The HBS Author's Spotlight SHOWCASES Michele Drier's New Book: Stain on the Soul.
Author Michele Drier is the author of The Amy Hobbes Newspaper Mysteries and The Kandesky Vampire Chronicles. Michele writes Romance and Mystery novels.
Stain on the Soul
A Stained Glass Mystery
Author: Michele Drier
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Who murdered Winston Duke? Why?
His widow, Rosalind (Roz) had no answers but to put her life back together, the internationally known stained glass artist moved to a small town on the Oregon coast. Here, where she knew no one, she planned to use the beach, scoured by wind and water, to cleanse her soul and rebuild her creativity. That is, until one morning when her peace was smashed by the lights and sirens of emergency vehicles, and the sight of her neighbor’s bloody body being taken away. Meeting others from the town, Roz is pulled into a mystery of who the neighbor was and finds a circle of friends far removed the Los Angeles of her life with Winston.
Excerpt from Stain on the Soul
CHAPTER ONE
Red, blue, red, blue, red, blue…
Colors kaleidoscoped across the grey overcast, reflecting in the puddles left by the morning’s rain.
Roz thought she’d heard a faint wail of sirens, but the sound was indistinct, muted by the ocean’s constant whispering.
What was this? Sirens and revolving lights belonged to her previous life, not here, not on the Oregon coast, not in her refuge.
She climbed a sand dune behind her house, saw the whirling lights and pinpointed the source, across the street. She’d been walking her dog on the flat sand of the beach.
The flashing colors were a blip, a change, maybe an intrusion in her routine. The routine that included a quarter of an hour getting the greyhound to come back to her.
This morning, until the lights, her routine was usual.
“Tut!” she’d called.
She paused, then “TUT!”
The wind tore the word to fragments, tossing the sounds across the packed sand of the beach and the small rollers coming in from Japan.
“TUT! Come here!”
Her hair whipped across her face, ends stinging and poking her eyes. “I’m going to have to get a whistle,” she muttered, these words flung out to sea as well.
A faint line of paw prints ran at the edge of the damp sand, now slowly filling by the incoming tide. Her eyes teared up but something moved way down the beach. She squinted and headed toward the figure, calling his name.
She’d gone about a hundred yards before she could make out it was him, running at her full tilt, keeping to the tide line to increase his speed. “Tut, come here!” She put her hands out to him as the dog skidded up, tongue lolling from his run.
“What am I going to do with you?” She snapped on his leash, hugged him, put her face down for a doggie kiss and ran her free hand down his smooth back. “You know it’s just you and me, now.”
Tut panted and pulled her up the path from the beach that backed up to Hamilton, the small town strung for three miles along the coastal sand. It was one of the Oregon towns with forefathers’ names. Jefferson, Lincoln City, Hamilton.
She’d picked Hamilton based on the hit musical. A frivolous way to reinvent herself? It was time to take chances. She’d needed to get as far away from her Los Angles life as she could, and arrived in the sandy, close-knit town to build a new life at the beginning of the new year.
As she and Tut crested the low dune, she looked toward her house and stopped, Tut almost jerking her off her feet.
Yes, there they were, across the street, the red and blue lights, reflecting off the high fog drifting in. “Wait, Tut, wait a minute.” She gathered the leash in, bringing the greyhound to her and slowly walked across her deck, through the French doors.
Standing at her front windows, she watched the emergency vehicles, then noticed two people huddled in jackets, transfixed by the lights. Should she go over? The house they stood in front of, on the other side of the street, was practically wrapped in yellow crime scene tape, warning people to stay back. Surely, she could get close enough to ask questions?
The horror of Winston last year had burned out a lot of Roz’ curiosity. After that, she wanted to be alone for a while, left in peace to heal, but this was pulling her. Living for 38 years without drama, in less than a year she’d had cops in her neighborhood, at her house, twice. Was she becoming a lightning rod for disaster?
Stop it, she told herself, this was only a coincidence. She grabbed Tut’s leash and they went out her front door, eased over to the people in the street and Roz nodded.
“What’s happening?”
One of the bundled-up people, a woman said, “Not sure. The fire engines pulled up a few minutes ago and three guys went into that house with a gurney.” The house she pointed out was on a corner, two doors down and catty-corner from Roz’ house. As they watched at the edge of the property, a police car, an investigator’s van and an ambulance pulled in, light bars flashing and sirens dying.
“Who lives there?”
“An older guy, retired. Doesn’t go out much. I never see him at Jules.”
At the mention of the town’s best-known coffee shop, Roz’ stomach growled. She allowed herself only a cup of coffee before she took Tut to the beach for his morning run. Now, after fresh Pacific air and exercise, she craved food. Breakfast. Make it herself or go to Jules for food and gossip? Her mother’s words echoed. Don’t be so nosy Roz. People like to have their privacy.
She couldn’t help it, she wanted answers, needed the pieces of her life to fit tightly together.
That’s what drove her to Hamilton, the quest to find a spot where she could create a space, a situation, that no one could spoil. Where nothing was unknown, all was planned. If the unexpected arose, she had to question it, to dig enough until it emerged, smooth, and slid into place. This, lights and emergency vehicles, was not expected.
Roz pulled Tut close to her again and edged as close to the tape and the investigator’s van as she dared. Where the woman already staked a claim.
Author Genre: Romance, Mystery
Website: Michele Drier
Twitter: @MicheleDrier
E-Mail: mjdrier@gmail.com
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Amazon Author Profile
Author Description: I was born in Santa Cruz, California to a family that migrated west to San Francisco in 1849. Unfortunately, they never found gold, nor did they buy (and hang onto) any California land. My mother named me Michael, after author and actress Blanche Oelrichs, who wrote under the name of Michael Strange. After months of saying, "Yes, she's a girl. Yes, her name is Michael," my mother finally caved and I became "Michele." I was read to as a child, and needed always to have a book with me. My maternal grandmother belonged to a writing club in San Francisco in the early part of the 20th century and wrote poems and jingles--one of which won her a travel trailer during the Depression. I've lived in San Francisco, the Bay Area, the Central Valley, the Sierra, Southern California and the North Coast.
My first career was in journalism, and I spent seven years as a staff writer with the San Jose Mercury News. After returning to Humboldt State University to complete school and work on a master's, I fell into my second career, as a non-profit administrator.I spent time as a reporter and editor for daily papers in California. I was the city, metro and executive editor for daily newspapers in California's Central Valley and managed non-profit agencies, including a legal organization serving roughly 10,000 senior citizens in Alameda County. I'm a member of the Society of California Pioneers and Sisters in Crime and live in California's Central Valley with a cat, skunks, wild turkeys and an opossum (only the cat gets to come in the house).
Author's Book List
SNAP: Red Bear Rising - The Kandesky Vampire Chronicles Book Ten
Nik Kandesky and Jazz Fall are engaged, meaning Jazz agrees to be changed into a vampire, a dicey situation. Set against the continuing Russian incursions into Crimea and Ukraine, Jazz must dig deep into her core to find her courage and become a member of the high echelon Kandeskys, who have guided and led the family for half a millennium. Born and bred a SoCal woman, she has to swallow her fears as Nik takes on challenges that leave him injured and close to death.
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Ashes of Memories
Getting what you wish for can bring unintended circumstances.Jennifer in New York and Matt in San Francisco worry that they're losing their memories. Jennifer from an earlier trauma and Matt while watching his father succumb to Alzheimer's. After finding a new medical technology designed to help people with cognitive disorders, they independently track down a grey-market supply, but when they meet they find unknown terrors.
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SNAP: I, Vampire - The Kandesky Vampire Chronices 9
Maxie Gwenoch, LA-based media star, VP for International Planning for the multi-national gossip conglomerate, SNAP, has finally agreed to marry Jean-Louis Kandesky, a 500-year-old Hungarian vampire a leader of the family that owns SNAP.
Is marriage a big change? Not as big as the fact that Maxie is now a vampire, as well. When munitions from the Kandesky Enterprises weapons plant in Slovakia turn up at the bombing of a Royal's house in England, Jean-Louis and his "brother," Nik, are hot on the trail of shadowy terrorist groups dealing in international weapons sales. Are the Kandesky arms being sold to terrorists groups? Should Maxie use her new-found vampire strengths to ferret out the scum?
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SNAP: All That Jazz - The Kandesky Vampire Chronices 8
Nik and Jazz, both employees of Kandesky Enterprises and passionate lovers, are having a tumultuous time. Are their differences too great? She's a contemporary, hip, young career woman working in the fast-changing world of celebrity gossip journalism in Los Angeles. He's a 500-year old vampire living in Kiev, Ukraine and running the Kandesky Munitions factories. She deals with celebs and sun, he deals with terrorists and dark.
Is their overpowering attraction enough to build a life-long future, or will their relationship fizzle out before Maxie's and Jean-Louis' wedding, dying faster than a Fourth of July sparkler?
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SNAP: White Nights - The Kandesky Vampire Chronices 7
Nik, the third-in-command of the Hungarian Kandesky vampire family, has been handling the family's interests in Czech munition factories for upwards of four hundred years. He's been a contented bachelor, throwing himself into business until Jazz strolls into his life. Jazz is Maxie Gwenoch's successor as the managing editor for SNAP, the international celeb gossip magazine, another Kandesky company. Maxie, Nik, Jazz and Jean-Louis, the Kandesky second-in-command, are headed to Moscow to assess the business potential for a SNAP Russian bureau, until an old enemy shows up. Set against the tensions between Ukraine and Russia, the short Russian nights teach Maxie to cherish her time with Jean-Louis while Jazz faces her own questions about loving a vampire.
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SNAP: Happily Ever After? - The Kandesky Vampire Chronicles Book 6
Loving Jean-Louis for eternity doesn't mean that Maxie Gwenoch will let him turn her. Jean-Louis is a vampire, is gorgeous, is the second-in-command of the Kandesky Family of Hungarian vampires, and is her boss at SNAP, the multinational, multimedia celeb gossip empire where she is the VP for International Planning. She moves to Kiev to build a home with Jean-Louis and finds her future under a cloud from Leonid, a rival from the Huszar family, now living in a bolthole in the ruins of Chernobyl. Will Maxie find safety by giving up her days and joining Jean-Louis in the vampire nights?
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SNAP: Love for Blood - The Kandesky Vampire Chronicles Book 5
When Maxie Gwenoch snags the job as managing editor of SNAP, an international gossip conglomerate, she's looking for fame, fortune and Jimmy Choos. What she finds is a media empire owned by Baron Kandesky and his family. A family of vampires. They're European, urbane, wealthy and mesmerizing. And when she meets Jean-Louis, vampire and co-worker, she's a goner.
Maxie believes she's found her ultimate career. She doesn't realize that she's found a family feud like none other, a centuries-old rivalry between vampire families, with her as the linchpin. Bells ring with Jean-Louis, but she doesn't realize they're alarm sirens until she learns that Jean-Louis is second in command of the Kandeskys...but by then it's too late.
In this fifth book of the Kandesky Vampire Chronicles, Maxie and Jean-Louis come to deeper understandings after her rescue from Leonid, a Huszar strong-man who kidnapped and brutally abused her. They reach a separate peace against the backdrop of the death penalty trial of Huszar leader Matthais, bringing an end to centuries of war between the two vampire families.
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DANUBE: A Tale of Murder - The Kandesky Vampire Chronicles Book 4
The Kandesky management trio, Stefan, Jean-Louis and Pen, find themselves embroiled in a war with their rivals, the Huszars, which is bad for PR and bad for business, but after a judicious assassination they hammer out a pact.
This fourth book of the Kandesky Vampire Chronicles tells of peace agreements with their rivals and the growth of their now-international business ventures.
It also follows Jean-Louis as he meets and falls in love with a young artist, Magda, who desires travel and adventure but never imagined the world the Kandeskys inhabit
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Plague: A Love Story - The Kandesky Vampire Chronicles Book 3
The third book of the Kandesky Vampire Chronicles begins the saga of the family's start during the chaos of 14th century Hungary. When Stefan's wife and infant son die in a minor plague outbreak, he has nothing to live for, so Theron's turning him to a vampire is just a way out of his anguish.
Until he takes over the estate of a merchant, recruits Jean-Louis to teach him business and meets Lady Penelope Kandesky.
Plague returns to Budapest and this time paves the way for Stefan to become Baron Stefan Kandesky, a businessman who builds a trading empire with the help of Jean-Louis and Pen.
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SNAP: New Talent - The Kandesky Vampire Chronicles Book 2
In the second book of the SNAP Kandesky vampire series, Maxie Gwenoch, media-savvy editor of the multinational celeb gossip magazine SNAP, is pummeled in Paris and kidnapped in Kiev as the Huszars ramp up the race to oust their centuries-old rivals, the Kandeskys.
SNAP's owners, the Kandesky family of vampires, built the world's most popular celeb coverage empire but this isn't just a business take-over. These powerful vampire families lived with an uneasy peace for four centuries until Maxie came in to boost SNAP's coverage and started making inroads into the Huszar's traditional hunting territories.
Although Jean-Louis, Maxie's lover, vampire and second-in-command of the Kandeskys, tries to keep her safe, Maxie is determined to do things her way, a way that may lose her her job, her love and her life.
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Delta for Death - The Amy Hobbes Newspaper Mysteries Book 3
California is in the middle of a catastrophic drought and water managers are scrambling to find ways to conserve the resource. The Governor has proposed a plan to dig massive tunnels under Delta, a sprawling tract of islands, sloughs, farms, marinas, resorts and historic small towns. The project will ship Sacramento River water south, to the thirsty corporate farms and cities of Central and Southern California, not a popular idea in Northern California.
When two bodies turn up at a state corporation yard in the tiny Delta hamlet of Freeland, Amy Hobbes and her police reporter, Clarice, are determined to find out if water is an issue worth killing for.
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Labeled for Death - The Amy Hobbes Newspaper Mysteries Book 2
Vineyards around Monroe are being harvested, the ripe grape bunches sliced off the vines and trucked to wineries, where they’ll be crushed to make some of California’s finest wines. Amy Hobbes, managing editor of the Monroe Press has other stories in mind, until Clarice Stamms, her cops reporter blows in with news about another harvest, two bodies tucked up under the vines. The field workers were stabbed and their throats sliced. Are they just victims of a worker’s anger?
When the town’s most popular and well-known hooker turns up at the vineyard’s labor camp, sliced and stabbed as well, Amy and Clarice are on the hunt again, the adrenaline tingling down their nerve endings.
Who’s the killer stalking the vineyards and why?
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Edited for Death - The Amy Hobbes Newspaper Mysteries Book 1
Amy Hobbes never expected to solve anything tougher than a crossword puzzle. When she left her job as a journalist in Southern California, she planned to give the adrenaline a rest, but her next job, managing editor of a local newspaper, delivers some surprises. After a respected Senator and World War II hero dies and two more people turn up dead, the news heats up. Both victims had ties to a hotel owned by the Senator's family. With the help of reporter pal Clarice and the new man in her life, Phil, Amy uncovers a number of shadowy figures, including a Holocaust survivor who's spent sixty years tracking down Nazi loot. It's a complex and dangerous puzzle, but Amy can't walk away until she solves it.
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Author Recommended by: HBSystems Publications
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James, thank you so much for hosting a look at my newest book! This is a bit of a switch for me as I don't usually write cozies, even dark ones!
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