I will be on my way to Arizona for the regional Little League Tornament when this posts so I am going to keep it short and simple.

First off I want everyone to visit my webpage. I actually work hard to keep it current and want to share it with you all so today’s contest will include questions about the page.  I even have a new Halloween page that you will want to check out.

http://www.kathidaley.com 

I have a bunch of fun events coming up that you will ALL want to participate in. My Countdown to Paradise Release party is September 1 – 6 and you can be sure I will be giving away a ton of stuff.

Here is the link to join https://www.facebook.com/events/848072505336998/

  If you want to preorder any of the books you can enter to win a $100 gift card. Here is the link for that:  http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/df645d05222/?   

I will be doing my Halloween Spooktacular again this year and we have SOOO many authors participating. I don’t want to announce names just yet but I can guarantee that it is going to be legendary.

I’ll post a link to sign up for the event in a month or so.

So now for the contest. You can win your choice of a Coffee Cat Books Mug or a $25 Amazon Gift Card if you already have a mug or you live outside the US.

Here are the questions and the link to enter: http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/df645d05233/?

1. One of the posters on this page is on the first page on the left side. Which one?
2. One and only one of the upcoming Christmas Titles is listed on the “Books” page. Which one?
3. Which book is top row center on the Halloween Page?

Today is launch day for The Great Catsby – book 8 in my Whales and Tails Island Mystery Series. After its debut in January of 2015 it quickly became one of my best selling series. In this eighth installment of the series, set on a fictional island among the San Juan Island off the Washington Coast, we are revisited by Ebenezer the cat and Alex the heir, from book 6 in the series: The Cat of Christmas Past.

In The Great Catsby Alex returns to Madrona Island after college lets out for the summer with two friends: Nick and Daisy. Cait and the others immediately notice that the sweet and fun loving guy who played Santa for the kids over Christmas, has turned into a bit of a snob since they’d last seen him. Instead of hanging out with old friends Alex seems intent on hanging out with new friends, which in pretty much everyone’s opinion, are bound to get him into trouble. When Daisy shows up dead and Alex is arrested for her murder, Cait and the gang realize they need to put their differences aside and help Alex prove that he is innocent in a case where he is the only suspect.

Meanwhile Cait has other problems to deal with namely Reginald Pendergrass, the man her mother brought home as her fiancé after meeting him on a cruise. Cait and her siblings have divided up the chores associated with helping their mother to prepare for her wedding to this man, and the book opens with Cait helping her mom shop for her trousseau.

This could just not get any worse. If the gates of hell opened and swallowed me whole it wouldn’t be worse.

“So what do you think?” My mother beamed at me.

What did I think? My fifty eight year old mother was standing in front of me in a tiny negligee that even I wouldn’t wear. Don’t get me wrong, my mother is in excellent shape for her age, but not only has she had five children, she’s had five Catholic Children. It just doesn’t seem right that my very conservative mother is parading around in the “naughty” store wearing the skimpy outfit she plans to wear on her wedding night to a man who may very well turn out to be Satan himself.

“Caitlin Hart. Are you listening to me?”

“I’m listening.” I looked at the tiny piece of fabric my mother was holding. “Aren’t you afraid you will be cold?”

“It’s June.”

“But still chilly at night. Maybe something in a nice floor length gown. Flannel is always nice at this time of year.”

My mom looked directly at me and put her hands on her hips. “Would you wear floor length flannel on your wedding night?”

“I might.” I defended even though I knew that was a lie. “It’s just that you are …”

“Old?”

“Maternal. You’ve been married before do you really need to go all out this time around?”

My mom twirled around showing off way too much of her derriere. “I most certainly do need to go all out.” She looked at me with a softer expression. “Your dad has been gone for a long time.”

I knew she was right, and I wasn’t even against the notion of her moving on, but the man she was engaged to, was definitely not the man I wanted my mother tied to for the rest of her life. For one thing he was arrogant and opinionated. He made it clear that he thought the Hart’s to be country hicks who wouldn’t know a 1996 Borel and Kroff Brute, from a 2016 Korbel Brute. Okay maybe he had a point with that one, but life was about more than expensive champagne and even more expensive cars. It was about friends and family and planting roots that endured from one generation to the next.

“Cait?”

“It’s nice mom.” I hated the look of uncertainty on her face but even more I hated the fact that she was leaving Madrona Island, and more importantly leaving us, after living here her entire life. “I’ll just wait for you out front.”

“Okay. When we are done here we can go and look at flowers.”

“Siobhan has flowers. I have cake.”

“Does it matter?”

“No,” I sighed. “I guess not.”

If you want to find out how the story turns out it is available on Amazon.

http://amzn.to/1NAjPKk

To be entered to win one of five copies (Kindle or Paperback – non US Kindle only) comment below. The winner will be chosen on July 2.

Today is launch day for book 2 in my new Sand and Sea Hawaiian Mystery Series so I am going to give away 5 copies of the book (paperback or Kindle – Non US Kindle only). I’m really loving this new series and this particular book in the series was a super fun one to write.

The story begins at a sunrise ceremony for the summer solstice. Lani is attending with her neighbor Elva, a senior citizen who can no longer drive. When one of the seniors in attendance turns up dead, Elva and some of her friends decide to investigate. Lani doesn’t want any of her senior friends to put themselves in dangers way, so against her better judgement, she decides to help them out. Here is a clip of one of the scenes with the seniors:

The minute we walked into the diner the women who were already there descended on Luke. Four seniors had arrived early. Janice was sitting at the head of the table and seemed to have been leading a discussion that had ended the moment we walked in. Sitting to Janice’s right were regulars Diane and Beth, and to her left was a woman I had only met a few times, Emmy Jean Thornton.

“There’s my cowboy,” Wilma Goodwin exclaimed as she waddled over to Luke and demanded he give her some sugar.

Luke hugged Wilma and politely greeted each woman in turn, making sure a hug was returned with a hug and a kiss to the cheek returned with the same. There weren’t many men who would be so gracious to a group of women twice his age. By the time our drinks were served Luke had a long list of honey do’s from the senior honeys in his life.

Once all the women had gotten their fill of attention from their cowboy, the topic of conversation moved from rain gutters to murder. It seemed this small contingent of senior women had gathered early specifically for the purpose of discussing the situation. If the head nods were any indication, it seemed Janice spoke for all of them when she announced that they were tired of waiting for answers and had decided to help.

“You’re all going to investigate?” I confirmed.

“We are,” Janice answered. “And because we don’t have all the resources you and Luke have, we hoped both of you would be willing to help us.”

“Help you do what exactly?”

“Find the killer.”

I looked at Luke, who simply shrugged. Fat lot of help he was.

“I get why you’re growing impatient, but Janice, you have that new granddaughter I’m sure you want to spend time with, and Beth, you have a husband and kids to think about. Investigating could be dangerous.”

“We’ve got our minds and our wits and most of us still have our original body parts,” Janice answered.

“What about Diane’s new hip?” I asked.

“Doesn’t slow her down any more than Emmy Jean’s new boobs,” Janice pointed out.

I glanced at Emmy Jean, who only attended senior events sporadically, and it did appear she’d had a boob job. She worked on herself more often than any woman I’d ever met. She was one of the younger group members at sixty-two, but already she’d had a face-lift, a tummy tuck, and now new boobs to round out the package.

“Maybe we can discuss your ideas and then Luke and I can check some things out and get back to you,” I suggested.

“The girls and I want in on the action,” Emmy Jean insisted.

While I preferred they didn’t get involved at all, I certainly wasn’t going to let them investigate on their own. I looked at Luke with an expression that I hoped communicated that I needed his help with this.

Based on his next comment, he either didn’t understand or didn’t agree. “I think if the ladies want to help we should let them, although I’m not sure this is the best venue for discussing the matter. What do you say we all meet at my house later this afternoon for a BBQ and strategy session?”

Luke’s announcement was met with applause from everyone present. I wished I could say I was equally thrilled, but I couldn’t help but wonder if this whole thing would end badly.

If you want to find out how it end up here is the link to buy Murder at Sunrise in Either Kindle or Paperback.

http://amzn.to/1ThjfjG

http://amzn.to/1UDKBRE

To be entered to win one of 5 copies of the book comment below. Winners will be chosen and posted on June 18.

June has arrived and in my book that means summer is officially here. As we do every year, Ken and I made a new dot chart and hung it on the refrigerator. For those of you who might not have been around last summer, or simply missed the post about the dots, every summer my husband Ken and I sit down and discuss what it is that we absolutely need to to in order to feel that we’ve had a fun and productive summer and then we make a chart and hang it on the refrigerator. Every time we participate in an activity on the chart we give ourselves a dot.

I know it may seem ridiculous to have to schedule fun but we are both very busy and the truth of the matter is if we don’t schedule it we get to the end of the summer and realize we haven’t actually done any of the things we love to do. There are weeks when we get to Friday and realize we have no new dots for that week and then we stop what we are doing and head to the beach. I know that to some of you we make having fun seem like a chore, but I promise you once we get out onto the lake or into nature we have a wonderful time.

So what are the items on our chart for this year?

Boating and wakeboarding is a big one. We rent a slip on the lake each year so that the boat is just sitting there waiting to be taken out for a spin so there is really no reason not to do it.

Going to the beach for dinner and a sunset is another biggie. We try to do this once a week. Sometimes we bring dogs, kids, kayaks, and paddle boards, while other times we simply bring a blanket to sit on and a bottle of wine.

And living in beautiful Lake Tahoe, hiking, biking, and generally just getting out into nature are top priorities as well. We also love to BBQ and enjoy our patio and our yard.

There are other items on the list for a total of around ten. Each year we strive to do just a bit better than we had the previous year. I guess we’ll see how this year turns out.

So what are your summer “Must Do’s?” Comment below and be entered to win a $15 Amazon Gift Card.

Squeee! Kitten Kaboodle launches today! Can you believe that this is Zoe Donovan #20? When I published my first book, Zoe Donovan #1, in September of 2013, I had no idea what a wild ride Zoe and I were destined to take over the next few years. To be honest I really thought that by book 20 readers would begin to tire of the Zak and Zoe story and I would need to look at wrapping things up, but I LOVE this totally awesome couple, and sales for this series are as good as they’ve ever been, so as long as you keep reading them I’ll keep writing them.

I don’t want to give too much away, but this book was a super fun one to write. It features Zak’s honorary grandmother, Harley riding Nona, who is always up for a good time no matter what the situation. I really love writing Nona and am seriously considering having her move to Ashton Falls.

Here is a scene with Nona during the investigation. At this point Nona is the prime suspect in the death of a woman who owned a kitten mill.

I decided I would put a pin in the nagging fear in the back of my mind and focus all my effort on figuring out who else other than Nona had motive to want the woman dead.

She was in the drive warming up her bike when I arrived home. “Going somewhere?”

“Gotta hot date.”

I frowned. “Maybe under the circumstances you should hang out here tonight. Ellie and Levi are coming over. You can join us for dinner.”

“No offense, dearie, but hanging out with a bunch of kids doesn’t in any way compare to spending time with the hot cowboy I intend to lasso.”

“Cowboy? I thought you were dating a gator wrangler.”

“That was days ago. I figured out a long time ago that the spice of life is variety. Now if you don’t mind, I need to be on my way.”

I wanted to argue, but it occurred to me that Nona was fifty years my senior. Why in the heck did I think it was my job to parent her?

“Do you have your phone?”

“In my pocket.”

“And money?”

“In my bra next to my emergency cigar.” Nona leaned over so I could see for myself that she was telling the truth. The woman certainly knew how to work her assets.

“Okay.” I gave in. “I guess you’ll be fine, but please try not to be late. I worry about you.”

“Oh, I’m gonna be late.” Nona laughed as she climbed onto her Harley and sped away in a cloud of dust.

If you would like a copy of the book for your very own here is the link: http://amzn.to/1qBNTur

You can also read it for free with Kindle Unlimited.

Now for the giveaway. Comment below and be entered to win a $15 Amazon Gift Card.

I am in Hawaii this week doing research for book 2 in my Sand and Sea Hawaiian Mystery Series – Murder at Sunrise. This is very much a working vacation and I have been writing most every day but what a beautiful view from which to tell a story about life on the islands. For those of you who have read book 1 in the series – Murder at Dolphin Bay – the focus of this story is on the seniors Luke and Lani have befriended and the comedy which ensues when a group of women in their later years set out to find a killer after one of their own is murdered at a sunrise ceremony being held on the beach during the summer solstice.

Murder at Dolphin Bay is currently available for purchase and Murder at Sunrise will publish on June 17 and is currently available for presale.

To be entered to win a surprise gift from Maui comment below. Winner will be selected on Saturday, May 7.

As most of you already know I have signed with Henery Press for a 10 book deal with the Tj Jensen Paradise Lake Series. I am super excited about this but with growth comes change and many of you are asking what this means for Tj fans?

One of my very favorite things about being an author is that I can write from anywhere. This month I am heading to Hawaii to write book 2 in my Sand and Sea Hawaiian Mystery Series. While this will be very much a working vacation, I do plan to get in a bit of R&R and maybe even some reading. I think the reason I really love to write on location is because I can engage all my senses. If I write a story set in Hawaii while I am in Tahoe during a snowstorm like I did for book 1 in this series, I can usually find a way to reach down into my memory base and come up with descriptions that are both engaging and believable. If I am actually sitting on the lanai of the condo where we stay in Maui while I am working on a book set in Hawaii, I have the sound of the waves, the smell of the tropical flowers, the feel of the warm air blowing across my body, and the taste of the fresh pineapple we buy from the farmers market to bring a sense of immediacy to my scenes.

The photos I have posted here are of trips from the past but please be sure to check in at my Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/kathidaleybooks for current photos as we enjoy our tropical retreat.

Today is April Fools Day and the Whodunit gang is celebrating with an awesome group event that will challenge you to figure out which statements are a lie and which are truth. How well do you know the authors you follow? Head over to the event and comment with your best guess. The prizes are awesome and the truth may surprise you.

https://www.facebook.com/events/1674898346108192/

Each of the ten authors has provided their own true and false statements. Comment to their post with your guesses in the format: 1T, 2F, etc. Each author will select a winner and the winners as well as the answers to which statements are true and which are false will be posted tomorrow 4/2.

I recently asks the members of my Kathi Daley Books Group page to ask me questions which I would then attempt to answer in my blog. I had so many that I have had to answer them in two parts. This is part 2. The questions will be answered in the order asked.

Spunky Laferrera How did you get started writing? It was really kind of a fluke. My husband and I owned a transportation company in Lake Tahoe which we sold after twenty years. We spent the next couple of years traveling and having fun but even that gets old after a while. Ken decided to get his Real Estate license and I kicked around the idea of writing. I began working on Pumpkins in Paradise but was sort of in “hurry up and wait” mode for some feedback when I got the idea to share a Facebook Page with my dog. I jotted down the paragraph in Halloween Hijinks that begins with: My name is Zoe Donovan and according to my Facebook bio which I share with my dog Charlie …. I just kept writing and a week later I had a book. Brian and Melanie Jackson, both published authors who I met as a fan and reader of Melanie’s books, made a cover for me, I uploaded it to Amazon. The rest is history.

Elizabeth ‘Liz’ Dent How old was you when you started writing ? 55

Sheryl Rhoades Was there someone who inspired you to begin writing? No, not really. It just seemed like a fun way to make a living and the idea that I could travel and write from anywhere appealed to me.

Marlene Ezell Do you do outlines of your books before writing? I know that William Faulkner used to outline his books on the wall in one of his bedrooms and then paint over them when he started a new book. There is still one on the wall of his home in Mississippi. No, I never outline. I really couldn’t since I never know what I am going to write until I write it.

Toni King Not a question. But a comment. Thank you for all the stories you tell. They have kept me company during stays in the hosp and at home. Your books make me smile. Thank you so much Toni.

Joanne Kocourek Your Berners are beautiful. Do you have a go to breeder or did you search and select treasured furry friends that seems drawn to you? All of my Berners have been acquired from high quality breeders. When I decided to get my first Berner I had to fill out a 10 page application and then drive two states away to meet the breeder. Once you have the first one and can show that you are a responsible doggy parent getting the next one is a bit easier.

Pamela Dennis Petteway What inspires you when deciding on a plot? It can be anything. A few of my books began with a cover. I saw a graphic that I liked and wanted to use so I came up with a story idea to go with it. A few others began with a title. I wanted to use Kitten Kaboodle for the next Zoe so I decided to write a story about the murder of a woman who runs a kitty mill for purebred kittens. I really don’t have anything at this point other than a cover, a title, and a general concept.

Cheyenne Harmon How often do you write ? It depends. Some weeks I write every day and other weeks maybe only a few days out of the week. Overall, I put in a LOT of hours. I’m sure I average well above 40 hours a week if you look at an annual total.

Sharon Braswell Do you log and keep up with the time you write, computer time use, and products used to write, travel for research, home office expense etc for tax purposes? I know writing is a full time job and a lot of these are definitely Home Office Expenses from my own experience with a home office! Thanks! My husband and accountant keep track of whatever needs to be kept track of. Kathi Daley Books is a corporation so it is treated a bit differently than if I was simply claiming income as an individual. I don’t claim a home office on my taxes since I don’t really have an office. I usually write on my kitchen counter or maybe at the beach in the summer.

Robin Coxon I enjoy when you visit areas to do research towards a future book, like Alaska. What future destinations are you considering including in your next books? I am going to Hawaii in April to do additional research for my new Sand and Sea Hawaiian Mystery Series. I’ve been to Maui many times but I’ve only been to Oahu once and since the series is set on Oahu I want to make another trip. I also plan to visit the east coast in the fall to do some follow up with an idea I am kicking around for a new series. My son lives in Ireland at the moment so I’d like to find a way to combine a trip with a book set in this awesome location.

Vivian Shane Do you read the reviews people leave on Amazon or Goodreads for your books? Sometimes, especially if one of my readers let’s me know they have left a review. Between all my books I get new reviews almost daily and it really isn’t practical to keep up with all of them but I do try to go in every now and then and read a few. Most of the time the reviews really lift me up and give me a new energy if I start to feel depleted.

Jan Phippen I met you several months back at post office – I asked you how it was possible to write so many books so quickly and have them all be so VERY good. I realize God gifted you the ability to write, but so many so quickly so good??? Thank you Jan. It was fun to meet you. I’m not sure if there is a question in this comment but I wanted to print it anyway since you took the time to comment.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to comment. This has been fun and I will do it again. If you are not currently a member of Kathi Daley Books Group page and would enjoy an intimate group setting here is the link to join: https://www.facebook.com/groups/569578823146850/

Comment below to be entered to win a $15 Amazon Gift Card.