Dear Friends,
I wanted to share some exciting news: I have another mystery coming out on August 11. I’m fortunate to have been picked up by Bedazzled Ink—or “Bink,” as insiders call it. They are an indie press based in California, which is perfect for Lost in Sound, a truly California tale. Through a bit of serendipity, I found them, they found me, and they made an exception to their current policy of being closed to outside submissions. Wow. That made me feel good.
It’s such an intimate thing to put your work out there. To open yourself up to people’s opinions. And yet, this was a tale that wanted to be told, and so I did my best to tell it. My editor at Bedazzled, C.A. Casey, was a dream to work with. And I love the cover they came up with.
Another way in which I feel lucky is that Bookshop Santa Cruz has once again offered to host my book launch. Tuesday, August 11 is the date. 7PM. It’s a free event but they ask that you register so they have some idea how many chairs to put out. We are so lucky in Santa Cruz to have such an awesome bookstore.
Like my last mystery, Bait in Witch, a Golden Crown finalist, Lost In Sound is set in the fictional town of Tres Ojos, a town much like Santa Cruz. I call it Tres Ojos because the land on which my house sits was once the Tres Ojos de Agua Ranch. The three eyes refer to the three springs which run through it, one, right behind my house, which at this moment is home to a pair of mallards and their eleven hatchlings. So cute!
Here is a bit about the novel.
Sometimes it takes a village, maybe a dog, and a bit of magic, to solve a murder.
An unlikely posse comes together to help Captain Eddie, a neurodivergent, landlocked pirate, who’s been accused of murdering another transient. There’s Ash, a fed-up middle-aged lesbian who lost her brother to a fatal overdose; Crow, a twenty-eight-year-old eccentric with high ideals and questionable personal hygiene; love-interest Reina, saver of lost animals; Ida, a short-statured octogenarian who belongs to an ancient mystical order of sorceresses who, like whales, communicate through sound, and lastly, Captain Eddie’s loyal first mate, a pit bull named Apollo.
The case grows from a local tragedy to a high-profile newsworthy circus when the murdered transient turns out to be the estranged sister of country and western legend, Wanda Wiles, compounding the threads Ash and her friends must unravel in their quest to save Captain Eddie.
Feel the sonic rumblings beneath the small oceanside town of Tres Ojos, where tech millionaires are forced to pass by homeless encampments on their way to trendy kava bars, and where ordinary souls spend their lives helping those down on their luck.
So, thanks for reading this. I appreciate it more that you know. Maybe I’ll see you at Bookshop. If you can’t make that, I am also excited to be chatting with these other mystery writers on August 19, on ZOOM. Here’s the invite for that.
And of course you can preorder LOST IN SOUND.
As always, Live the Love, it’s all we’ve got in this nutty world.
Respectfully,
Clifford Mae
