Courting Trouble ~ Challenge Achieved

Posted on July 23, 2026August 14, 2026 by writer35_bg

Courting Trouble

114% Complete

57,000 of 50,000 words

In Summer 2025, I set a challenge to finish three connected novelettes, entitled Courting Trouble. Challenge taken and achieved.

The first novelette, “Spanish Moss”, I had written as a gift to newsletter subscribers for Christmas 2024. Last summer I needed to finish the second and third, and I published those in July and August, with the collection publishing in September.

While you can read about the individual stories below (and purchase them at the bottom of the page),

here are the links to the collection.

Amazon ebook and paperback https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FKKQBTKP
Worldwide Books to Read https://books2read.com/u/mZMkY2
View the Trailer: https://youtu.be/RzTINfZIs0U

The three novelettes created a tie-in Sailing Into Mystery stories and the Into Death novels, which feature the artist Isabella Newcombe Tarrant.

Nedda Courtland enters 1925 America with these stories as she is Courting Trouble.

“Spanish Moss” introduced Nedda to New Orleans with a murder to solve.

A Death, a Will, and a Way

“Poison” is one of the last words Nedda Courtland’s employer says to her.

Private secretary to a wealthy financier, Nedda has maintained a very British poise as she traveled the world. The New Orleans of 1925 brings it own unique flavor to her experiences. Yet nothing prepares her for Hyatt Ingram’s claim of murder in the hours before his death.

With no evidence as proof, she can only fulfill Mr. Ingram’s last wishes. Holding his absent son’s voting proxy and a new will, Nedda expects the murderer to emerge in the chaos she will create as executrix.

She never expects another murder.

Second in the series is “Texas Sun”: an Attempted Murder in arid West Texas

Means. Motive. Opportunity

The grime of a working oil field draws together people at odds with the summer heat and with each other.

In the heady flush of a new romance, Nedda tries to ignore the blazing tensions, yet troubling shadows have gathered.

Then Death makes his entrance, and the grim pressures erupt.

Finishing this brief sub-series is “Gulf Storm”.

Bribe. Conspire. Die.

A hurricane threatens to disrupt the wedding festivities of Nedda and Hank.

With the approaching storm are a whirl of human crimes, and an accusation of a past misdeed rages from the shadows. Murder caps the danger.

Will the hurricane’s landfall shred Nedda’s dreams, or will the death wreak a lethal destruction?

Here are links for the Individual Novelettes:

“Spanish Moss” LINKS

Amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FF2PTG9W

Books2Read https://books2read.com/u/bPM11l

For a sneak peak with the opening chapter, head over to the MA Lee blog: https://maleebooks.blogspot.com/2025/07/spanish-moss-opening-and-links.html

“Texas Sun” LINKS

Available Now at these links:

Zon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FH5VHQ4V

B2R https://books2read.com/u/4XM6k6

Read the opening chapter on the MALblog: https://maleebooks.blogspot.com/2025/08/texas-sun-opening-and-links.html

“Gulf Storm” LINKS

Available Here:

Zon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FK5TB4YW

B2R https://books2read.com/u/mZM2O2

The Opening Chapter is on the MALblog https://maleebooks.blogspot.com/2025/08/gulf-storm-opening-and-links.html

The trio collection

Works in Progress Covers

The covers I made for inspiration as I worked on the stories. I find such visuals help me to keep focused. My poor efforts served the purpose, but I absolutely LOVE the covers created by the professionals at Deranged Doctor Design.

Mystery and Murder ~ Portrait with Death

Posted on July 15, 2026March 18, 2026 by writer35_bg

It’s Mystery and Murder in 1921.

Into Death series with Isabella Newcombe

Portrait with Death continues with Isabella while introducing two new characters to the series.

Flick Sherborne, intrepid photographer. Flick is brand-new to this series, and she quite surprised me when she appeared.

DI Michael Wainwright of Scotland Yard. DI Wainwright first appeared in Christmas with Death. He has a stronger role now.

A Murderer paints with Blood.

Why would anyone kill a school master? Motives abound, and suspects increase. Fellow teaching masters. A former soldier haunted by the nightmares of the war. Three ladies were rivals for Webberly’s attentions. Their husbands may have clubbed him and cracked open his head. A photographer. Three fishermen. A medic. The pub owner and his wife. The local constable.

Who committed the murder? Can Isabella find the answer?

A tangle of motives and hidden evidence complicate the murder in Portrait with Death, an amateur sleuth mystery set in a 1920 sleepy English village.

Portrait with Death is the third novel in the series Into Death, with artist Isabella Newcombe Tarrant.

Meet Detective Inspector Michael Wainwright, sent by Scotland Yard to solve the murder … although someone else is on his mind.

https://maleebooks.blogspot.com/2021/07/meet-detective-inspector-portrait-with.html

Intrigued? View the trailer here!

Click this link. https://youtu.be/6cfEOGy-fXQ

Portrait with Death Celebrates its Publication Anniversary this Month.

Mystery and Murder. 1921. Enjoy your last-of-summer reading.

Amazon, ebook and paperback https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0973GVKSQ

Online distributors Worldwide https://books2read.com/u/b6vrjZ

“Silver Web” ~ Anniversary story 4 in Sailing with Mystery

Posted on July 5, 2026August 14, 2026 by writer35_bg

“Silver Web” ~ a tangle of expensive jewelry

and thieves during a storm at sea.

Another Isabella Newcombe Tarrant story.

Lady Bernhardt’s diamond necklace is stolen. More jewelry is missing.

Suspicions and accusations fly among the passengers of the ship Garipoola.

Then the thief dies in a freak accident, proof of his theft in hand.

Will Isabella locate his accomplice and the missing jewelry before they reach the next port?

“Silver Web” is the fourth short story in the collection Sailing with Mystery, published on this date in 2023.

The collection continues the mystery adventures of the artist Isabella Newcombe Tarrant, featured in the Into Death series. Her introduction is in the novel Digging into Death.

Read the opening two sections of the short story at this link (and purchase the story here, too!) :

https://maleebooks.blogspot.com/2025/05/silver-web-opening-and-links-sailing.html

Find the other stories in the Sailing with Mystery anthology at this link:

https://writersinkbooks.com/sailing-with-mystery/

Purchase Links are also at the above link!

Seasons in Sansward ~ fantasy from Edie Roones

Posted on July 4, 2026August 14, 2026 by writer35_bg

Seasons in Sansward

Sword & Sorcery Fantasy Set in a Medieval World

A 4-book series of the classic fantasy war between good and evil.

Spring Magicks

1% Complete

1,000 of 90,000 words

United to kill the oppressor. Frenc swords and mages.

Get Your Own Progress Bar

The beginning ~ Summer Sieges

For years, Beren has defended Caldew Keep. Then the Watrani horde, allied with the Gitane Witches, attacked southern Mullen and besieged the Keep. They seek the Eye, a crystal that increases a mage’s power hundredfold.

Beren and a chosen few must take the Eye to safety. Yet dangers come not only from the blood-thirsty Gitane and Watrani and the monsters of the Shadow Path. A traitor journeys with them, and not even a magical encounter with an enchanted man can defend them

And Beren discovers that the road of honor is littered with death.

Purchase ~ ebook only ~ https://www.amazon.com/dp/B014OMJBFY

Autumn Spells ~ Book 2

A Green mage encounters a keep swordsman while helping a captive red wolf, one of the legendary Prica. While drawn together, Saisha returns to her forest tower. Hethan returns to Senric Keep ~ where he falls under a spell cast by the sorcerous dame Neehla.

The dame’s dark spells bring them back together. Can Saisha disentangle Hethan from the sorcery? Or will she be trapped and turned into a wraith while the dark dame inhabits her body?

Purchase ~ Ebook only ~ https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MFHDUOZ

Winter Sorcery ~ Book 3

The spies Rolf and Catal spent months in a Watrani garrison, hoping to discover OverLord Summa’s plans for his invasion of Frenc. When their cover is blown, they stumble upon a greater secret: the Kaerrefiorne, a blood-fed globe that will connect every sorcerous Gitane Witch across the vale of Sansward. They steal the last orb that will complete the arc controlled by the Kaerrefiorne and escape into snow-smothered Arlas—with Watrani soldiers and a Gitane WitchMaster in close pursuit.

When Catal is severely wounded, two clerics at a Protectorate temple outpost become the Frenc spies only hope. The half-trained mage Niijai senses the evil following the two men. Legeeta has only a prophetic dread that increases.

And the Gitane Witch Keipven has found their trail.

Purchase ~ Ebook Only ~ https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BK88CDV

The Quarternary will finish with Spring Magicks.

Tangled Spells ~ Banished Wizard against Evil

Posted on July 3, 2026August 14, 2026 by writer35_bg

The Epic fantasy of Twisted Magic and Corrupted Goals

Tangled Spells ~ Collected books 1, 2, & 3 of the Fae Mark’d Wizard

Weave a Wizardry Web

A wyre pack hunts wizards in the Enclave. A forbidden linkage promises more power yet a dangerous enthrallment to a sorcerer. Can Alstera and Camisse survive the sharp blades of their chosen roads?

Dream a Deadly Dream

A lethal sleep-spell targets a fugitive comtesse. Wyre and wraiths pursue her. When a sorcerous plot weaves together past and present, dream and reality, can Alstera stop the nightmare that kills?

Sing a Graveyard Song

Can Alstera defeat the horrific Death-Walker before it takes yet another life? Or will wielding blood-magic against a blood-spelled creature force Alstera across the tenuous barrier that separates wizardry from foul sorcery? (Trigger Warning: suicide.)

Tangled Spells brings together the first dark fantasy novels of the epic Fae Mark’d Wizard.

Be warned. Morally ambiguous choices occur, foul sorcery is never completed defeated, and the protagonist Alstera struggles to avoid the taint of sorcery.

View the Trailer: https://youtu.be/r-6cKcuyHI4

Purchase Links ~

Amazon, e-book and paperback