Jan 31, 20232 min read

Fatal Phantasm

I was at the 6 month point in a long hiatus from writing. I'd been blocked for months at the beginning of the pandemic. Three of my daughters are nurses, and the other two are teachers, so they were on the front lines, face to face with the virus daily. All of them got it multiple times. Many of my grandchildren got it. My three-month-old great grandkids got it, and then later got it again. It was, as you remember very well, quite a traumatic experience.

I was trying to get my muse to talk to me again, and failing miserably, completely blocked, when I the contract for one of my favorite stories expired, and I reclaimed the book from the publisher. That story was a RITA® Award winner, coming after 13 nominations, so it meant a lot to me. I added scenes, polished it up, and sent it off to my editor, who pointed out that I had a ready made Scooby gang by the end. She said if she were me, she would write as many sequels as possible. And she was right.

The books that became The Fatal Series are shorter reads about the length of a Harlequin Temptation. They're light, but spooky! They're breathlessly romantic, but funny as hell to boot. And I just love them. So I took my editor's advice and penned a sequel, and then another, and another.

The fourth in this series, FATAL PHANTASM, is in stores today, and I couldn't be happier. The first review said it reads like a Scooby Doo mystery for grownups. I think that's pretty accurate, except instead of a dog, my gang has the ghost of 1960s jazz singer, Lady El and lots of romance.

Early reviews are looking very positive, and the book is already generating buzz.

So I hope you'll enjoy this story from the series that broke my writer's block!