MKC Books

i always seem to start out my blog posts with apologies for the long silence! This one does not, unfortunately, break that trend.

Last heard from, I had a delayed my editing date to February for Dead Ball and was hoping to get the book out by summer or early fall. Alas, due to more 2020-like ills extending into 2021, the only thing that got done by February was the ebook cover. As always, my cover artist (Glendon Haddix of Streetlight Graphics) nailed it. 

My new editing date is in June. Assuming I make that date (never assume anything these days!), that will likely mean a late fall publication. 

Like just about everyone on the planet, I have had a challenging 2020. Add eldercare and a sudden move and things have been a wee bit more stressful than usual and I've had to delay Dead #10.

Good News: Dead #10 has a title! Drum roll...it's...Dead Ball. Yes, it's about sports and the many roles it plays in small towns across the Dakotas.

Bad News: Just as I was set to take my first vacation of the year up in South Dakota and get rolling on Dead Ball after completing my research, my mother ended up in the hospital and remained there for over a month. Then when I returned home, I found my home of 20 years was being sold out from under me and I had five weeks to find a new place and move. (Somehow, that all happened.) Sheesh. Enough already, 2020! With all that going on, I contacted my editor and set a new editing date, which is a full three months later than usual. This may well push the actual publishing date, usually anywhere from March to May (mostly the latter these days), into late summer or fall. I will, of course, let you know when it's finally out.

Best News: It's less than two months until 2020 is over!

One of the reasons I write fiction is to give myself and others a breather from whatever ails and ills life throws at us. So in this time of worldwide lockdown over Covid-19, I am happy to announce a distraction...

Dead Tunes is now out in ebook from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and Smashwords. The last is a distributor to Apple so will take a little longer. A trade paperbook will come out in another couple months and I'll announce it here.

Here's the blurb:

His music pulled on their heartstrings...

Until someone at the Big Jammer River Music Festival pulled a string tight around Hal Birchard's neck. To Sheriff Karen Okerlund Mehaffey and her detective-uncle, Marek Okerlund, the reclusive musician was a head-scratching mystery—his origins as murky as those of the strange fiddle he'd played that had even staid Dakotans tapping their feet.

Karen is doing a tap dance of her own, trying to get her young sister-in-law emancipated as a minor without tipping off the girl's drug-addict mother. As for Marek, he just wants to survive his daughter's headbanging practice sessions for a summer concert that can't come soon enough.
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Picking out the killer in a deadly symphony of suspects, from festival contestants to judges with secrets, is no easy task. Will Karen and Marek tune in to the killer in time for a satisfying resolution or will the case come to a discordant end?

It's been a long and difficult year, but I was able to finish the latest book earlier this month and handed it off to my editor.

After I finish revisions, I expect Dead Tunes to come out by May of 2020. The subject is fairly obvious: music! 

The wonderful Glendon Haddix once again nailed the cover for Dead Tunes, which is shorter and more lighthearted than Dead Head. 

I wish you all the best of the holidays, filled with joy, laughter, and yes, music. 

The trade paperback version of Dead Head is now available on Amazon. You should also be able to order it through your local bookstore. 

In writing news, I am looking forward to a trip back to the prairie next month, where I will start plodding...er, plotting...Dead #9.

Yes, finally, Dead Head is out.

My apologies for its lateness. I had surgery at the end of the February and found myself curiously reluctant to write or edit books rather than read them afterwards! But I'm now on the mend and ready to get Dead Head off my hands and into yours so I can start Dead #9.

You can get the ebook on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, and Smashwords. The last is the distributor to Apple, where it will appear in due course. A trade paperback is in the works and I'll let you know when it's available.

So without further ado, here is the blurb:

It all comes to a head...

In a quiet roadside ditch in Eda County, South Dakota, prairie roses have sprung up along with constructions cones—and a fractured old skull.

Settling into her first year as elected sheriff, Karen Okerlund Mehaffey wants nothing more than a quiet little murder with no press, no mess, while she tackles the more difficult question of whether to purchase a new official vehicle or hire a new deputy.

Her detective-uncle, Marek Okerlund, has his own hands full with an unexpectedly recalcitrant daughter. School is almost out... but the last day comes sooner for some, as girls go missing, one by one.

As the old case and the new intertwine, with twists that turn frighteningly personal, Karen and Marek rush to unravel the skull's past to save the girls' future.

Sorry for the long radio silence on the blog!

This has been a year of life rolls, where fiction has had to take a back seat to reality and its attendant practicalities. (All fodder for future books, I tell myself.) But I was able to finish the manuscript for the next book in time for my editing date at the end of November. Barely. An all-nighter was involved.

This book (Dead Head) turned out to be longer and more complicated than some of the previous books. Currently, I am working on revisions and hope to make my usual release in March or possibly April. 

As you can see, the ever-wonderful Glendon S. Haddix of Streetlight Graphics has once again done wonders with the cover. I don't have the blurb written yet but the tag line of "An old skull appears just as girls disappear" gives you at least a clue.

The trade paperback version of Dead Poor is now available at Amazon and can be ordered through your local bookstore. 

Yes, folks, it's finally out in the wild!

The ebook of Dead Poor is available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, and Smashwords. The last is a distributor for Apple and will eventually appear there as well. A trade paperback will be forthcoming.

Here is the full blurb:

Nature's red in tooth and claw...

After an election recount, Karen Mehaffey's triumphant return as the sheriff of Eda County, South Dakota, is marred by the murder of her opponent, Bob "Baby" Bunting. His desecrated body is found in a local park where tensions simmer between park management, homeless squatters, and struggling residents of the adjoining trailer park.

For Karen, exhausted after a high-profile case in Albuquerque where she'd been on the brink of accepting a new job, returning has her wondering just how much she wants to come home after all. For her uncle-detective, Marek Okerlund, the case means revisiting his family's grinding poverty in a ramshackle house that was never a home.

Where survival of the fittest is a way of life, will Karen and Marek come out on top... or will the killer ruthlessly destroy their homecoming?

DEAD POOR is a character-driven police procedural. Seventh in series. Word Count: 90,000. Occasional profanity. Minimal gore.