. You can find her high (that’s altitude—she lives at 9100 feet!) in the Colorado Rockies—or at her website. Also visit her Amazon author page for more books.

 

Sweet Success by: KJ Scrim, Contributing Editor.
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Chris Mandevelle Releases Quake

Another Sweet Success for Chris Mandeville! The first novel in her, In Real Time series, Quake was released May 29, 2018.

QuakeTime traveling thieves. A stolen kiss. A wormhole to the heist of the century.
Fifteen-year-old Allie Bennett’s a con artist, a pickpocket, and on her last chance at an end-of-the-line foster home. She learns her mom—who disappeared when she was ten—isn’t a crazy but is actually a time traveler, and Allie’s one, too. She joins a crew of time traveling thieves and goes back to the 1906 San Francisco earthquake to pull the heist of the century and find her mom. But time travelers are hunted, her crew might be killers, everyone has a secret agenda, and she must pull off the con of her life to make it out alive.

 

Chris MandevilleCHRIS MANDEVILLE writes science fiction/fantasy and nonfiction for writers. She served as president of Pikes Peak Writers for five years, and is now the Conference Director for Superstars Writing Seminars. Her books include Seeds: a post-apocalyptic adventure and 52 Ways to Get Unstuck: Exercises to Break Through Writer’s Block.

Find her young adult time travel novel, Quake, on Amazon and her website.

Sweet Success by: KJ Scrim, Contributing Editor.
Share your Sweet Success! Fill out this form to share your success with the world.

Sweet Success Michelle Crystal’s LAVENDER BLUE

Michelle Crystal’s wonderful debut novel, Lavender Blue (adult mainstream fiction, 342 pages) was released, November 30, 2017, by Author House. It is available Author House.com, Amazon, Apple Books, and Barnes and Noble.

Rachel Tate enjoys an idyllic life—a handsome husband, three healthy sons, a comfortable lifestyle—but when disaster strikes, she stands to lose it all. Shocking repercussions follow their insurmountable tragedy, leaving Rachel drowning in grief, self-pity, and doubt. 

As a favor to her mother, Rachel assists in cleaning out her ailing grandmother’s home. There, she stumbles upon journals authored by her great-great-grandmother, Anna Murdock Pierce. The two women exist centuries apart, but live nearly parallel lives. Will learning about the past bring insight to Rachel’s present—or will the daunting trials she faces get the best of her?

Past, present, and future collide, on Rachel’s journey to understanding.

Michelle Crystal bridges the gap between commercial and literary fiction. She began writing poetry in elementary school, receiving publication at an early age. Her poetry lends fluidity and symmetry to her fiction. Addicted to metaphor, she can find one in just about anything. Luckily, her family endures her regular, boundless allegories, she discovers in everyday events. While Michelle loves metaphor, clichés curdle her stomach and are not allowed utterance in her home. If she’s not writing, Michelle is probably out scouring thrift shops for some rare find.

Email: michelle@readmichellecrystal.com

Website: readmichellecrystal.com

Congratulations to 2018 Colorado Book Awards Finalists

Colorado Humanities has announced finalists for 2018 Colorado Book Awards, and I’m proud to say that several members of Pikes Peak Writers are on the list.

Well done Chris Goff, Peg Brantley, L.D. Colter, Barb Nickless, Margaret Mizushima, Pat Stoltey and Laura E. Reeve!

 

​The only nonprofit Colorado organization dedicated to providing opportunities to explore what it means to be human through our history, literature and culture, Colorado Humanities was founded in 1974. Affiliated with the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Library of Congress Center for the Book (as the host of the Colorado Center for the Book), Motheread, Inc. and the Smithsonian, Colorado Humanities partners with communities throughout the state to deliver high-quality, educational programs and resources. You can find out more about this exceptional organization here.

Profile Photo of Gabrielle V Brown Managing Editor Pikes Peak Writers BlogGabrielle V. Brown has put words to paper since she could hold a crayon. She is extensively published in technical and academic nonfiction and currently writes humor, short stories and literary fiction. Gabrielle has lived all over the United States and now resides in the Colorado Rocky Mountains.

Sweet Success Margaret Mizushima’s HUNTING HOUR

Margaret Mizushima’s mystery novel, HUNTING HOUR: A Timber Creek K-9 Mystery, was named by RT Reviews a 2017 RT Reviewers’ Choice Award nominee in the Mystery/Thriller/Suspense category. Wonderful news Margaret!!

Deputy Mattie Cobb and her K-9 partner Robo find a missing junior high student dead, but before they can catch the killer, another child disappears—and this time it’s one of Cole Walker’s daughters. Mattie and Robo must lead the hunt to capture a kidnapper before they’re too late. HUNTING HOUR can be found at bookstores and online booksellers.

This novel was published 8-8-2017 by Crooked Lane Books (ISBN 978-1-68331-277-2, hardcover, 279 pages) and is available on Amazon.

Margaret Mizushima is the author of the Timber Creek K-9 mystery series, which includes Killing Trail (2015), an RT Reviewer’s Choice Award nominee; Stalking Ground (2016), a Colorado Book Award and International Book Award finalist, and a Reader’s Favorite gold medal winner; and Hunting Hour (2017), an RT Book Reviews Top Pick. She lives in Colorado where she assists her husband with their veterinary practice and Angus cattle herd. She can be found on Facebook/AuthorMargaretMizushima, on Twitter @margmizu, and on her website at www.margaretmizushima.com.

Sweet Success Peg Brantley’s TRAFFICKED

Peg Brantley’s thriller/suspense novel, TRAFFICKED (ISBN Ebook: 978-0-9853638-6-4; Paperback: 978-0-9853638-7-1, 368 pages), was released May 23, 2017 by Bark Publishing. It is available in softcover, ebook, and audiobook on Amazon, Audible, Tattered Cover, and Indiebound.

Rich or poor, black or white, girls disappear across this country every day, pulled into the nightmarish world of prostitution and drugs.

Caught up in a cruel system fueled by lust and money, three young women must find the courage within themselves to survive.

Mex Anderson is back, still fighting his own demons, but committed to finding these girls before it’s too late.

With intent to bring credibility to her stories, Peg graduated from the Aurora Citizens’ Police Academy, participated in the Writers’ Police Academy, interviewed crime scene investigators, FBI agents, human trafficking experts, obtained her Concealed Carry, studied arson dogs to Santeria, and hunted down locations that show up in her books. Peg can be contacted at: peg@pegbrantley.com and visit her website at: www.pegbrantley.com