Kristen James

Cover Reveals & New Releases!

by Kristen James

So the third Mystery Falls novel is releasing right now… the paperback is out and the ebook will release Sunday. That one has holiday cheer, ghosts, a bookstore, mystery, inherited secrets, and slow-burn romance… and it was so much fun to write! It really put me in the Christmas spirit as the story starts around Thanksgiving and goes through the holidays.

Click to see this bookstore cozy mystery series on Amazon!

I’ve been working on a few thrillers too and wanted to share the covers…

Check out my Thrillers page for a full description…

Assistant for Hire is a game of “What’s really going on?”

That’s what drives my thrillers – the curiosity and journey of trying to discern who is really doing what.

The tone of this story is similar to The Perfect Husband… and a bit different from my other stories because it happens in paradise with warm weather and tiki drinks. And lots of intrigue.

This will be out this month!!

After that one, I’m working on a story with lots of mystery, family drama, intrigue… I’ll share more soon but I LOVE this cover and just had to share it with you.

Introducing… the Mystery Falls Cozy Mystery Series

by Kristen James

Mystery Falls… where the small town charm comes with a twist of murder…

Nestled in the foothills of the Pacific Northwest, Mystery Falls boosts the most Bigfoot sightings in the world. They celebrate with a Bigfoot festival in August, but they really shine in the fall time. Every year, Mystery Falls is the home to the weeklong Spooky Fest which leads up to Halloween.

Ava Fairchild came to Mystery Falls looking for a fresh start and her own place to open a bar. She didn’t expect to find intrigue and constant mystery.

Drew Davenport visited over the years because his parents retired here. Now he’s a full time resident and bookstore owner.

I’ve had a great time exploring this small town and getting to know these characters! Ava and Drew are intriguing, and there’s a cast of quirky townsfolk plus their friends. I’m so excited to share their stories with you! The first two books are out now with another planned for Christmas.

The covers have a story too; my son Caleb illustrated the historic Bank Building for the first cover, the building where Drew and Ava have their businesses. I drew the second cover with a fun Halloween theme. Both show the spooky atmosphere in this not-so-sleepy town.

A BAR, A BOOKSTORE, AND A BODY

She came to open a bar. Instead, she opened a murder investigation.


All Ava Fairchild wants is a fresh start. A small town in the Pacific Northwest, a chance to open her dream bar, and maybe—just maybe—leave her ruined reputation in New York behind. Mystery Falls seems perfect… until she finds a body in the stream by her bar.

Local Drew Davenport is opening a bookstore next to Ava’s bar while grieving the loss of his mother—but now everything is tangled up with Ava and this murder mystery. If an unidentified body wasn’t enough… Their landlord is missing, their building hides secrets of its own, and the clues show that everyone in town is a potential suspect in the murder.

With the sheriff eyeing her as an outsider, Ava has no choice but to follow the clues herself. But the closer she and Drew get to the truth, the more dangerous the town’s secrets become.

In Mystery Falls, even the friendliest neighbors might kill to protect what’s theirs.

MURDER IN BOOKSY BAR

Spooky Fest was supposed to be all tricks and treats—until a real murder crashed the party.

It’s mid-October in Mystery Falls, and Spooky Fest is in full swing—a week of costumes, carnival booths, and just the right amount of small-town chaos.

Drew’s bookstore is packed with cozy Halloween displays, while Ava’s bar glows with cobwebs, candles, and “ghoul-tails” for the grand opening. Across the street, local author Janet Harper draws crowds with her new true-crime book Murder at Midnight… in Mystery Falls, retelling the century-old legend of killer Jonathon Miller.

But when Janet’s festival séance takes a chilling turn and a traveler is found stabbed to death in the Booksy Bar bathroom, the laughter dies fast. The victim’s wife swears the ghost of Jonathon Miller did it. Janet insists she “opened a door.” The ever suspicious Sheriff Tandy thinks Ava and Drew are cursed magnets for murder.

To clear their names, Ava and Drew must untangle a web of gossip, superstition, and staged hauntings before the town’s Halloween spirit turns to panic.

Because in Mystery Falls, ghosts don’t kill people… but neighbors just might.

Download on Amazon today!

Happy Valentine’s Day! (And a sneak peek from Sarah’s Song, my work in progress)

by Kristen James

Romance is in the air! It’s also a great day for thinking of the special people in your life like your mom, sister, and friends.

After a long period of beautiful, sunny weather here in Oregon, we’re having a stormy, rainy day today. I don’t mind! It feels like a perfect writing or reading day by the fire. (And I just happen to have a new book out if you need one! Check out my home page for all the links.)

You’ve probably seen my posts about my Billionaire trilogy. I’ve also been working on another book. It’s highly emotional and that’s one reason why I’ve been working on it longer. I wanted to share a little from the opening of that book.

Here’s the blurb:

Sarah Austin never had a musical bone to her body…until suddenly she does. When her life is turned upside down, she finds herself turning to music, playing the guitar and writing songs. Half a world away, Michael Singer, lead guitarist and singer of Mystic Mist, can’t believe he’s hearing his band’s unfinished song from someone else. How did this American girl steal it? They both want answers for very different reasons.

(There’s so much more to this story, but I don’t want to give away too much, too soon!)

Chapter One – Something’s gotta give

Sarah

Eugene, Oregon, USA

“God, Sarah, I just wish you’d think about someone else for once.”

Ian’s words burned into me. Sliced into me. Filled me with rage – an emotion so sudden and new that I had no idea what to say. I clenched my fists in my lap and glared out the passenger window, not seeing the people milling around downtown Eugene. The silence inside the car rang loud and long.

Think about someone else? That’s all I’ve done!

I’ve spent the last three years thinking of him, taking care of him, putting my life on hold for him. Could I ever make up for my horrible mistake three years ago and make things right again? No, I knew better than that. But I only wanted to take a girl’s trip with Melanie, and actually spend some quality time with my one real friend. Was that so selfish?

He drummed his fingers on the wheel, fast, irritated. He had cracked his window, even though he knew it bothered my ears, and even the tires rolling on wet pavement sounded passive aggressive.

I had worked so hard to erase his pain, to make things right in his life, but they never got better. Really, things were getting worse. Maybe I had finally reached my breaking point.

“Time shouldn’t matter,” he added in a low voice, and the cold anger startled me. “Everyone thinks I should get over it, but what do they know? What do you know, Sarah?” He said my name like it was a dirty word.

A tiny whisper somewhere in my head asked, what about me? Do I ever get to move on? Hadn’t I paid enough?

I worked my jaw side to side to loosen the tension. “I never once said you should just move on. You know that. You know I’ve been there for you.” Like, every… single… day.

I couldn’t remember how to think about myself anymore. I just wanted a few days to breathe, to think. Honestly, I wasn’t sure what I needed to think about, but I just needed to step back from my life to see it. Right now, it all felt like a fog that I couldn’t escape, where I couldn’t really see anything clearly.

In the last few weeks, the trees started budding for spring. The earth was renewing; starting over. Some days, it felt as if everything else on this planet got a fresh start but I wasn’t allowed one.

Some other faint thought followed that one, but I couldn’t grab onto it. It tickled my mind so I couldn’t make it out. A memory? An echo of a dream? Maybe it was a song – I could almost hear it.

If you want to fly, I’ll let you fly away . . .

I know you were tired of running . . . I’ll let you fly

 The music was just out of reach. It felt like I was trying to remember something urgently important, something that would change everything. I wanted to pull it out of the mist and convince myself I wasn’t going insane.

“I can’t move on,” Ian said so low it took a few seconds for the words to register.

Half of me wanted to turn toward him and reassure him, but what could I say? ‘It’s alright, you don’t have to move on. We’ll stay in our apartment together, just us, and wallow in the pain.’

No. Maybe I didn’t deserve to move on, but I needed to. Wanted to. I wanted to go back to work and see people and live again. Instead of saying any of that, I continued glaring out my window, feeling my heart beat too hard.

He stopped at a light for a split second before stomping on the gas. I looked forward and gasped.

“Ian, it’s red.”

He slammed on the breaks. The car screeched to a halt right in the middle of the intersection, nothing in front of us.

“What are you doing? Don’t stop! You have to go.”

He gripped the wheel in both hands, staring forward. Horns blared at us. A car flew by from the right, inches from the front of ours. I looked in that direction. A giant sliver truck barreled toward us. Our car still didn’t move.

“Ian! It’s not stopping! You have to move!”

Why wouldn’t he move—

~~~

If you want to read more, you can follow the book on Vella where you can read the first 3 chapters for free and follow as new episodes come out. I’m having fun writing for this new platform but I know it’s not for everyone. This story will be released as an ebook later this year as well.

I hope you have a fabulous Valentine’s Day and week!

Writing & Publishing Roundup 2014

by Kristen James

So, it was another crazy year in publishing.Trade book prices came down, overall book quality (Indie and trade) went up in my opinion due to increased competition, and the number of books on the market skyrocketed. Of course, that’s been a trend over the last few years. Kindle Unlimited rolled out in the US and then in countries all over the world, drastically cutting book sales for many authors. I think a few have profited, but I’ve seen a majority of authors saying their sales (including borrows) and income doing a nosedive.Yeah, publishing continues to change, and the playing field has leveled out once again, where Indies no longer have an advantage with lower prices and faster releases.

All of the above is good for readers. I’ll admit I’m happy I can get books from my favorite authors for lower prices. And, the truth is, being an author isn’t like other jobs. You don’t put in the time and schooling and then know you have a career path with steadily increasing pay. Being an artist of any kind has challenges. Authors are creatives and business people, and our books have to compete with Facebook, TV, free content, and all the other books out there. In essence, if you’re going to be an author, you have to do it because you love it.

What about me? I’ve been writing away as usual. I released three full novels in 2014:

Costa Rica,  In A Field of Oranges, and  It’s All In My Head 

Links to different retailers on my homepage. There’s also my Amazon book page.

And I recently released the first novella in a new romantic thriller series, Stranger in my Bed. This first novella doesn’t have so much of the romantic element in it–I’d even call it a psychological thriller.

2014 was a really great writing year for me. I pushed myself to offer something really different with each book. I took It’s All In My Head to a week long, intensive writing workshop, and it eventually became my longest work to date, and my first novel in 1st person. I just LOVE that story and the characters. Some books are harder to write, and that one had challenges, but I still smile when I think about the writing process, and remember it like a life-changing vacation.

I took the lessons learned while writing that novel and started my new series. There’s a lot of mystery in Stranger in my Bed. It’s great fun to write! I also wanted to try a different format, so I’m using a TV episode format, where I’m going to release novellas hopefully once every month. The entire story is much bigger than my usual novel length, too, so this format works well. I really like having smaller conflicts in each novella that will also build the overall problem. In the end, I’ll probably release a box set of the entire story.

I’m also finishing a noBlockbuster Books, Broken Down - so you can write your wonnfiction project–my first book about novel writing. I’ve held off on offering writing advice because there’s an abundance of that there. But I haven’t seen one that covered my content. I took my notes on bestsellers and looked at lists of books that were turned into movies, and something jumped out at me. It was one of those amazing moments when a light bulb turned on and I literally stood up in amazement. This happens when I see something about my writing or writing in general, but I’ve never felt my new insight was a really new insight for writers in general. This time I thought, wow, I need to share this! So I am.

The guide is actually about plotting, creating a blockbuster plot, and making any story bigger. I break down the plot of mega bestsellers to form a simple novel map that anyone can use to plan their novel with critical points that set stories apart.

Blockbuster Books, Broken Down is up for pre-order in Kindle and will release on January 30, 2015. There’s a workbook for the print version, and I hope to release that in January.

Well, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and New Year– I’m celebrating Christmas vacation with two weeks of sleeping in!

New Release: All In My Head

by Kristen James

So… All In My Head is out!!

All in my HEadAvery Waldorf wakes up from a concussion to find a voice inside her head—an adventurous male voice belonging to Marcus, who doesn’t know where he came from, but has an opinion on everything about her life. She just wants to work on her screenplay, go to her writing classes and flirt with the guy of her dreams, Nash, who is finally noticing her.

Marcus wants to get up at dawn, run, snowboard, and basically take over her life, and even her body at times. He thinks she’s freaking hot and does not like Nash touching her. Marcus may be smart, talented at snowboarding, drawing and playing the guitar, but he’s not real! When she needs help, she has to call Nash.

She can’t tell anyone about Marcus without sounding like she’s crazy. Meanwhile Marcus doesn’t know where he’ll go if he leaves her mind. Maybe she is losing it…

Amazon    Kobo   Smashwords   Nook      Teaser Below!

This is my longest book to date, my first time writing in first person, and my first college age romance. I’m excited! It was such a fun book to write, and Avery and Marcus came to life. You might remember my writing challenge: that I want to write books that different, unique, and beyond what I’ve written before. This story is fun, flirty and very emotional, and full of surprises.

***

It’s All In My Head TEASER:

Then, mid-class, I realized that instead of paying attention, I was looking down at my notepad, sketching instead of taking notes or even trying to listen. It took a few slow seconds for me to see that I was drawing myself. And I don’t draw.

I stared in horror like it was a dead rat. Holeeee hell. Really, I can’t draw at all, and this was pretty good. Really good. I mean, it looked like me, even with expression.

Marcus, is that you drawing?

Oh … sorry. Bored out of my mind.

You’re good.

Wow, is that a … what do you call that? Oh, a compliment.

I scanned the few people around me who could see my desk. No one was looking my way.

How do you know what I look like when you’re on the inside, looking out?

I’ve seen you in the mirror.

He got all this from a few glances in the mirror? Marcus had a fine memory.

You have very striking looks. Now can I please get back to my artwork?

Worried and yet fascinated, I watched my own hand move the pencil in confident strokes, filling in my lips. When had Marcus been able to study me that much? The only time he saw my face was when I looked in the mirror. Speaking of my face, it got hot—for several reasons. First, I was drawing myself. I’d die if anyone noticed. Second, it blew up some of my theories about Marcus, or what was causing all this. If I can’t draw, I can’t make up a person who can, right? And third, he was drawing me in a certain mood. I looked … suggestive.

Excuse me, Marcus, but when have you seen that look on my face?

I have an imagination. A very vivid one at times.
Read the first 10% on Amazon.