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Pretty Chrysanthemum and Other Stories, by Nancy Lane

December 3, 2020 By Jan

Nancy Lane is the author of a new book, Pretty Chrysanthemum and Other Stories, a mainstream collection of short stories published by Open Books Publishing.

These 16 short stories remind readers how family is at the core of human experience and how relationships, especially those between parent and child, rely on the power of love to overcome challenges. Five stories feature historical content, touching on issues still relevant today. Eleven contemporary stories also pose challenging situations, including a father and daughter on the run with an AMBER alert issued about them and a woman’s adult son missing after crashing his car in the desert.

Buy Pretty Chrysanthemum and Other Stories

Tainted Times 2: second in the Angeline Porter Trilogy, by Valerie Brooks

November 23, 2020 By Jan

Valerie Brooks is the author of a new book, Tainted Times 2: second in the Angeline Porter Trilogy, a psychological noir thriller published by Black Leather Jacket Press.

Former criminal defense attorney Angeline Porter has killed two leaders of an extortionist mob in self-defense, and the new leaders want her money and her dead. How long will she have to hide out in the hot, humid hills of Kauai? Then she discovers something startling—she has a sister she never knew about. But FBI agent Gerard Duvernet tells her this sister has connections to the same mob that’s after Ang. Will justice or blood ties win out?

Buy Tainted Times 2: second in the Angeline Porter Trilogy

2021 OWC Writing Contest to Focus on Mystery

October 30, 2020 By Jan

OWC Writing Contest is still accepting submissions through midnight PST January 31, 2021,

Fees are $10 for OWC members, $20 for nonmembers, $5 for high school or college students.

First Prize: A two-day stay at Colonyhouse or a virtual mentorship session with published author.

Second Prize: A virtual mentorship session with Cindy Brown.

Third Prize: A full critique of your submission by Bill Cameron.

Honorable Mention: One-year OWC membership.

Submit here

Rules

10 pages of an original, unpublished mystery novel
No separate title page
Double-spaced with indented paragraphs in 12-point Times New Roman or similar typeface
Standard margins
Title, word count, and category on the first page of the manuscript
No author name anywhere in manuscript
Use the title of your entry as the file name of your submission

Use this link to submit to the contest

Valerie J. Brooks will be the final judge. Valerie is a longtime member of OWC who has generously contributed her time and talents to developing writers. She is the author of an acclaimed femmes-noir series, as well as an in-demand workshop teacher. Watch for an upcoming workshop for OWC.

Contest winners will be announced and will read from their entries at our Virtual Contest Gala on Zoom in March 2021, date and time to be announced.

Mentoring Authors

Cindy Brown is a full-time content and copywriter, the ghostwriter for two nonfiction books, and the author of a six-book mystery series starring Ivy Meadows, actress and part-time PI. Published by Henery Press, Cindy’s mysteries have been shortlisted for the Agatha Awards and included in Kings River Life Magazine’s Best Books of 2018. Cindy lives in Portland, Oregon, with her husband and crazy terrier, where she gardens when it’s not raining and works on her next book when it is. She gets a lot of writing done.

When not tending his chickens, Bill Cameron shapes unruly words into captivating people caught in harrowing situations. His work includes the critically-acclaimed Skin Kadash mysteries and, as W.H. Cameron, the high desert mystery Crossroad. At present he’s at work on a historical mystery set on Tillamook Bay at the Oregon coast. His short stories have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, Killer Year, A Beast Without a Name, Lee Child’s First Thrills anthology, Portland Noir, and more. His work has been nominated for the Left Coast Crime Rocky Award, the CWA Short Story Dagger, and multiple times for the Spotted Owl, which he won for County Line. His YA mystery Property of the State was named one of Kirkus Reviews Best of 2016.

Contest Judge

Acclaimed author Valerie J. Brooks writes femmes-noir psychological thrillers where the women are badass and take center stage. The first in the Angeline Porter Trilogy Revenge in 3 Parts was a finalist for the Nancy Pearl Book Award and a winner in the International Readers’ Favorites Thriller Awards. New York Times bestselling author Kevin O’Brien called her second book Tainted Times 2 “a real nail-biter from first page to the last.”

After studying film noir in college, Valerie found her noir voice for fiction. She received an Elizabeth George Foundation grant and was the recipient of five writing residencies. Brooks teaches workshops and classes in how to write noir. She reviews mystery, suspense and thriller novels, podcasts, and streaming shows on her blog.

Brooks lives in the McKenzie River Valley in Oregon with her husband, Dan, and their Havanese pooch Stevie Nicks.

A Long Winter’s Night, by Robin Dayle

October 13, 2020 By Jan

Robin Dayle is the author of a new book, A Long Winter’s Night, a Regency romance/Christmas story published by The Night Mail.

Where do two lonely hearts and screwball comedy collide. At a Regency Christmas party, of course.

Duels, fools and the Polite World’s rules; which will win?

In madcap pursuit, through a long winter’s night, Anthea and Gerrard chase their dreams, hoping to catch the love that eluded them long ago.

Buy A Long Winter’s Night

Cat Conundrum, a Crazy Cat Lady Cozy Mystery #7, by Mollie Hunt

October 13, 2020 By Jan

Mollie Hunt is the author of a new book, Cat Conundrum, a Crazy Cat Lady Cozy Mystery #7, a cozy cat mystery published by Indie.

~A locked room. A dead man. The cat is the only witness, and he isn’t talking.~

Cat Conundrum finds our hero, sixty-something cat shelter volunteer Lynley Cannon, on the wild Washington coast with her friend, Special Agent Denny Paris. The pair are all set to give a presentation on shelter cats at a prestigious cat summit. Little do they know they will be confronted with not one, not two, not three, but four bizarre murders!