What’s Up
In case anyone has ever wondered, as a kid there was never a scab I didn’t pick. So I’ve spent the last week glued to any and all accounts of ‘I have Covid-19’ and ‘My husband has Covid-19’ just to see how bad it will be if/when I get the virus. It’s whipped my anxiety into a fine froth, like the Starbucks we can’t have anymore.
I’ve been told to wind my neck in by friends and family. So going to try and knock that on the head this week, take the BBC’s ‘latest coronavirus news!’ off my homepage.
So…I made Dalgon coffee this week as a treat, since Cafe Nero doesn’t do Just Eat. It was nice. I might do it again.
And don’t forget that Collared by TA Moore is being released as a novella on April 28. It was originally in the Devil Take Me anthology and I’ve not added anything new. So if you got the anthology, you can skip this or buy it if you want. If you haven’t read Devil Take Me then here you go!
When ex-priest Jack finds a dead man nailed to his bed, he knows it’s going to be a bad night. He just has no idea how bad. Now he’s been recruited by his own personal demon to find the thieves who killed a man, kidnapped his family, and stole something of indescribable value from the demonic Math. To find answers he has to delve deep into the infernal underbelly of his town and face his own past. Jack’s been promised his soul back if he succeeds. As local cop Ben Ambrose risks his own soul by following too closely in Jack’s footsteps, and with a child’s life on the line, Jack has to decide if it’s a deal he’s willing to make.
Previously published by Dreamspinner Press in the Devil Take Me anthology, January 2019.
My puppy continues to delight. So far he likes balls, cuddles on the sofa, and small, spherical dogs. He dislikes The Brush, dogs larger than him, and people crying on the TV. He is torn on coats, which he despises when on but loves once he is outside.
Book Recommendation of the Week
I was supposed to have had a chance to catch up with the lovely Kim Fielding in Paris. Last year we had a great time at the Reines Beaux and MxM stand in the Salon du Livre. Unfortunately, pandemic. So instead, check out her new book, co-written with F.E. Feeley Jr. It’s a foray into horror, and I love the cover!
Can you hear it?
Whispering in the dark.
Secrets only the dark knows.
Joseph Moore, choir director for the First Baptist Church of Lenora, Nebraska, has secrets of his own. Terrible, lonely secrets. One that involves natural human desire. One that calls forth powers he cannot begin to understand. Both with the potential to destroy him and those he loves.
Now the world is changing. The darkness, the shadows, the ghosts, are closing in—and Joseph and his lover, Kevin, are being stalked by a merciless demon, hell-bent on possession.
Can you hear it now?
There in the dark.
It's whispering your name.
Deal of the Week
Get Rhys Ford’s amazing Sinner’s Gin series for $1.99 per book. Music, mayhem, and mysteries.
There are also a load of other free and discounted books from some other great authors, including yours truly and Bru Baker. So check them out today.
We just have to hope they aren’t putting the chicks to the same use as the loo roll…
Must Read of the Week
In honour of ‘winding my neck in’ on the whole pandemic paranoia thing, not one of my carefully curated anxiety articles have made it on here! Instead I bring you pie innovation. Pinnovation?
The ‘Pie Engineer’ Who Designed a Dessert For the Jazz Age
With a new filling and a new crust, an American innovator changed pie forever.
by Rossi Anastopoulo March 24, 2020
California is the “Land of Opportunity.” That term was never meant to apply to pie-making, per se, but no one ever told Monroe Strause.
The future Pie King started from humble origins. Monroe Boston Strause was born to salt-of-the-earth parents who left the Midwest for sunny California, raising him and his siblings among the towering palm trees and sky-high hopes of early 20th-century Los Angeles.
As a teenager, he joined his uncle’s wholesale pie business in 1919, where he was soon confronted with a crisis: rising competition from cakes, which were becoming increasingly accessible for home cooks since standardized ovens made baking easier. His industry was in trouble. And thus, the young, curious, and ambitious Strause entered the Roaring ‘20s with a burning conviction to innovate the humble pie.
I loved The Almighty Johnson. The first season they only had the budget for like one special effect, but the characters were fun and you wanted to catch up with them every week.
It’s on…Netflix or Amazon. Not sure which without turning the TV back on. So I am going to do a rewatch of it from the beginning.