Spotlight on FOX TALE by Karen Hulene Bartell

A hearty “Welcome back!” to my fellow TWRP author Karen Hulene Bartell. She’s sharing the details on her latest release, the second in 2024. 

Title – Fox Tale

Author – Karen Hulene Bartell

Genre – Paranormal Romance

Publisher – The Wild Rose Press

Book Blurb –

Heights terrify Ava. When a stranger saves her from plunging down a mountain, he diverts her fears with tales of Japanese kitsune—shapeshifting foxes—and she begins a journey into the supernatural.

She’s attracted to Chase, both physically and metaphysically, yet primal instincts urge caution when shadows suggest more than meets the eye.

She’s torn between Chase and Rafe, her ex, when a chance reunion reignites their passion, but she struggles to overcome two years of bitter resentment. Did Rafe jilt her, or were they pawns of a larger conspiracy? Are the ancient legends true of kitsunes twisting time and events?

I haven’t heard of this legend, but a story about fox shifters who can manipulate time sounds fascinating. Let’s see the Fox Tale excerpt –

The kitten crawled on the pillow, purring in my ear as he kneaded my neck and shoulders with his silky paws.

“That actually feels good.” I chuckled at the irony, then exhausted, fell into a deep sleep. I found myself sitting on a shaded, grassy slope. A gentle breeze fluttered against my cheek.

No, not a breeze, Chase.

He caressed my cheek as he swept my hair behind my ear and whispered sweet nothings. His breath tickling, he nuzzled my neck.

Goosebumps slid down my spine.

Then he massaged my back….

As latent yearnings awakened, I arched my back, enjoying the waves of sensation. With a shudder, I moaned, pulling him toward me in a deep kiss….

Bbbrrringg, bbbrrringg, bbbrrringg.

As the alarm jolted me awake, the heat rose to my cheeks, and I scanned the surroundings to get my bearings. Mortified, I cringed beneath the sheets. What have I done? Then relieved to see only the kitten for a bed partner, I gave a nervous laugh. It was a dream--just a dream.

The kitten uncurled from between my legs, purring.

Embarrassed by the sensations it elicited, I scrambled to my feet. Did the kitten trigger those dreams?

When did you start writing?

An only child, I began writing my first novel at the age of nine, learning the joy of creating my own happy endings…However, I got four pages into my first “book” and realized I had to do a lot of living before I could finish it!

IMHO, reading is the entry to writing. Born to rolling-stone parents who moved annually--sometimes monthly--I found my earliest playmates as fictional friends in books. Paperbacks became my portable pals. Ghost stories kept me up at night--reading feverishly. Novels offered an imaginative escape, and the paranormal was my passion.

So here I am all these decades later, still creating my own happy endings… 

Your history sounds so familiar: grade school attempts at writing and scouring the library for fictional friends. (Been there, done that too!)

With another release under your belt, what's next for you?

I’m writing a political-suspense thriller set in Taipei, Taiwan, entitled Silkworm, that portrays a US Senator’s daughter caught between two men, two cultures, two political ideologies, and the two Chinas.

A love triangle is the metaphor for Taiwan and China (the two dragons) competing for geopolitical and technological accords with the US. As mainland China seeks to recover the third of its lost provinces–Taiwan–Rachel Moore struggles to escape the triple nightmare of impending war, a marriage of convenience, and an assassination plot against the man she loves. Silkworm weaves their stories with the trilateral events currently erupting in Southeast Asia.

Wow, from paranormal to political thriller! You are multi-talented, for sure. Best of luck with everything on your plate.

Here are the Buy Links for Fox Tale –

UNIVERSAL LINK: https://books2read.com/u/br9VJM

AMAZON: https://shorturl.at/uwGPX

GOODREADS: https://shorturl.at/jozDY

BARNES & NOBLE / NOOK: https://shorturl.at/nuMOZ 

For more about Karen, here’s her Author Biography –

Author of the Trans-Pecos, Sacred Emblem, Sacred Journey, and Sacred Messenger series, as well as Kissing Kin, Fox Tale, Wild Rose Pass, The Keys: Voice of the Turtle and more, Karen is a best-selling author, motivational keynote speaker, IT technical editor, wife, and all-around pilgrim of life. She writes multicultural, offbeat love stories steeped in the supernatural. Born to rolling-stone parents who moved annually, Bartell found her earliest playmates as fictional friends in books. Paperbacks became her portable pals. Ghost stories kept her up at night—reading feverishly. The paranormal was her passion. Novels offered an imaginative escape. An only child, she began writing her first novel at the age of nine, learning the joy of creating her own happy endings. Professor emeritus of the University of Texas at Austin, Karen resides in the Texas Piney Woods with her husband Peter and her mews—three rescued cats and a rescued *Cat*ahoula Leopard dog.

Connect with Karen on her Social Media Links –

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KarenHuleneBartell

MeWe: https://mewe.com/i/karenbartell

Twitter: https://twitter.com/HuleneKaren

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/karenhulenebartell/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/611950.Karen_Hulene_Bartell

Website: http://www.KarenHuleneBartell.com/

Email: info@KarenHuleneBartell.com

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/author/karenhulenebartell

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/karenhulenebartell/

BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/karen-hulene-bartell

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karenhulenebartell/

AUTHORSdb: https://authorsdb.com/community/17847-karen-hulene-bartell

 

Please show Karen some love by visiting her sites and checking out her books.

My Guest Today: Paranormal Romance Author Karen Hulene Bartell

My guest today is an author after my own heart, someone with wandering feet and an itch to travel to new places, someone who is inspired by what she sees. Please welcome Karen Hulene Bartell, a multi-published author whose latest release is the paranormal romance Kissing Kin. 

I’m always intrigued by how book ideas are birthed. What was the inspiration for Kissing Kin?

Whenever I visit provocative places, encounter new experiences, sample different ethnic foods, or chance upon stimulating people, I’m inspired. Ideas flow. (I should’ve been a travel correspondent.) There’s something about traveling that takes me out of my rut and propels me into new realms of possibility.

I’ve written some of my best concepts sitting in noisy airports or hotel bathrooms at midnight (so I don’t wake my husband with the light). Being out of my element and in new environments stimulates my imagination.

As I visit new destinations, I’m infused with innovative ideas, envisioning scene after scene, like vignettes flowing from one to the next and the next.

Oh, I love that feeling! How did that play out for this book?

In Kissing Kin’s case, my husband and I spent Christmas week hiking and horseback riding in Big Bend National Park twenty years ago. You’ve seen the area on maps--the southernmost tip of Texas that borders the Rio Grande and dips into Mexico. Spanning more than 800,000 acres of Chihuahuan desert, mountains, and rivers, Big Bend is larger than the state of Rhode Island--and filled with lions and bobcats and bears. Oh, my!

Driving home early that New Year’s morning, we missed the turnoff in Alpine and followed TX-118 north. Snow-covered and glinting against the frosty blue January sky, a remote jumble of mountain peaks and ranges beckoned as they rose above the desert floor. I was enchanted. Gazing at the sky island for the first time, wide-eyed, I wondered whether those rocky pinnacles were mirages or optical delusions.

But as the craggy peaks loomed larger (a mile high, I later learned), I realized they were no hallucination or Fata Morgana. A hasty glance at the map told us these were the Davis Mountains. As we approached, vertical basalt columns rose like thousands of giant fingers reaching for the sky. The palisades, buttes, and bluffs towered above both sides of the road with a raw, majestic beauty, and I breathed a contented sigh, almost as if coming home.

That missed turn took us only a half hour out of our way, but as we drove through those mountains, my life changed. From that day to this, the area’s held my heart and imagination. Wild Rose Pass became Book I of the Trans-Pecos Series, and Kissing Kin has become Book II. Both novels are standalones with dissimilar genres--Wild Rose Pass is a historical novel, while Kissing Kin is a paranormal romance.

What a fabulous setting! Now that we’re dreaming of those mountains, we’re primed to see the blurb and excerpt.

Book Blurb –

Maeve Jackson is starting over after a broken engagement—and mustering out of the Army. No job and no prospects, she spins out on black ice and totals her car.

When struggling vintner Luke Kaylor stops to help, they discover they’re distantly related. On a shoestring budget to convert his vineyard into a winery, he makes her a deal: prune grapevines in exchange for room and board.

But forgotten diaries and a haunted cabin kickstart a five-generation mystery with ancestors that have bones to pick. As carnal urges propel them into each other’s arms, they wonder: Is their attraction physical…or metaphysical?

Kissing Kin Excerpt – Dozing by the Fire

“Mind if I camp out ’til the roads clear?”

“Under the circumstances?” The clerk shook his head. “Not a problem.”

“Thanks.” He started toward the sitting room and nearly bumped into Maeve, leaning against the wall. “Sorry, didn’t mean to wake you.”

“You didn’t.” She tossed her chin. “I was cat-napping.”

“Right.” He compared her guarded veneer to her sleeping-beauty persona. Which is closer to her true self?

“Couldn’t help overhearing.” Gesturing toward the clerk with her chin, she grimaced. “I’m responsible for you being out tonight--”

“No.” He shook his head. “This is just a freak storm.”

“You don’t have to sleep in a chair.” She took a deep breath and gave a quick, tight-lipped smile. “My room has two queen beds, and you’re welcome to one of ’em.”

Unsure of the extent of her invitation, he did a double take.

“Just so we understand each other, this is a bunk, a place to sack out. Period. Amen.” She spoke in a low-pitched, no-nonsense voice. “Nothing more, so don’t get any--”

“Got it.” He covered his disappointment with a laugh. “Thanks, I appreciate the offer, but I’ll be fine dozing by the fire.”

“Hey, I’ve bivouacked with soldiers in Afghanistan. We do what’s necessary under extenuating circumstances.” Shrugging, she glanced at the door. “And this blizzard qualifies.” Her face relaxed into a smile.

Her offer tempting, he compared sitting up all night to stretching out in a bed. Then he glimpsed the clerk.

“If you’re worried about my reputation, don’t be.” She laughed, the sound like sleigh bells tinkling on a crisp, wintry night.

What is it about her that conjures thoughts of other times--other eras? 

Now that you’ve hooked us into this paranormal story, we need the buy links.

UNIVERSAL LINK: https://books2read.com/u/boXl10

AMAZON: https://shorturl.at/iwEIJ

GOODREADS: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/204849593-kissing-kin

APPLE: https://books.apple.com/us/book/kissing-kin/id6475424012

BARNES & NOBLE: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/kissing-kin-karen-bartell/1144521766?ean=9781509253951

And an author’s bio and social media links:

Author of the Trans-Pecos, Sacred Emblem, Sacred Journey, and Sacred Messenger series, as well as Kissing Kin, Fox Tale, Wild Rose Pass, The Keys: Voice of the Turtle and more, Karen is a best-selling author, motivational keynote speaker, IT technical editor, wife, and all-around pilgrim of life. She writes multicultural, offbeat love stories steeped in the supernatural. Born to rolling-stone parents who moved annually, Bartell found her earliest playmates as fictional friends in books. Paperbacks became her portable pals. Ghost stories kept her up at night—reading feverishly. The paranormal was her passion. Novels offered an imaginative escape. An only child, she began writing her first novel at the age of nine, learning the joy of creating her own happy endings. Professor emeritus of the University of Texas at Austin, Karen resides in the Texas Piney Woods with her husband Peter and her mews—three rescued cats and a rescued *Cat*ahoula Leopard dog.

Social Media Links –

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KarenHuleneBartell

MeWe: https://mewe.com/i/karenbartell

Twitter: https://twitter.com/HuleneKaren

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/karenhulenebartell/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/611950.Karen_Hulene_Bartell

Website: http://www.KarenHuleneBartell.com/

Email: info@KarenHuleneBartell.com

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/author/karenhulenebartell

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/karenhulenebartell/

BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/karen-hulene-bartell

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karenhulenebartell/

AUTHORSdb: https://authorsdb.com/community/17847-karen-hulene-bartell

Thanks for visiting, Karen, and sharing the origins of your latest release. You've made us all want to visit the Big Bend area and check out Kissing Kin.

My Guest Today: Cozy Mystery Author Mary Ann Jacobs

Welcome to the month of March, where seasons change and snow still sometimes flies. A perfect month for showcasing a cozy mystery by none other than Mary Ann Jacobs, whose debut novel Don’t Mess with Me, is the first book in her Berkshire Mysteries series. 

I’m always fascinated by how writers become authors. Everyone seems to find their own particular path. What have the steps been on your journey to being a published novelist?

When I taught school, I always wanted to write. I published a poem and essays but had little time for any other writing. When I retired, I collected all my scraps and loose pages of writing from my messy classroom desk and vowed to organize my writings and create many different types of writing.

Covid was a blessing because I now had time for writing. At first, I wrote a poem a day and sent my poems to the members of my bridge group. Every time I decided to stop, they encouraged me to continue because they looked forward each day to a new poem.

You were extremely fortunate to have such supportive friends! Then what happened?

I published many of those poems in magazines and anthologies then turned my attention to a new genre. I had been watching Hallmark movies and reading cozy mysteries in our time of isolation. Finally, I decided that I would try my hand at a cozy mystery. I considered this as my Writing Therapy to escape the boredom of isolation during Covid. 

I set the mystery in the Berkshires where my grandchildren live, and where I spent many summers. I modeled Sadie’s character after my aunt who was a feisty, independent woman.

Knowing your setting is a definite bonus when describing it. Let's hear more about your book.

Blurb:

In the fictional small town of Pittman in the heart of the Berkshire Mountains, two murders and a kidnapping occur.

Robin George and Sadie Aboud form the Super Sleuths and intend to set the Sheriff straight and solve the crimes for him. At one point, the frustrated Sheriff suspects all the amateur sleuths, and Robin and Sadie must convince him of their innocence.

Of course, a cozy mystery needs villains. The two evil villains are Chester Fergusson, a realtor and con artist who is trying to buy up all the property on Farley Square, and Mopey Tyler, a suspected drug dealer and the owner of a smut shop. When they hatch their kidnapping plan, they involve Mike’s Dad, who owns the local bowling alley.

Excerpt:

Suspicions Revealed and Rebuked

            Sheriff Houtman frowned at the boys as he listened to their allegations, then he said, “If I catch any of you, and that includes the grownups in this room, inserting yourselves into our investigation, I’ll arrest you for obstruction of justice.”

            “We are looking for a murderer who is probably still right here in our town. It is too dangerous to be playing amateur detective. Do you understand me? Sadie, Robin, and Lola, this means you.”

            We all looked guilty and nodded our heads. I’m pretty he didn’t believe a thing we just reported. He then turned and left in a hurry.

Sounds like a perfect cozy to enjoy on spring break. Now that you have a novel with your name on the cover, what have you been doing?

            Don’t Mess with Me is now one year old. I have enjoyed going to many book clubs that have read my book. I enjoy the fact that when I ask the readers if they guessed the ending, the majority say they never guessed it. I also ask what they would like to see in the second book in the series, and I have included many of those suggestions into the second book in the Berkshire Mystery Series.

            The second book is now under contract with The Wild Rose Press, and we will begin to edit it in March.

            Since I love to cook, I have modernized my grandmother’s Lebanese dishes and included a couple recipes at the end of each book. I’m sure Sadie must serve these recipes at Sweet Indulgences, her fictional restaurant in Pittman.

Oh, could you share a recipe? I’m always looking for new dishes, and I’m sure my readers are too.

Creative Leftovers

In my family, we often use lamb in recipes. When we use ground lamb in rice and sauce or kousa, we often have leftover ground lamb.

Scrambled Eggs and lamb

1.     In a skillet, place 1 chopped onion, 2 tablespoons of pine nuts, and a pat of butter. Add leftover lamb then fry.

2.     Whip 4 or 5 eggs in a bowl.

3.     Add eggs to the lamb, onion, and pine nuts mixture, and scramble lightly in a skillet.

4.     Do not let the scrambled eggs get hard.

5.     Serve with heated pita bread.

I want to thank Mary Ann for visiting today and sharing her book and writing journey. For more information and to check out Don’t Mess with Me, click on the links below.

Buy links:

https://www.amazon.com/Dont-Mess-Berkshires-Mystery-Book-ebook/dp/B0BKYF5HJV/ref=sr_1_1?crid=19PG1A36M97U0&keywords=Don%27t+Mess+with+Me+by+mary+ann+jacobs&qid=16

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/dont-mess-with-me-mary-ann-jacobs/1142600182?ean=2940186700777

Contact the author at maryannjacobsauthor@gmail.com

https://www.facebook.com/maryannjacobsauthor

Website: maryannjacobsauthor.wordpress.com

Twitter: maryann68592654

https://www.bookbub.com/reviews/1878950818?source=link_share

 

My Guest Today: Paranormal Romantic Suspense Author Mickey Flagg

Please welcome paranormal romantic suspense author Mickey Flagg. She’s just released His Soul to Keep, the third book in The Champion Chronicles. Let’s find out a bit about her before we ask her questions. 

Bio

Always an avid reader, the realm of paranormal fiction is the perfect landing point for Mickey Flagg. After a successful career as a music teacher and an urban school administrator, she continues to spin stories of passion, love and redemption. She’s been a contributor in a book on urban music education and has also authored an article for Still Standing, a web-magazine about loss and healing. Named a Distinguished Music Educator at the 2010 Yale Music Symposium, Mickey is a life-long New Jersey resident, a member of Liberty States Fiction Writers and NJRW, and has served as a Professor in Residence with a local university.

A number of writers I know are or have been teachers, but you’re the first I’ve met from the field of music instruction. Tell us, what inspired you to write fiction? And what drew you to the paranormal romance genre, specifically the vampire sub-genre?

I love doing puzzles. The more pieces the better. Writing is like putting a puzzle together and creating a vivid picture. I simply choose to make my vivid picture with vampires, witches, and mystical warriors. 

One of the first pieces of advice an aspiring author gets is write what you love. In my case, that’s paranormal fiction. When you add a heady dose of romance and some gut-wrenching suspense, the sub-genre becomes paranormal romance suspense. I write in a broad genre that is crowded with so many twists and turns that your head could spin. Focusing my stories on a cast of characters, the world I create consistently pits evil against good. Writing dark fantasy enables an author to bend the rules to meet his or her own criteria. I like that perk. It places my characters in situations that have roots in real-world relationships with more than a splash of other-world drama. 

Oh, I like that rule-bending perk too. Tell us more about the drama inherent in your stories.

My main character in The Champion Chronicles is a mystically enhanced vampire who regained his soul with some Heavenly help. Writing someone who should be intrinsically evil but chooses the most difficult path to redemption creates fascinating possibilities for him and for me as the writer. By giving him a soulmate who should have destroyed him and a troubled human son who shouldn’t exist complicates his world. Add to the mix a host of secondary characters that he must interact with, and my paranormal world is complete.

Some authors choose to write cozy mysteries, young adult, or second-chance romance. I choose to write tales of love and redemption in the realm of the paranormal. I’ve always been drawn to the genre because of the vampire trope. Be it Anne Rice or J.R. Ward, various writing styles intrigue me. So do story lines that involve all the fantastical what-ifs, like Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander Series. So, I write what I like. Strong characters who value love and family above all else. They just happen to be mystical or magical and live in a world that is always threatened by something evil. I build a story where good always wins, and whether mystical, magical, or human, my characters must face his or her demon within and do some soul-searching along the way. 

For me, writing paranormal fiction is like a giant jigsaw puzzle. I’m just never sure of the vivid, completed picture until I type: The End. 

I like the puzzle imagery, working the pieces until the image/story is complete. Let’s take a look now at what you’ve completed in His Soul to Keep.

Blurb

Too many questions. Too many doubts. Michael Malone’s new existence is not only shocking but beyond puzzling. Keeping his distance from his soulmate and his troubled son only makes matters worse. When his beast-within is resurrected by dark magic and implanted in a teenage girl, he feels the aberration, feels responsible. But he isn’t a commanding, mystically enhanced vampire anymore. Will he be able to destroy the evil entity, or will he be forced to take it back within his soul to save an innocent? First, he must locate who inspired this heinous act, the wicked wizard and a beautiful but cunning female vampire he knew centuries ago. His new reality, his very human life hangs in the balance and he will face unparalleled evil. Many innocent lives are at stake—should he not succeed.

Excerpt

In a familiar way, Alana settled between his long legs. Pulling out of the steamy kiss, her head rested on his heart, and every thump filled her with wonder. No ordinary man could wear snug black jeans and a simple black shirt with its sleeves rolled up the way Michael did. Dark colors enhanced his singular, intense look. Even with her eyes closed, she could see only him. She could sense strength in his soul, in his muscular body. His embrace was a place of comfort as well as erotic joy.

Years apart, and then realizing how much she loved him... What he had put himself through ten months ago had reshaped their destiny, and now, the possibility of a long life together had real meaning. She felt him deep in her soul. Being with him made her very core ache with a lover’s need. In an intimate way, she studied his day-old beard, the width of his shoulders, the lines of his face. Her hands weren’t willing to leave his chest. He shifted, and she drifted farther away to sit on her heels, to drown in the full vision of him. His eyes shimmered as his warm fingers threaded hers.

“How’d it go with Lu? Did you get a chance to talk?”

“Jeez, Mom, that’s a tough one. Couldn’t we start with something easier?”

She chuckled. “I think Mom sounds sweet. He lets me call him Lu.”

“If you’re okay with it, so am I.”

“Where is he?”

“Anywhere I’m not, apparently.” He groaned in a frustrated way and pushed back to sit up against the padded arm. His hands slipped out of her hold, and he laced them to his chest.  When he blew out a slow breath, shivers ran down her spine.

“Did something happen?”

“I expected non-stop questions, not a sudden shutdown.”

“Do you have any idea how unbelievable this is? How unexpected—”

“No, really,” he said with a touch of sarcasm. A distant look she’d never seen before settled on his face. “I asked for an end to my existence. I didn’t ask for life.”

His eyes dulled while hers blazed. Sucking in a breath, she held it. Maybe she’d misunderstood. “You wanted an end to your existence? Meaning… the forever kind of death?”

“Alana, I’m not about to lie.”

“Nope, rewind and talk. Talk fast.” The proverbial romantic, rose-tinted glasses had just ripped right off her eyes.

“What I did in undeath, unexpected questions fired at me by twelve individuals to explain or clarify… then sitting in the church after a six-hour inquisition—which took place a full month after I completed their Document of Atonement. I…came undone. Before I left you last May, I had no right to ask for your love.” He looked at the wall, down the hall, at anything but her.

“Michael—”

“And whose idea was it to have my son here, waiting for my return?”

“We all thought—”

“I told him I’d come for him when I was ready. That was the deal. He should have been forced to stay at school in England. I had no right believing I could teach him how to deal with life, either.”

“Michael, stop,” she managed to whisper. Illogical words came from a most rational man. She couldn’t swallow, didn’t recognize the chill in his tone.

Now that you have us hooked, let’s share contact info and buy links:

Contact links:

Website info: http://mflagg-author.com

Social Media links:

Facebook:    (1) M. Flagg | Facebook

Twitter:   https://twitter.com/flagg_michele

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mickeyflagg

Buy Links:

Amazon.com: His Soul to Keep (The Champion Chronicles Book 3) eBook : Flagg, M. : Books

His Soul to Keep by M. Flagg, Paperback | Barnes & Noble® (barnesandnoble.com)

I’m so grateful Mickey was kind enough to visit today. Please take some time to check out her series, The Champion Chronicles and her latest release His Soul to Keep.

 

 

Book Spotlight: ACCIDENTAL ALLIES by Karina Bartow

Please welcome Karina Bartow, author of The Unde(a)feated Detective series. Today’s spotlight is on her latest release in the series, book 2, ACCIDENTAL ALLIES. 

I doff my hat to you for coming up with characters and situations that can sustain a series. Detective fiction is a wonderfully compelling genre, and one of my favorites. Tell us, how did you come up with the plot for this follow-up book?

In continuation of The Unde(a)feated Detective series, I decided to bring Minka back to the police force in Accidental Allies, but I wanted her return to be suspenseful, much like her departure was in Husband in Hiding. Thus, I set it around an explosion. You can’t get much more action-packed than that, right?

 

Absolutely a bang-up idea!

 

Along with that, I used this installment to provide a glimpse into the adversity Minka faced—and continues to face—in her pursuits to be a policewoman. Being disabled myself, I channeled some of my own experiences and reactions to them through her.  Like her, I’ve also been privileged to have “allies” in my corner who believe in me, so I implemented characters around her that show her that kind of support.

 

Sounds very timely, trying to break the “blue ceiling” and be seen as fully capable. What’s the blurb?

 

Everybody’s experienced a rocky start to a new job, but few can top Minka Avery's return to Orlando PD.

 

After six years as a stay-at-home mom, Minka’s nervous but excited to sit at a detective’s desk again. Before she has a chance to break in her badge, however, her career resumes with a bang when someone bombs the county courthouse.

 

With many disillusioned with the justice system, several brow-raising suspects emerge right away. Minka and her new partner, Renee, follow several tips that lead to dead ends, until they zero in on the courthouse's former security guard. Their attempts to apprehend him send the city and police department into chaos. Meanwhile, Minka contends with the lingering suspicion of another party being involved. Could his accomplice be closer than she thinks?

 

Wow! Let’s see an excerpt.

Because of the explosion, all of the amusement parks closed early, driving out the entire community of panicked tourists. News vans and first-responders added to the congestion, all sharing the same destination. Rush hour on its worst day didn’t compare to this chaotic ride.

Upon driving closer, Minka and Renee saw smoke ascending from the twenty-three-story building. Totally engulfed in flames, the Orange County Courthouse lacked its former majestic quality. Firefighters surrounded the south side where the thickest smoke bellowed into the sky. The darkness of it, combined with the late hour, filtered the whole scene, but the detectives managed to find Cael and his partner, Declan Schuster. Having arrived minutes ahead of Minka and Renee, Gus stood with the guys.

Minka swallowed the lump in her throat. “I can’t believe this is happening here.”

 

We’re hooked! Let’s see the links:

 

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Accidental-Allies-Unde-feted-Detective-ebook/dp/B0CHWKQ98F

Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/accidental-allies-karina-bartow/1144069605;jsessionid=D196D6EF2F76C613F15D81D65BCDF7D5.prodny_store02-atgap06?ean=9781509252077

Books-A-Million: https://www.booksamillion.com/p/Accidental-Allies/Karina-Bartow/9781509252077?id=8973185582242

Walmart: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Unde-a-Feated-Detective-Accidental-Allies-Series-3-Paperback-9781509252077/5087500511?from=/search

 

Now for an author bio and social media links:

 

Karina Bartow grew up and still lives in Northern Ohio.  Though born with Cerebral Palsy, she’s never allowed her disability to define her.  Rather, she’s used her experiences to breathe life into characters who have physical limitations, but like her, are determined not to let them stand in the way of the life they want.  Her works include Husband in Hiding, Brother of Interest, Forgetting My Way Back to You, and Wrong Line, Right Connection.  She may only be able to type with one hand, but she writes with her whole heart!

 

Social Media:

Website: https://www.KarinaBartow.com 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/karinabartowauthor 

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/KarinaBartow

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