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@melissamgarcia
Chasing Demons - Now Available in Audio
Chasing Demons is now available in audio format. The latest novel in the Luc Actar crime series by Melissa M. Garcia has been recorded and is being distributed by Audible. For those who prefer to have their books read to them, Michael Rubino reads the unabridged version on sale now.
You can purchase the Audio edition of CHASING DEMONS at the following locations:
iTunes
Amazon
Audible
Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have the exact measure of the injustice and wrong which will be imposed on them.
Frederick Douglass
Next of Kin: Death Valley Mystery Book 2, by Melissa M. Garcia, is a thrilling police procedural that’ll keep you guessing...
Just in time for the holidays - FALLING ANGELS now in audio!
Falling Angels is now available in audio format. The first novel in the Luc Actar crime series by Melissa M. Garcia has been recorded and is being distributed by Audible. For those who prefer to have their books read to them, Kelvey Wolaridge reads the unabridged version on sale now.
You can purchase the Audio edition of FALLING ANGELS at the following locations:
iTunes
Amazon
Audible
About FALLING ANGELS:
After a panicked call from his best friend, Mattie Hardwin, Luc Actar must return to Los Angeles and the life he fled three years earlier. Mattie's husband, a prestigious lawyer named Spencer Hardwin, has mysteriously disappeared. Desperate for assistance, Luc enlists the help of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department in his search to find Spencer, despite his better judgment. But he soon learns that the detectives have their own reasons for locating Spencer, the lawyer has become the prime suspect in a drug dealer's brutal murder. As he hunts for the man he thought he knew, Luc's history with Mattie haunts his dreams and drives him to the depths of the misery he once escaped. Back on the streets of Los Angeles, Luc employs old friends and encounters childhood rivals to take on the sheriff's department, while a slew of lawyers impede his every move to save those closest to him from an unknown killer.
Luc survived hell once before. But this time around, his survival depends on saving the angels falling around him.
I can’t get enough of shoes that show off my nerdy literary love, and you guys can’t either. My secret Pinterest board for bookish shoes is filling up with more favorites that I have to share. (Not all of these … Continued
Free Autographed Copy of STRANGER
For a limited time, I am offering a free autographed paperback copy of STRANGER, the first in the Death Valley mystery series. If you would like a copy, please e-mail me at [email protected]. Be sure to include your complete shipping address.
Deadline: Please send me an e-mail by November 30, 2015 to receive your free copy. Limit one copy per address. US addresses only.
Your name, e-mail, and address WILL NOT be kept or sold for any marketing or SPAM purposes.
About STRANGER:
There is a dead body in room 110 of the Death Valley Motel, and the evidence points to murder. Managers Ric and Alex Delgado, siblings with police work in their blood, chose this small Death Valley city specifically because it appeared to be a quiet place in which Alex could heal from the violent traumas of her past. Now a killer has struck too close to Alex, opening old wounds and threatening her new life. The situation gets more complicated when Detective Will Stellar trains his observant eye on the siblings and ascertains they have something to hide. Murder seems to follow Alex Delgado, and Detective Stellar is certain she is a dangerous woman. Racing against time and against each other, the Delgados and Detective Stellar risk their lives to uncover the truth, which is ever more complicated and dangerous than any of them have imagined.
It’s always an intellectual mistake to assume that the thing you love the most might be the exception. I remember listening to a public-radio conversation a few years ago in which two people debate...
Why I Will Read Harper Lee’s, “Go Set a Watchman”
With the release of Harper Lee’s new novel, Go Set a Watchman last week, I have read numerous authors proclaiming they will not be reading it. Their arguments are good. The publication of the novel by Lee’s publisher has been under a cloud of suspicion ever since the novel was ‘discovered’ and questions of Harper Lee’s intention are still under question.
The author of the famous To Kill a Mockingbird is now 89 and living in an assisted living facility. Many have questioned if she completely understood the publisher’s desire to publish Go Set a Watchman after so many years. Lee had a stroke a few years ago and is now partially blind and mostly deaf. But her distaste for attention, media, and her proclamation years ago that she would never publish another novel are well known.
So many authors are honoring her, by refusing to read the novel. They feel, if Lee had intended for it to be published, she would have done so years ago. Go Set a Watchman is not new and wasn’t just ‘recently discovered’. In fact, it’s the first draft of what eventually became To Kill A Mockingbird. Lee wrote Watchman and sent it off to her publisher. But after drafts, edits, re-writing, and more edits, the publisher published what is now known as an American classic renamed To Kill a Mockingbird.
Like many authors, I have written novels that I would never want published. There are times we finish a work and realize there is no hope in the manuscript and set it aside. I wouldn’t want those works read.
But this isn’t what Harper Lee did. She sent in her manuscript to the publisher. She was proud of that manuscript and hoped to tell a story. It’s the publisher that changed the story, obviously for the better.
And I’m curious about the original story. Go Set a Watchman is raw. It’s straight from the author, unedited by a large publishing house. If Harper Lee was a writer in today’s changing landscape, she may have self-published this novel. The story she wanted to tell is here. I want to read that story. I want to hear her story direct from Harper Lee.
We may or may not ever know the whole story behind Go Set a Watchman, but I will definitely read it.
Hiatus
I haven’t been able to blog much in the past few months as life as taken over (which isn’t a bad thing). I am going to take a hiatus from this blog for a few months and hope to be back soon to bring you all my musings as a writer on all things crime related. In the meantime, feel free to check out my Facebook page as well as my Twitter feed. I will continue to post items there on my writing from time to time. Thank you and see you soon!
A jury has sentenced Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to death on some counts.
NEXT OF KIN is now available in audio format
NEXT OF KIN has been recorded and is being distributed by Audible in audiobook. For those who prefer to have their books read to them, Erik Alexander reads an unabridged copy of NEXT OF KIN, the second in the Death Valley Mystery series.
You can purchase the Audio edition of NEXT OF KIN at the following locations:
iTunes
Amazon
Audible
More than 400 stores across the country will offer special programs and merchandise to celebrate their continued relevance in the Internet age.
Baltimore, the new LA
Twenty-three years ago, the Los Angeles Riots began. It was a response to the injustice many people felt in the failing city. You can only push people down to the depths of hell for so long, before they pick up a brick and fight back. Everyone knows you can’t kick a dog every day, then get mad when it bites back.
After Los Angeles burned, I stared at the damage and destruction in both property and people and felt the country got its wakeup call. I would never condone a riot- there’s no excuse for the destruction of our communities. But after the LA Riots, I felt something positive would come from it. Social and economic inequality and police injustice would now be in the spotlight. Things would have to change and we’d never have to endure that again.
Change has come. Although the recovery has been slow since 1992, Los Angeles is rebounding. Trust has returned to the Los Angeles Police Department and crime rates are falling. We still have a long way to go, but we’re optimistic.
Unfortunately, after reading about Baltimore’s pattern of abuse by police in the city, not everyone learned from LA’s mistakes. We saw this play out Monday night as the community demanded to be heard and chose the wrong way to fight.
It’s time to ensure our city streets do not reflect a third-world country. We need to revitalize our lost neighborhoods. We need to put money into our communities and be able to stand proud of our country again. We need police that understand the importance of listening to the community they police.
An image below circulated on Twitter shows that Baltimore is able to fight back the right way. I have hope that that the community will know how to heal itself. It’s a long process, as Los Angeles has endured the past 23 years.
The people of Baltimore stand up to protect the police and their community from further damage.
LA Times Festival of Books Event
I wanted to thank everyone that stopped by the Sisters in Crime booth at the LA Times Festival of Books on Saturday, April 18. It was a great day to meet new readers and fellow authors. I met some great people and even saw a few repeat customers. Thank you all!
Below are a few pictures from the event:
Setting up at the LA Times Festival of Books
Meeting my fans
All set up with Cara Black signing next to me.
Book signing at the Sisters in Crime booth at LA Times Festival of Books
Sisters in Crime booth
Talking with my fans during LA Times Festival of Books
Look at all the authors signing for Sisters in Crime. Check out booth #367 at USC this Saturday and Sunday.