This is the new cover for Year of the Dog! While I loved the old cover, since I’m rewriting Year of the Dog  with more suspense, I thought I should make a cover that’s more suspense-y, but still looks a bit fun and tropical (hence the pink title and purple palm trees). My graphic designer is slammed with work right now, so I decided to make the cover myself. What do you think? I’ll have my graphic designer tweak the cover later (when she’s got more time) but it shouldn’t change too much since I used the cover for Sushi and Suspicions  that she made for me as a general template to make this cover. I’m also making a logo for the new series which will go in the top right corner of the cover, but I want to wait until my graphic designer can look at it first.

REMINDER: Update on Lady Wynwood's Spies Vol. 8 here on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/posts/120935990/ BONUS:  Tote Bag from Year of the Dog https://www.patreon.com/posts/121005163/ BONUS:  Wahiawa Botanical Garden from Year of the Dog https://www.patreon.com/posts/121006857/ Free eBooks Sign up for these authors’ newsletters and get free books! Click on the links to check out all the free books. You might find a new favorite author! Sweet Regency Novels https://books.bookfunnel.com/sweet-regency-novels-feb-2025/uh9ewyclqy Jan Thompson Christian Romantic Suspense JanThompson.com/thief-roundrobin2025 John Galt Robinson Christian suspense/thriller https://dl.bookfunnel.com/98aifh9fnt Currently posting on Patreon: Early access chapters and annotated chapters: Year of the Dog:  up to Chapter 23 Protection for Hire : up to Chapter 7 (on hiatus until after Year of the Dog  is done posting) Lady Wynwood and the Senhora’s Bargain (bonus story for Tier 2 and higher): Comple...

In chapter 1 of my humorous romantic suspense novel, Protection for Hire , the setting is Wings domestic abuse shelter. My heroine, Tessa, is driven to champion women, and I naturally wanted her to work with women who needed her help. I didn’t want to use a real San Francisco shelter for my book for various reasons, so I created Wings but based it loosely off of a real women’s shelter in San Jose called Heritage Home. Heritage Home is a shelter for pregnant women run by CityTeam Ministries, and they provide shelter, training, and spiritual encouragement for homeless pregnant women. They’re run out of a glorious Victorian house in downtown San Jose, which is maintained by volunteers and donations, and which provides a real atmosphere of “home” for women who are at some of the darkest points in their lives. I’ve donated to Heritage Home and also taken a tour, meeting some of the staff and some of the women. Their stories and their courage were the seeds that made me write about Tessa, he...

In chapter one of Protection for Hire , Elizabeth St. Amant is wearing some droolworthy gold shoes. I imagined them looking a bit like this—elegant, expensive, and completely out of place in a women’s shelter. The shoes are a reflection of Elizabeth herself—sheltered, from a wealthy family, but thrust into a new life and feeling out of place when she takes her infant son and runs away from her abusive husband. Elizabeth hires my heroine, Tessa, to protect her. But Charles, the lawyer who comes to their aid, happens to be the man who helped put Tessa in prison years ago. Tessa and Charles get caught up in a romantic suspense story with humor, danger, and faith. If you’re a fan of stories with sassy heroines, edge-of-your-seat action, and laugh-out-loud moments, you’ll love the world of Protection for Hire . It’s like your favorite rom-com collided with a high-stakes thriller—and those gold shoes are just the beginning. I love beautiful shoes but can’t wear them because I have flat...

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Update on Lady Wynwood's Spies Vol. 8 here on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/posts/120935990/ BONUS: Year of the Dog cover reveal! https://www.patreon.com/posts/121002320/ Free eBooks Sign up for these authors’ newsletters and get free books! Click on the links to check out all the free books. You might find a new favorite author! Sherri Wilson Johnson Christian Romantic Suspense, Clean Romantic Suspense https://sherriwilsonjohnson.com/bayside-betrayal-rr2025/ Terry Toler Mystery https://dl.bookfunnel.com/x317hohnap Safety First: Christian/Clean Suspense/Mystery/Thriller https://books.bookfunnel.com/safety-first-2025-02-CRS/7bgy95i4rb Currently posting on Patreon: Early access chapters and annotated chapters: Year of the Dog:  up to Chapter 17 Protection for Hire : up to Chapter 7 (on hiatus until after Year of the Dog  is done posting) Lady Wynwood and the Senhora’s Bargain (bonus story for Tier 2 and higher): Completed posting! Lady Wynwood’s Spies, Volume 7: Spinster: Comp...

The dessert from Lady Wynwood’s Spies, Vol 4: Betrayer I hadn’t really intended to have so many meal scenes in Lady Wynwood’s Spies, volume 4: Betrayer . However, at the time I was writing it, I was suffering from my IBS issues, and my diet had been (and still is) terribly bland, so I put every kind of delicious thing into the book that I could. There was a scene later in the book when Laura kind of forces Sol to eat. He’s come to see her looking rather haggard, after he’s been dealing with some enemies trying to undermine him. I didn’t intend to do it, but I ended up having them eat a full meal (rather than just tea and sweets). And since there’s something kind of cute about a manly-man enjoying a sweet dessert, I wrote a Floating Island dessert into the scene. The Floating Island recipe was one I’d seen a few weeks earlier when I was looking through the PDF scans of some old cookbooks from the Regency era. The Floating Island stuck out to me because it was nothing like th...