Holiday

Festive Mayhem 4 Crime Fiction Anthology

| authorbarbarahoward

The successful funding of our Kickstarter campaign for Festive Mayhem 4 is truly a cause for celebration! I am absolutely thrilled at the thought of sharing my short story, “Chocolate Kisses, Deadly Wishes,” with eager readers. As an added treat, the companion cookbook is among the exciting bonus rewards available in the Kickstarter campaign. Festive Mayhem 4 is a captivating multi-author mystery and crime fiction anthology, featuring 13 captivating new short stories contributed by me and my esteemed author peers.

The Kickstarter rewards offer a unique opportunity to immerse yourself in this compelling collection, with three exclusive limited-edition Crime Collections up for grabs. Each volume is thoughtfully curated to include a selection of the Festive Mayhem 4 stories and comes with digital signatures from the contributing authors. It’s important to note that access to these Kickstarter-exclusive volumes will be limited once the campaign concludes, so I encourage you to seize this opportunity without delay and show your support by backing us today!

For more details and to discover the various ways you can contribute and get involved, please visit our Kickstarter page at Kickstarter page. Your support means the world to us, and we can’t wait to share this thrilling anthology with you. Thank you for being a part of this incredible journey!

Festive Mayhem 2 Book Tour and Giveaways

| authorbarbarahoward

ENTER THE GIVEAWAY HERE

Publication Date: October 1, 2021
Off-Sale Date: January 31, 2022 (unless extended)
Title: Festive Mayhem 2
Subtitle: Seven Holiday Culinary Cozy Mysteries
Authors: Paige Sleuth, Francelia Belton, Angela Henry, Rhoda Berlin, Carolyn Marie Wilkins, Barbara Howard, Stella Oni
Word Count (includes everything): 53,663
ISBN: 9798201820152
Description:
Seven crime writers of color have teamed up for the second year running to offer you the gift of escape this holiday season. From Thanksgiving to Christmas, Halloween to New Year’s, cozy mystery fans are bound to find a favorite holiday represented in this limited-time collection of exclusive, never-before-published seasonal short stories.

What you’ll find inside:

• “Nefarious New Year” by Paige Sleuth. A suspected poisoning leads Cherry Hills, Washington animal rescue maven Imogene Little to spend New Year’s Eve 1999 tracking down a would-be murderer.
• “The Brotherhood of Tricks and Treats” by Francelia Belton. A young man wants to fit in with his older brothers, but gets in over his head.
• “Cookies, Lies & Homicide” by Angela Henry. When lonely widow Mercy Davenport finds a lost dog, she has no idea searching for its owner will land her in the middle of a murder mystery, putting her in the crosshairs of a killer and on the radar of a grumpy local police detective.
• “Last Bite” by Rhoda Berlin. When Emily introduces her fiancé to her family, Thanksgiving comes to a fateful end.
• “A Praline for Pepe” by Carolyn Marie Wilkins. Carrie McFarland’s psychic powers are tested when a showboat featuring a racist revue brings a handsome stranger, a new cuisine, and a cold-blooded killer to Aaronsville, Indiana in 1921.
• “A Cup of Secrets” by Barbara Howard. Debutante Chelsea Parker’s birthday celebration launched his catering business into an overnight success, but Milo is thrown into the center of a murder investigation before dawn with his business partner and love of his life as the primary suspect.
• “The Jollof Rice and Crayfish Mystery” by Stella Oni. Elizabeth Ojo senses trouble when billionaire businessman Chief Arowolo, his wives and family come to celebrate his 75th birthday in the Mews, and she is not wrong as Chief collapses on the day of his celebration.

Bonus recipes are included for each story!

This anthology is only available for a short time, so grab it now before it’s gone. It would be criminal to miss it!

Happy Juneteenth!

| authorbarbarahoward

Juneteenth (short for “June Nineteenth”) marks the day when federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas in 1865 to take control of the state and ensure that all enslaved people be freed. The troops’ arrival came a full two and a half years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. Juneteenth honors the end to slavery in the United States and is considered the longest-running African American holiday.

Confederate General Robert E. Lee had surrendered at Appomattox Court House two months earlier in Virginia, but slavery had remained relatively unaffected in Texas—until U.S. General Gordon Granger stood on Texas soil and read General Orders No. 3: “The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free.” – source The History Channel https://www.history.com/news/what-is-juneteenth

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_9-ZDsWoP8