Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Crazy Cozy Blogfest and Book Release!!!


I guess a girl only gets one FIRST book release and this is my big day. I'm so excited to be sharing it with Elizabeth Spann Craig, who launches a new series today, and who some of you may know (or will, if you read my book dedication) I credit with helping me a TON through this cozy mystery learning curve!

We wanted our launch to be really FUN, so that's what we hope we've managed. We asked people to sign up to pitch a zany cozy mystery idea—it seemed a nice mix of involvement and entertainment. The link to all the participants is at the bottom and I encourage all of you to check out everyone—it isn't a huge list, so you ought to be able to get through them.


Crazy Cozy Entry

Zelda Zambini is the Human Pretzel in the StarTarts Traveling Circus. They roam from town to town, and each place they land, some new, horrible malady (or murder!) awaits them, and it seems they ALWAYS get blamed. Zelda has long been in love with the Strong Man and relies on the support of Madam Estrea, the Fortune Teller (who is notoriously BAD at reading Zelda's fortune, but nevermind) to help her prove her Circus-mates are not the culprits to these crimes.

First Installments include:

Lying with Lions in Laramie
Mirror Mayhem in Minneapolis and
No Net in Nebraska


So go check out everyone else's entries!


Prizes: (yes, I said prizes! erm...not extravagant, but we wanted to give you something) Each Elizabeth and I will choose our favorite and BOTH winners will get BOTH books (signed).

We'd love help promoting the blogfest, as well. Feel free to take the button and banner and/or share the Linky Tool below. And I'm sure you will be hearing more about this over the next two months.


Quilt or Innocence
Beatrice has a lot of gossip to catch up on—especially with the Patchwork Cottage quilt shop about to close. It seems that Judith, the landlord everyone loves to hate, wants to raise the rent, despite being a quilter herself… But when Judith is found dead, the harmless gossip becomes an intricate patchwork of mischievous motives. And it’s up to Beatrice’s expert eye to decipher the pattern and catch the killer, before her life gets sewn up for good.

Elizabeth Spann Craig: Elizabeth writes the Memphis Barbeque series for Penguin/Berkley (as Riley Adams), the Southern Quilting mysteries (2012) for Penguin/NAL, and the Myrtle Clover series for Midnight Ink. She blogs daily at Mystery Writing is Murder, which was named by Writer's Digest as one of the 101 Best Websites for Writers for 2010 and 2011.

As the mother of two, Elizabeth writes on the run as she juggles duties as Girl Scout leader, referees play dates, drives carpools, and is dragged along as a hostage/chaperone on field trips.

Links:
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Indie Bound
Mystery Writing is Murder

The Azalea Assault
Cam Harris loves her job as public relations manager for the Roanoke Garden Society. It allows her to combine her three loves, spinning the press, showing off her favorite town, and promoting her favorite activity. She's just achieved a huge coup by enlisting Garden Delights, the country's premiere gardening magazine, to feature the exquisite garden of RGS founder, Neil Patrick. She's even managed to enlist world-famous photographer Jean-Jacques Georges. Unfortunately, Jean-Jacques is a first-rate cad—insulting the RGS members and gardening, goosing every woman in the room, and drinking like a lush. It is hardly a surprise when he turns up dead. But when Cam's brother-in-law is accused and her sister begs her to solve the crime, that is when things really get prickly.

Alyse Carlson: Alyse Carlson is the pen name for Hart Johnson who writes books from her bathtub. By day she is an academic researcher at a large midwestern university. She lives with her husband, two teenage children and two fur balls. The dust bunnies don't count. This will be her first published book.


Links:
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Indie Bound
Confessions of a Watery Tart



34 comments:

Trisha said...

Wahoooo, congratulations on your book release! It's a magical day indeed :)

Old Kitty said...

Lovely Tart!!! What a most NAKED launch!! Down with pants! Up with Cozy Mysteries!!! Well done you!!

Am toasting a glass or three of pink champagne in your honour!! Hip hip hooray! Take care
x

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Congratulations, Hart!!!!!!
Like your cozy entry. The circus theme could spawn dozens of books.
Posted about your book and blogfest, so hope you get a lot of entries and a lot of orders.
Again, way to go, Hart!

T. Powell Coltrin said...

It's here! It's here! I'm so excited for you. Your cozy entry is awesome.

T

Elizabeth Spann Craig said...

Congratulations on your release, Hart! Woot!

Love the circus cozy...ha!

Mason Canyon said...

Congratulations on your book release today Hart. Way to go! I'm enjoying reading your book and love your protagonist. Looking forward to many more adventures from her.

Great blogfest. I enjoyed participating.

Wishing you great success with your writing.

Mason
Thoughts in Progress

Unknown said...

I love that you even created titles for following books in the series. Congrats on your book.

Hart Johnson said...

*giggles* Thank you so much everyone! I am on vacation, so just getting to it, but so excited to read!

February Grace said...

Happy launch day!!! Headed straight for the stars! xoxoxo!!!

LTM said...

BAH!!! Lying with Lions in Laramie... Why haven't I enlisted you to write my titles again?

WOO HOO!!! Today is such an exciting day. Super congrats to you and to Elizabeth. But mostly to you--LOL! Just b/c it's your first.

YAY!!! xoxo <3

Unknown said...

Good luck on your book release! I am so happy for you! Circus crime...LOL! Traveling crime with a circus...My bet is the bearded lady did it!

Creepy Query Girl said...

Yay!:) Congratulations to you both and your wacky cozy mystery entry is hilarious! I wish I had more time to blog on tuesdays otherwise I would've entered- but in any case, I'll certainly enjoy reading everyone's entries!

Pineconelass said...

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!
I told my local bookseller ,as I grabbed my copy, that I know the author and this is Sooooo exciting!!
Reading now -

Unknown said...

Congratulations!!! I adore cozy mysteries...amazon here I come!

Jan Morrison said...

Yeehaw - not a little love - a lotta love! Hope you're having a swell day - this blogfest is way fun.

Hart Johnson said...

You people ROCK! Thank you so much for helping me feel warm and fuzzy. I am LOVING these entries! I knew it would be fun!

And Leigh--totally will give title help any time, but as you can see, they run on the silly side...

Unknown said...

Congratulations on the release :) YAY!!!

Carol Kilgore said...

Fun, fun!
Happy First Release Ever Day!

Tara Tyler said...

happy release day!!!
zelda is an awesome name and a hilarious character!

Sylvia said...

Congratulations on your book release!!! This was a great blogfest to take part in. I loved Zelda to bits!

Helena said...

Congratulations to you both! And the blogfest seems to be getting off to a roaring start.

Maurice Mitchell said...

Congrats Hart. I hope it goes up like a firecracker.

RaShelle Workman said...

Woohoo! Congrats, Hart!!! Hope it's great.

Anonymous said...

you SO-O-O-O deserve a day off! and all this fuss will only smooth your (already sleek) feathers; while we minions stand at attn, ready for the {A.} Assault. sorry... but you might as well get used to awful puns from now on...
congrats Alyse!

Hart Johnson said...

You guys and gals are fabulous--MAN these have been fun to read!!! THANK YOU!

L. Diane Wolfe said...

Congrats, Hart! First of many to come.

Will the circus series have a zebra that sings "Circus afro, circus afro?"

CA Heaven said...

Too busy to participate this time, but I've read some really entertaining posts for the blogfest >:)

Cold As Heaven

Christine Murray said...

Congratulations on your release day! And here's to many more :)

Gwen Gardner said...

Yay! Congratulations on your FIRST new release! Loved your cozy idea - Zelda the human pretzel would have had some interesting possibilities in my cozy idea, "Best laid Plans."

Arlee Bird said...

Congratulations Hart! I wish you tons of success with the new book. That cover is magnificent--my dream house you know.


Lee
Wrote By Rote

Ella said...

Congrats Hart!!! So excited for you...and Elizabeth! I'm a circus fan...and garden diva! I look forward to this book :D
I dream of being a human pretzel ;D lol

Anonymous said...

Congrats! with The Azalea Assault and best wishes for a smashing success!

Carrie-Anne said...

Congratulations on your release! I love your premise of a series of circus mysteries.

Dru said...

Congratulations on your book release and I'm reading it now and loving it.