ALISSA YARBROUGH

Birds Alive!, the first book in the Empty-nesters Cozy Mystery series by Jen Dodrill, is about a woman who finds herself an empty-nester once her youngest child has left for college. Somewhat listless and seeking to turn over a new leaf, she starts a bird-watching club and gets more excitement than she anticipated when the club's first outing involves the death of one of their members.

University artifacts? Provenance papers? The originality in setting instantly set this book off from the usual suspense novels as I was deciding on a Colleen Coble book to try.

As a young lass, I can remember a Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl poster filling up the expanse of my sister’s wall, with every action in the room being performed under the perpetually sleepless eyes of Jack Sparrow, Will, and Elizabeth...

Daylight may be failing in this latter part of the year, however, I’m still burning the proverbial midnight oil in scratching my head, learning, and forever recalibrating my path-to-publishing with new information. But here's where you can help...

Don't worry! I haven't dropped off the face of the earth. But I have a surprise for you! (It's not me going crazy...)