MKC Books

No, I'm not dead!

A poster recently requested more frequent blog posts. It's downright embarrassing to see how long it's been since I last posted. (And, yes, the print version of Dead Hot has been out for many moons now. How did I miss that?)

These last couple years in the Coker family have been a bit distracting. In a case of life imitating art, my father had a stroke and, unlike Arne Okerund, has not recovered as fully. So that's been a drain, as much emotional as otherwise, on my time and attention.

Right now, I am madly typing away on the next book, tentatively titled Dead Poor, for my editing deadline in November. If the revisions aren't too extensive, it should be out in March as usual.

As for a hint, if you've read Dead Hot, this book follows right on its heels. So you already know who the victim is!

After their busman's holiday in New Mexico, Karen and Marek are back in South Dakota, working a thorny case of a body found in a local park. Despite her beauty, Mother Nature is, when all is said and done, red and tooth and claw.

While some hoped for a return to Albuquerque, at the present time, I am not anticipating that happy event, though never say never!

It is, after all, the Dakota Mysteries...

At long last! Due to some last minute additions and changes spurred by one of my excellent beta readers, Dead Hot was delayed slightly but still managed to sneak in by end of the March, as promised. At least, it was published in March! Notifications are going out in April.

Currently Dead Hot is available on Amazon USA, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, and Smashwords. It will take a bit longer for Apple and other sites. A trade paperback will be forthcoming in a couple months or so.

Here is the final blurb:

It's not just the sun's rays beaming down...

After losing a brutal election, Sheriff Karen Mehaffey and her uncle, Detective Marek Okerlund, are headed from South Dakota to New Mexico for a long delayed vacation and job hunt.

Marek hopes to reunite with his old homicide partner in Albuquerque, while Karen looks to her former career as a dispatcher. But when Marek's young daughter goes unexpectedly mute when their plane lands in the city of her mother's death, all plans are put on hold.

Dispirited, they'd barely arrived at their motel when a man dies on their doorstep, proclaiming himself the victim of radiation poisoning. Crazy? Perhaps. But with his last words, the man snares their attention: he asks them to tell Karen's father back in South Dakota that he's sorry... but for what?

Fated for a busman's holiday, Karen and Marek find themselves entangled in a case hotter than the New Mexico sun.

For those of you wondering if I've fallen off the edge of the world, well, yes...that's called the Dakotas!

But the next book, which should be out by March, takes place mostly in the Land of Enchantment aka New Mexico. The always excellent Glendon S. Haddix of Streetlight Graphics did the cover.

Here is the blurb for the book...

After losing a brutal election, Sheriff Karen Mehaffey and her detective-uncle, Marek Okerlund, are headed from South Dakota to New Mexico for a long delayed vacation and job hunt. But they'd barely arrived when a man dies on their motel doorstep. With his last words, he asks them to tell Arne Okerlund, Karen's father, that he's sorry... but for what? Fated for a busman's holiday, Karen and Marek find themselves entangled in a case hotter than the New Mexico sun.

The trade paperback version of Dead News is now available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

It isn't yet available at independent bookstore Powells but you should be able to order it through your local bookstore.

In other Dead news, I have begun research on the next book, which will be set partially in New Mexico.

Dead News is finally off my hands and into yours!

The ebook is currently available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, and Smashwords. The Apple version goes through a distributor and will take a bit more time.

A trade paperback version will be available in another month or two, and I will announce it here.

Here's the blurb for Dead News:

If it bleeds, it leads.
 
Poised to win her first contested election in Eda County, South Dakota, Sheriff Karen Mehaffey is broadsided by bad news.
 
Not only does a hooligan deface a turbine in the county’s new wind farm, but Alyson Linderman, daughter of a Twin Cities media mogul, is found dead on the launch day of an electronics recycling center. Is it eco-terrorism in reverse or something more insidious?
 
Branded as a bumbling pair of misfits, Karen and her detective-uncle, Marek Okerlund, must solve the high profile murder under a media microscope—or they’ll both lose their jobs.

Good news!

Glendon Haddix of Streetlight Graphics came through again on the perfect cover for my next book, Dead News.

And in more good news, I made my editing date in November and am currently working on revisions. Everything is on schedule for Dead News to be available by March.

The bad news? Well, that's for Sheriff Mehaffey and her crew to deal with, not me, thankfully!

No, I am not dead!

Though it may seem like it of late. It's been very quiet here since Dead Quiet went out into the world in March.

I've started the next book (#5) in the Dakota Mystery series but it isn't going well. Until last week, I didn't even have a body, much less a killer, which kinds of makes it difficult to write, um, a murder mystery.

But I'm happy to report that I finally killed somebody! Whew.

My editing date is early November, so I've got a lot of writing to do between now and then. If it's like the previous book, it'll be out in March 2016 after revisions.

So, what's it about? Well, it starts off with some rather unique graffiti on a wind turbine. Also, Sheriff Karen Mehaffey is facing a nasty election campaign from a former deputy of her father's. One who knows too much about the mistakes she's made in the past.


Also in not-so-dead news, I got a very nice review of the previous four books from my friend and mentor, Linda M. Hasselstrom, a nationally known South Dakota poet and essayist. Without her, I doubt you'd be reading my mysteries.

When I first met her on a writing retreat, I was at a fork in the road (a very uncomfortable place to be), unsure whether I was kidding myself about being a writer. I wondered if I should chuck it all and go eat worms. Or rattlesnakes, in the case of Linda's very capable assistant, Tam.

Not bad, Linda told me, in Dakota-speak. She also said to use the same word in all the titles as a helpful mnemonic device for those (like me) who can't remember authors or titles. And so the Dakota Mystery series was born.

And, by the way, the tentative title for #5 is...

Dead News.