What's New from Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers?

Here are a few of the recent and upcoming releases from members of Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers:

Vampire Syndrome
By Daven Anderson
PDMI Direct 1/17/2013
Paperback $12.95 e-book $3.99
There is a YA version of this novel as well as an adult version with two different book covers.


"Can Special Oympics champion Jack Wendell survive, now that he’s been turned into a vampire? All Jack wants is to be accepted as a valued member of the vampire community. But he can’t do this when Chief Venator (vampire law enforcer) Damien Tepesh has ordered Jack to be killed.

Fortunately, Jack wins the respect of a powerful ally. Lilith Morrigan, President of the Vampires, hides Jack from the ruthless Venators and gives him a chance to prove his worth. But she cannot stop her husband Damien from targeting Jack.

Damien summons Romania’s Chief Venator Zetania Vinescu to Colorado to help him hunt Jack. Lilith over-rides her husband and orders Zetania to protect Jack from the Venators.

As Damien and Lilith battle over control of Jack, a new threat emerges. A space-alien Pure vampire has come to Colorado, specifically to kidnap Jack. Even if Damien and Lilith settle their differences, can they keep Jack safe from the Pures?"

For more information about Daven and his books, please visit his website and blog. He can also be found on Facebook.

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Muckross Folly
By J. L. Austgen
Dreampipe Publishing March 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-0985063047
Hardcover $26.99 Paperback $15.99 ebook $4.99

"Reeling from the destruction of her team at the hands of her deputy, FBI agent Evelyn Morgan vows revenge against her nemesis, the assassin that planned the operation, Omar Ben Iblis. The trail leads to an old friend, well-connected and well-placed in Washington's political establishment.

When he refuses to help, Morgan must scramble to find the pieces to the puzzle. While investigating, she discovers a vicious new menace, more cunning and deadly than anyone she has ever faced. Trained and mentored by Ben Iblis, this new threat has already struck her family, and if Morgan doesn't act quickly, she'll be the talented protégé's next victim."

Visit J.L. at J.L. Austgen…in my words…  and on Facebook.

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Cruising in Your Eighties is Murder
By Mike Befeler
Wheeler Publishing March 18, 2013
ISBN: 978-1410455581
Large Print paperback edition $25.99


"In Cruising in Your Eighties Is Murder cantankerous octogenarian Paul Jacobson becomes involved in a series of crimes while struggling with the problems of his short-term memory loss. On an Alaskan cruise, he must deal with mayhem, missing people and murder and use all his geezer resources to solve a case of international intrigue.

The hard cover edition of this book is a finalist for Left Coast Crime 2013's The Lefty Award for best humorous mystery of 2012."

For more information about Mike’s geezer lit series, visit his website and blog.  He is also on Facebook and Twitter.

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Froggy Style
By J. A. Kazimer
Kensington 2/26/13
ISBN: 978-0758269133
Paperback $15.00 ebook $9.39

"Part of the hot trend of revamped fairytales--from the films Mirror, Mirror and Snow White and the Huntsman to hit TV shows Once Upon a Time and Grimm--J.A. Kazimer's second raucous and irreverent book in the F***ed-Up Fairytale series puts a new spin on a French-kissing frog looking for his princess!

Less than two weeks before he turns thirty, Jean-Michel La Grenouille--the Frog Prince--must find his One. Only by marrying the girl who originally turned him human can he keep from turning back into a frog. When Jean-Michel is introduced to Beauty, a beautiful blonde with a sleeping disorder, he's convinced she's the One and proposes.

But after a drunken night out in Cin City, Jean-Michel discovers that there's a hit out on Beauty. If she's killed before they get married, he'll return to his lilypad forever. He sets out to find the assassin and stop him--but it seems Beauty isn't too keen on getting married either. And to make things worse, a sexy tattoo artist has Jean-Michel's heart hopping..."

Everything you wanted to know but were afraid to ask about Julie and her books can be found at her website and blog. She also has been known to hang out at Facebook and Twitter.

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Memory Lane
By Vella Munn
Samhain Publishing 2/19/2013
ISBN: 978-1619211933
e-book $3.99

"One secret threatens everything she thought she knew. Another threatens her life…

When the museum in Kim Revis’s small home town needs her expertise to design a security system against increasing thefts, she’s more than happy to help. Coming home will give her a chance to get her grandmother’s historic house ready to sell now that the elderly woman is in assisted living.

Meeting her grandmother’s attorney Mark Stockton is an unexpected thrill. He’s warm, compassionate and exceedingly sexy, if a little reserved. Plus he’s concerned about her safety at the museum. But he needn’t worry—though the thief hasn’t been caught, she’s never felt in any personal danger.

Fate has a lousy sense of time. In a perfect world, Mark would simply ask Kim out and their instant chemistry would take it from there. But there’s a major obstacle: attorney/client privilege demands he withhold a deeply disturbing secret that could turn Kim’s rosy memories of her past upside down.

Secrets aren’t the only things lurking in the museum’s dark corners. When one of them emerges from the shadows to threaten her life, the barriers come down. And the truth threatens to destroy their fragile love."


For more information about Vella and her novels, visit her website.She can also be found on Facebook.

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Phantom Harvest: A Book in the Mutant Casebook Series
By C. R. Richards
Whiskey Creek Press February 2013
e-book $4.99

“Gideon, a half-breed mutant with a surly temper and rotten luck, struggles to scrape a living as a tracker in the desolate territory near the gateway to the human world. Business seems to be picking up when Gideon is approached by a powerful dark elf with deep pockets and a serious problem. Human miners at the dark elf's plant are being taken by an elusive predator.

Gideon is pressured to find the killer before word of the disappearances reaches the human world, endangering the tense relationship between their two races. But, nothing is simple this close to the conduit between worlds. Archangel, a ruthless mercenary operating in the secret sectors of mutant society, has set his own deadly game in motion.

Surrounded by savage wilderness and cut off from contact with civilization, Gideon must find a way to protect his friends and survive to collect his bounty.”

For more information about the author and her novels, visit her website.  She is also on Facebook and Twitter.

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Behind the Badge
By Terry Wright
TWB Press
Short Story ebook $.99

"In Book 10 of the Justin Graves Horror Short Story Series, bad cops use deadly force against a teenage boy who's arguing with his mother about joining the army. They know that firing a gun while on duty is a serious matter, but these cops have contingency plans in case they get brought up on charges. It's called a 'drop.' They may have fooled the internal affairs investigators, but they haven't fooled Justin Graves. In hell, guns are not allowed.

This story was inspired by the 2003 killing of Paul Childs, a distraught teenage boy who was shot by Denver police officers when he wouldn't obey their commands to drop a kitchen knife he was holding to his own chest. The cops claimed they feared for their lives, and the shooting was ruled justified."

Learn more about Terry, TWB Press and his novels and short stories at his website.  He also hangs out on Facebook, Twitter, and You Tube.

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Information collected and formatted by Patricia Stoltey

Three Authors, Three Questions: November 2012

Today is the last episode of 3A3Q, so I’m very pleased to have two RMFW members as part of our lineup. Chiseled in Rock welcomes fantasy romance author Robin Owens and mystery authors Margaret Maron and Mike Befeler.

Welcome to Three Authors, Three Questions.

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Mike Befeler writes the Paul Jacobson Geezer-lit Mystery Series including Senior Moments are Murder, Retirement Homes are Murder and Living with Your Kids is Murder, which was nominated for the Lefty Award for best humorous mystery of 2009. The fourth book in his series, Cruising in Your Eighties is Murder, will be released in December, 2012.

To learn more about Mike and his geezer lit series, visit his website and blog.  He can also be found on Facebook.


1. Mike, how and where did you come up with the idea for your first novel?

Inspired by people I met when my mom and stepdad lived in a retirement home, I started writing a relationship story about three men and three women in a retirement community. At the same time I was writing a collection of short mystery stories that had either the victim or the perpetrator being an older person. The two ideas merged, and my first published novel, Retirement Homes Are Murder was born.


2. How creative are you in other areas of your life, especially your hobbies?

I never thought I was that creative, but in 2001 I started making plans to retire. I thought over things I had really enjoyed doing over my life, and they were all creative, such as painting and writing. At that time, I made a conscious decision that I wanted to retire into fiction writing, and in 2007 I published my first novel and retired into writing. I’ve learned that we’re all creative. We only need to give ourselves permission to let the creativity flow.


3. If you could return to the beginning of your writing career, and if you knew everything you’ve learned along the way, what would you do differently?

Since I didn’t start seriously writing until I was fifty-six, in looking back I would have started younger. On the other hand, there is something to be said for timing. When younger, my time was dedicated to raising a family and my career in the hi-tech world. As I approached retirement, I was able to spend the time once occupied with choir concerts, plays and soccer games by writing. I also feel that I needed to have the life experiences under my belt to give me the foundation for my writing.

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Margaret Maron is the author of twenty-eight novels and two collections of short stories. Winner of several major American awards for mysteries (Edgar, Agatha, Anthony, Macavity), her works are on the reading lists of various courses in contemporary Southern literature and have been translated into some 20 languages. She has served as national president of Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America.

A native Tar Heel, she still lives on her family’s century farm a few miles southeast of Raleigh, the setting for Bootlegger’s Daughter, which is numbered among the 100 Favorite Mysteries of the Century as selected by the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association. In 2008, she received the North Carolina Award for Literature, the state’s highest civilian honor; and in 2010, an honorary doctorate from UNCG. Her mystery novels feature District Court Judge Deborah Knott. The latest book in the series, The Buzzard Table, is scheduled for release November 20th.

You’ll find lots more information about Margaret and her novels at her website/blog.  She can also be found on Facebook.


1. Margaret, how and where did you come up with the idea for your first novel, One Coffee With?

I had worked for the Chair of the Brooklyn College Design Dept. and noticed that there seemed to be a lot of toxic chemicals (etching acids, photo developers, etc) floating around. Also that tenure was discussed more often than art. It wasn't a great leap from thinking, "If Professor X retired, Mr. B would be promoted to an associate professorship" to thinking "Who else would benefit if Professor X were murdered?"


2. How creative are you in other areas of your life, especially your hobbies?

Fairly creative in a commonsense, practical way. I don't really have any hobbies. I sew, I garden, I can build, I can repurpose cast-offs, I'm good with a paintbrush, but I don't consider any of these hobbies. They all have utilitarian ends.


3. If you could return to the beginning of your writing career, and if you knew everything you’ve learned along the way, what would you do differently?

I might pay more attention to the business side of writing, but as for the writing itself, I don't know that I'd do much differently.

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Robin D. Owens has been writing longer than she cares to recall. Her fantasy/futuristic romances found a home at Berkley with the issuance of HeartMate in December 2001. She credits the telepathic cat with attitude in selling that book. Since then, Heart Thief was a launch book for Berkley Sensation in June 2003, Heart Duel was published in April 2004, and Heart Choice in July 2005. Her Luna Books series includes shape-shifting fairies and average American women summoned into another world to fight monstrous evil. The first, Guardian of Honor, came out in February 2005 and Sorceress of Faith in February 2006. Her latest, Enchanted Ever After, will be released December 18th.

Robin's best writing moment was winning the Romance Writers of America RITA award! Her worst writing moment is every time a rejection hits.

To learn more about Robin and her books, visit her website and her blog On Writing and Publishing.  Find her also on Twitter and Facebook.


1. Robin, how and where did you come up with the idea for your first novel?

First novel? I started my first long story when I was about ten. It was about two gorgeous girls (one with long blonde hair and one with long, dark, curly black hair) on a spaceship...many attempts later I finished a manuscript (because a friend reading it was going out of the country and wanted to read the ending). Um, that one, The Token, started with a dream sequence, and moved to a car-trip (short), then into an inheritance scene with far too many characters. I think I just sat down and began writing after Kay Bergstrom (teacher of the class on women in jeopardy -- romantic suspense), said "bring five pages to the next class." Of course I didn't know I was supposed to double space...

First published book? Now, that I can answer. My historical Regency romances were going nowhere, I decided to write just for myself, had a bloodstone pendulum and thought "what would happen if there's a place -- say a CELTIC Pagan planet colonized by Earth people -- where a tough guy would actually throw Divination Dice and BELIEVE THEM: 'Today You Will Meet Your HeartMate.'" And, of course, the tough guy had an equally tough telepathic cat who sauntered onto page 3 complaining that the chef had served him fish again...


2. How creative are you in other areas of your life, especially your hobbies?

Other creativity: I used to do crewel embroidery, but not design the pattern. I was very good at that. I can draw stick men! I can make a lopsided pot even my mother won't have in the house! I can make jewelry even my mother won't wear!


3. If you could return to the beginning of your writing career, and if you knew everything you’ve learned along the way, what would you do differently?

Beginning of my career....hmm. Submit more often so it didn't take so long to get published? Write more? Develop a tougher skin at the start? All those would have been worthwhile. But, like, mostly. SAVE, SAVE, SAVE MONEY!

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Mini-interviews were conducted via e-mail and compiled by Pat Stoltey. Chiseled in Rock thanks Mike Befeler, Margaret Maron, and Robin Owens for graciously agreeing to participate in this last installment of the Three Authors, Three Questions series.

What's New from Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers?

Here are a few new book releases from members of Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers:

Cruising in Your Eighties is Murder
By Mike Befeler
Five Star/Cengage, December 2012
ISBN: 978-1432825812
Hardcover: $25.95


“In this, the fourth of the Paul Jacobson Geezer-lit Mystery Series, octogenarian Paul Jacobson runs afoul of the police and ship security while on a honeymoon cruise to Alaska with his bride. Paul must deal with mayhem, missing people and murder. He has to use all his geezer resources to solve a case of international intrigue.”

You can learn more about Mike Befeler and his geezer lit mystery series at his website and blog.  He can also be found on Facebook.


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The Missings
By Peg Brantley
e-book $2.99
Paperback coming soon


“Aspen Falls, Colorado.
Secrets.
Secrets within a community.
Secrets within a family.

Detective Chase Waters finds himself working the most interesting case of his career—one that comes closer to home than he could ever imagine.

Are the mutilated bodies of young men and women the result of cult… or commerce?”

For more information about Peg and her novels, visit her website and blog.  You can also find her on Facebook and Twitter.


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Murder by Vegetable: The Baby Quilt
By Barbara Graham
Five Star/Cengage, November 2012
ISBN: 978-1432826215
Hardcover: $25.95
Paper Large Print $25.99

“The fourth in the "Quilted Mystery" series featuring Tennessee Sheriff Tony Abernathy and his wife Theo, a dedicated quilter.

Springtime in the Smoky Mountains is being celebrated by a festival in honor of ramps, a pungent member of the onion/garlic family. The festivities are disrupted when a potato launched by a cannon strikes, and apparently kills, unpopular game warden, Harrison Ragsdale.”

For more information about Barbara and the quilting mysteries, visit her website.  She is also on Facebook.


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To Hell in a Handbasket (re-release)
By Beth Groundwater
Midnight Ink, November 2012
ISBN: 978-0738727028
Trade paperback and e-book $14.99

“An icy demise snowballs in book 2 of this Agatha Award-nominated series. Gift basket designer Claire Hanover is reluctantly enjoying a spring ski vacation with her family in Breckenridge, Colorado, when a bloodcurdling scream cuts the frigid air. Claire is appalled to find the sister of her daughter’s boyfriend dead on the slopes. Others assume the girl’s death was an accident, but Claire notices another pair of ski tracks veering dangerously into the victim’s path. To protect her daughter as incriminating clues surface, Claire unravels a chilling conspiracy.”

For more information about Beth and her books, visit her website and blog.  She can also be found on Facebook and Goodreads.


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The View from Here
By Cindy Myers
Kensington Books November 2012
ISBN: 978-0758277404
Paperback $15.00
E-book $12.99

“When newly divorced Maggie Carter inherits a gold mine from the father she never knew, she leaves Houston and travels to the small town of Eureka, Colorado. There she hopes to solve the mystery of the man who abandoned the family when she was three. In Eureka, Maggie meets people who touch her life in different ways: bitter librarian Cassie Wynock; town mayor Lucille Theriot; and enigmatic Jameso Clark, whose love-hate relationship with her father intrigues Maggie, and whose attraction for her she finds both unnerving and exhilarating. As Maggie confronts the sins of her father and the mistakes of her own past she learns to look at life differently and discovers it can take a village -- or one small mountain town -- to heal a heart.”

Learn more about Cindy and her novels at her website and blog.