First, quick reminder that I did release book eight in the Maggie May and Miss Fancypants Mysteries series, A Salacious Scandal and Steak Sizzlers, in December just in case anyone was consumed by the holidays and missed that announcement.
Second, if you click on that link or any of the images on this page they should take you to a Books2Read page with links to many of the stores that carry the books. I’ve now added links to those pages for the regular print and large print paperback versions on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. So if you’re looking for print those links will take you right to the version you want.
(Amazon has an annoying habit of showing either the regular paperback version or the large print version, but not both at the same time. Right now I’ve sold more large print there than regular print so for most of the book listings it’s defaulting to the large print instead of the regular print. You can usually tell by the price. As of now the regular print books are $9.99 USD and the large print are $14.95. I’ll also probably add more stores soon, but each moment I spend on that is a moment not spent writing the next book so it’s always a balancing act.)
Third, my pup and I had quite the adventure at the end of December. You may have seen news coverage of that massive fire that destroyed over a thousand homes in Colorado. Well, we were right in the middle of that area.
Fortunately we left before there were flames at our doorstep (which did pretty much happen although our place came out of it with ash but nothing worse). But it meant three weeks lost to being in hotels and clean-up, etc.
Made me glad I’d gone ahead and released the latest book when I did because it was a coin flip between releasing it then or releasing it around January 3rd which would not have happened had I waited.
Fourth, there will be a Maggie May and Miss Fancypants mystery this year. Hopefully before June, but as you can see life sometimes has other plans. For anyone who read book eight, you know there’s one more big thing that has to happen in Maggie’s life.
And then that’s actually going to be the final book in this series. I may well continue with Maggie, Fancy, Matt, and crew, but if I do it will be as a new series centered around the pet resort. But I also have a mystery series involving a ghost dog that’s been percolating for a while that I may start first. I also have a very neglected fantasy pen name that needs a book this year.
Fifth, in the meantime I do have a short story coming out in a charity anthology on the 11th. It’s not a mystery so much as a whimsical holiday murder story. You can find it here right now but expect it to be up on more stores when the time comes.
The anthology is called Eat, Drink, and Be Wary and is edited by Lisa Magnum. My story is “Tick Tock”. It should be under this name, but if not it’ll be under M.L. Humphrey.
I haven’t read the other stories yet, but I believe a lot of them will be speculative fiction stories because the anthology funds go to support scholarships for people to attend the Superstars Writing Seminars for the first time and the founding authors of that conference tend to be known best in fantasy and science fiction circles.
It’s been getting positive reviews, so maybe check it out and help some new writers at the same time. (And to be clear, not all the authors in the anthology are new, that’s for the conference scholarship. Kevin J Anderson, one of the founders of Superstars who is probably best known for his Dune books or Star Wars books, has a story in there, too.)
And I think that’s it. Pup is snoring away on the other side of the desk, so time to get some writing done. Hope all is well with you.
Aleksa Baxter 