"A Cup of Cozy 3" is Out!

Amazon.com

And now there are three, with the first book as our free gift. So excited to announce the launch of  "A Cup of Cozy 3"  in this cozy mystery anthology series filled with short mysteries and holiday recipes.

This issue introduces Janice Hanna Thompson, a popular award-winning and well-loved author familiar to many in the Christian literary world.

Linda P. Kozar writes a story taking place in Turkey, while Cynthia Hickey's story revels in a masquerade mystery. My story "Final Performance" takes place in San Francisco when Jillian and her garden club friends attend "The Nutcracker" in the heart of downtown.

I hope you enjoy the stories as well as the yummy recipes at the end. Happy Holidays! And reviews would be simply lovely. Thank you, dear readers.

~Nancy Jill 

NANCY JILL THAMES

   I suppose the most logical explanation of where imagination for writing my books comes from would be the fact I was an Air Force brat who moved around constantly until I was in the sixth grade. We lived in interesting places, too. Casablanca, French Morocco, where camels and gendarmes (French policemen) passed our house on a daily basis and Las Vegas, Nevada - boy, was it hot! Valdosta, Georgia,  Albuquerque, New Mexico....One night I lay awake counting the number of places I've lived and it came to fourteen!

   My mother was always off playing bridge or bowling with the other officers' wives while my three brothers and I entertained ourselves, making up adventures and getting into mischief. We had servants or baby-sitters, of course, but as long as we were busy, they left us alone.

   Coupled with the fact that I never saw a TV until I was eight and having two type-A parents, I guess it was inevitable I would be a writer someday. 

   I became a believer when I was almost nine thanks to my parents who were devout Christians. They made sure we attended Sunday school and church every week. It was at that time I was given piano lessons. I went on to playing in church, singing in a Madrigal group in high school, and getting a music degree from UT Austin. 

   God has blessed me beyond even my wildest imagination, always guiding my life, giving me a loving husband, four wonderful children, and a number of precious grandchildren. 

   I hope you enjoy the Jillian Bradley mysteries - they are works of love.

To stay in touch please visit these sites.

Twitter - @mystriterdva

Blog - Author Nancy Jill Thames, Queen of Afternoon Tea
Pinterest - mystriterdva
Blog - Cozy Mystery Magazine
Goodreads - Nancy Jill Thames
Facebook
Linkedin
Google +
jillthames@gmail.com

AWARDS

                 

                           

Tea Party Tuesday ~ Tea at the Empress Hotel

Welcome to Tea Party Tuesday, everyone! This photo on Pinterest made me stop in my tracks -- isn't it wonderful?

Let me pour you a nice cup of tea. Milk? Sugars?

When I went to the photo site, I found it was taken by a lovely Russian travel agent who lives in Victoria, Canada -- setting for Book 10 "Murder at the Empress Hotel" coming 2015, so I simply had to post.

From the shiny silverware to the garnishes, I believe I've chosen well. My early family (we had two sets of children thirteen years apart) and both sets of grandparents made the trip to Vancouver Island from Sacramento, California, up the Pacific Coast. We took the ferry across to reach the island, and that afternoon we enjoyed famed afternoon tea at the Empress Hotel. It was a wonderful experience.

I read they serve on average 500 teas everyday. Amazing!

The hotel is so renown that recently a man bought it without even seeing it, on reputation alone. It will certainly be fun to use as a setting. 

Let's try the finger sandwiches - they look delicious! And I think I'll take a scone, too. Please help yourself.

I pray as fall ushers in, we all stay healthy and safe. 

Cheers! 

~Nancy Jill

The photo is from the setting in 

Book 9 "Murder at Mirror Lake." 

Watch for it soon!

(Don't you love the shoe bomb?)

Hickey and Prentice - No, That's Not a Trapeze Act

Cynthia Hickey

Multi-published author Cynthia Hickey had three cozy mysteries published through Barbour Publishing, with a novella releasing in March 2013. Her first mystery, Fudge-Laced Felonies, won first place in the inspirational category of the Great Expectations contest in 2007. Her third cozy, Chocolate-Covered Crime, received a four-star review from Romantic Times. All three cozies have been re-released as ebooks through the MacGregor Literary Agency, along with a new cozy series. She has several historical romances releasing in 2013 and 2014 through Harlequin’s Heartsong Presents. She lives in Arizona with her husband, one of their seven children, two dogs and two cats. She has five grandchildren who keep her busy and tell everyone they know that “Nana is a writer”. Visit her website at www.cynthiahickey.com

Candice Prentice

Candice Prentice is the author of Murder in the Milk Case, Band Room Bash, and Kitty Litter Killer(Print, Barbour Publishing, 2005-2006), andMayhem in Maryland—a cozy compilation (Print, Barbour Publishing, 2008). She also co-authored three romances published in 2010 by Barbour. In 2013, MacGregor Literary Agency re-released Candice’s cozies as e-books. You can find out more about them here.

Candice lives in Maryland with her husband and Jack the Whiney Dog, who is the subject of many of her personal blog articles. She reads and researches for fun and especially enjoys medical history, which explains her collection of antique medical bottles and memorabilia.    

Candice Speare Prentice

Intriguing Stories. . .Inspiring Hope. . .Finding Joy in Restoration

Represented by: Sandra Bishop at MacGregor Literary

My website: www.candiceprentice.com

Find me on Facebook

Enjoy!

~Nancy Jill

Fun Authors to Read

If you're looking for some new authors of cozy Christian fiction, I'd like to suggest two.

Traci Tyne Hilton
First books in her series are FREE!

And author of Until the Fat Lady Sings Mystery Series

Linda P. Kozar

					Check the links for their websites and get acquainted! They love to meet new readers. Have a lovely week, my friends. I know it's cold in most of the country right now - even in Austin we're having ice-storms and school closures. Time to read some new books! Wouldn't you agree? And just for fun, please let me know if you're acquainted with these authors.  Thank you! ~Nancy Jill

Wearing the Author Hat

By Nancy Jill Thames

Yes, as an author I work at least seven hours a day. And, if I could choose to wear a hat of choice as I work, it would look something like the hat on my left.

The past two weeks have been filled with traveling from California to New York. One of the main reasons I love to travel is meeting new people. They find out I'm an author and usually happily download Book 1 MURDER IN HALF MOON BAY when they find out it's free.

Meeting new friends is my favorite way to engage readers, but the next best way is through reviews. One sweet lady wrote this review recently defending my writing style. I'm including her review because I'm working on improving the books every single day. So, whenever you're finished reading a book and contemplate whether or not to write a positive review, please know how much they brighten an author's day.

Here's what she said:

New! RiverCat reviewed Murder in Half Moon Bay (Jillian Bradley Mysteries, No. 1) (A Jillian Bradley Mystery) 1 of 1 people found the following helpful A Light Summer Read July 25, 2013 ok. I read the other reviews; and, the problem seems to be if one is a person who wants heavy duty, logical mysteries, they are disappointed with this book. If you accept the premise and just want a FUN, light read, this is the book for you. True there are punctuation problems, but come on, cut some slack. I liked this little story, I liked the characters and I could see 1/2 moon bay in my mind's eye as I read. I always enjoy the back-biting of these little clubs, whether garden or animal and there are diverse personalities here. If you can accept a book for what it is, this would be a good read for you. Reading on the Fourth Level ruins the reading experience for me after years of editing student papers. LOL great little story

Have an awesome week!

See you in my books!

 ~Nancy Jill 

Mystery novelist Nancy Jill Thames began publishing Christian fiction in 2010. The author of six books in the Jillian Bradley series, she is an award winning blogger and is listed numerous times on the Author Watch Bestseller’s List, this in addition to winning first place for her chocolate cream pie.

When she isn’t plotting her next book, she spends time with her six grandchildren, tags along with her husband on business trips, and plays classical piano for her own personal enjoyment. She is an active member of the Leander Writers' Guild, American Christian Fiction Writers, ACFW CenTex Chapter, and supports the Central Texas SPCA with a portion of her book sales. CONTACT INFORMATION jillthames@gmail.com

 Nancy Jill is busy working on Book 7 "The Ruby of Siam" a mystery taking place in London.

Enjoy Book 1 MURDER IN HALF MOON BAY on your ereader for free!

Amazon Paperback $8.09

 Kindle FREE!

Barnes and Nobel Paperback $8.99

Nook FREE!

FREE on Smashwords and Kobo!

13 Tips for Self-Publishing Your Book

By Nancy Jill Thames

A lot of the journey on the road to publication is trial and error. Very few authors make it on the first go round. 

Here's what did and what I wish I'd done: 

 
1. Write a good book. Find a catchy title (numbers are great - "1,000 Days to Healing" etc.). Get the book edited by someone who knows what they're doing. (I just now found mine.)

2. Do a great cover. (Look at covers in your genre and find out who did them.)

3. Self-publish on CreateSpace - Amazon's self-publishing arm (24/7 support). 

4. Format professionally (I have a great guy) for Kindle (prc) Nook (ePub) Smashwords (Smashwords file) and Kobo (ePub). 

5. Get a FB author page and begin to interact with friends and fans by asking people to like your page. Post about what's going on with your journey and with your book. Think of it as a mini-blog.

6. Blog once a week working to engage readers. Put it into another language (mine is in Russian) - this is for Blogger on Google. Create a link for your book to sales sites. Another author and I wanted to create a blog for Christian Cozies so I came up with the idea of the magazine. She invited four more authors so we take turns posting once a week. Now we have things to tweet and post about!

7. I tweet a daily scripture, book 1 for free using 3 hashtags and rotate sales sites during the evenings. My other books are linked in the back. If readers like book 1 they order the rest.

8. Engage on FB, find similar pages as yours and participate. Offer your book link where appropriate.

9. Make sure your categories/tags are specific enough to hook readers.

10. As for discipline, I self-impose deadlines and break up the work in manageable sections. I have a 255 pg book to rewrite so I plan to rewrite 51 pages M - Fri this week as a goal to finish. 

11. I do emails, social media, and check statistics on my iPhone before I get out of bed. Next, I make sure my blog posts are written for the week. Then I work on my novels.

12. I joined a local writers group, the American Christian Fiction Writers (national and statewide) and support fellow authors whenever I can. I donate to the local animal shelter because my books feature a dog. You could donate or volunteer in your field.

13. I read what successful authors do and try to apply their methods.

Hope these ideas help.

Best of luck and please message/comment/email me any questions you have - I'll do my best to give you answers.

See you in my books!

 ~Nancy Jill 

Mystery novelist Nancy Jill Thames began publishing Christian fiction in 2010. The author of six books in the Jillian Bradley series, she is an award winning blogger and is listed numerous times on the Author Watch Bestseller’s List, this in addition to winning first place for her chocolate cream pie.

When she isn’t plotting her next book, she spends time with her six grandchildren, tags along with her husband on business trips, and plays classical piano for her own personal enjoyment. She is an active member of the Leander Writers' Guild, American Christian Fiction Writers, ACFW CenTex Chapter, and supports the Central Texas SPCA with a portion of her book sales. CONTACT INFORMATION jillthames@gmail.com

 Nancy Jill is busy working on Book 7 "The Ruby of Siam" a mystery taking place in London.

Enjoy Book 1 MURDER IN HALF MOON BAY on your ereader for free!

Amazon Paperback $8.09

 Kindle FREE!

Barnes and Nobel Paperback $8.99

Nook FREE!

FREE on Smashwords and Kobo!

Time to Relax, Have Fun, and Learn!

By Nancy Jill Thames

Wow! The weekend is here again. Sure I'm going to relax a little, like always. I'll sleep in, linger on the porch with my coffee, and play a few games of Rummikub. Saturday afternoon, however, I'll attend a writing class on Character Creation, given by talented creative writing major, Jennifer Steen. Jenny has published short stories, formed a publishing company called Inkception Books, and written a play for a performance in Scotland this summer. Yes, she's a dynamo and plenty of fun. She's also a member of our Leander Writer's Guild, which met last Tuesday evening. I can't say enough good things about being an integral part of our local writing community.

I want to thank all of you for reading my books. Sales have soared since I've offered Book 1 for free on all platforms. Book 7 "The Ruby of Siam" is on it's final rewrite and should launch within the next two weeks. If you're interested in the news about Paula Deen, you may want to hop over to Cozy Mystery Magazine and check out the post I wrote. I do feel sorry for her and for the pain racism still causes. 

May your weekend be a good one!

See you in my books!

 ~Nancy Jill 

Mystery novelist Nancy Jill Thames began publishing Christian fiction in 2010. The author of six books in the Jillian Bradley series, she is an award winning blogger and is listed numerous times on the Author Watch Bestseller’s List, this in addition to winning first place for her Chocolate Cream Pie.

When she isn’t plotting her next book, she spends time with her six grandchildren, tags along with her husband on business trips, and plays classical piano for her own personal enjoyment. She is an active member of the Leander Writers Guild and supports the Central Texas SPCA with a portion of her book sales. CONTACT INFORMATION jillthames@gmail.com

 Nancy Jill is busy working on Book 7 "The Ruby of Siam" a mystery taking place in London.

Enjoy Book 1 MURDER IN HALF MOON BAY as an ebook for free!

Amazon Paperback $8.09
Barnes and Nobel $8.99
 Kindle FREE!
Nook Book FREE!
FREE on Smashwords and Kobo!

IN THE BLINK OF AN EYE

Our twin grandsons turned five this month. I can't believe they were babies such a short time ago - seems like you blink and five years whiz past!

Four years ago, I sat down and decided to write The Jillian Bradley Mystery Series - eight books in all with a plan to launch a book every six months.I actually published right on schedule up until Book 8. We'll see how things go for the last six months of 2013.

One of the challenges as an indie author is getting the books error free. I can't begin to tell you how many times I've had to go back and make corrections due to one issue or another. The good thing is though, as the responsible party, I can improve my work as I go.

I wanted to thank all of you readers for bearing with the changes I've had to make along the way. My goal is to publish the best books possible for your entertainment pleasure.

With THE RUBY OF SIAM so close to launch (I'm getting it back from my editor and doing the rewrite this week), I knew I had to include the promo for the final book - THE LONG TRIP HOME. Checking the photos from CreateSpace, I found what I consider the perfect image for Book 8. Now I'm fired up to begin writing the last chapter of Jillian's life. Of course, I've been asked by fans to leave the door open for more books, but eight seems like a good round number. 

If you haven't started reading the series yet, please be my guest and enjoy Book 1 MURDER IN HALF MOON BAY as an ebook for free! Then you'll begin to understand the phrase "GO JILLIAN AND TEDDY!"

Amazon Paperback $8.09
Barnes and Nobel $8.99
 Kindle FREE!
Nook Book FREE!
FREE on Smashwords and Kobo!

Have a wonderful week.

See you in my books!

 ~Nancy Jill 

Mystery novelist Nancy Jill Thames began publishing Christian fiction in 2010. The author of six books in the Jillian Bradley series, she is an award winning blogger and is listed numerous times on the Author Watch Bestseller’s List, this in addition to winning first place for her Chocolate Cream Pie.

When she isn’t plotting her next book, she spends time with her six grandchildren, tags along with her husband on business trips, and plays classical piano for her own personal enjoyment. She is an active member of the Leander Writers Guild and supports the Central Texas SPCA with a portion of her book sales. CONTACT INFORMATION jillthames@gmail.com

 Nancy Jill is busy working on Book 7 "The Ruby of Siam" a mystery taking place in London.

Just for Fun

See if you can match the first sentence in each book to its title. 

Good luck!

1. Caroline was playing innocently in her own front yard with her new puppy when the car struck her down.  2. The invitations had gone out a few days ago to three of my dearest friends in the world.  3. Daisy Larsen bustled.  4. Warmed by the fire, Teddy had fallen asleep on the sofa.  5. Madison looked about nervously toward the back of the house, hoping and praying that no one would notice their departure.  6. The gun discharged during the struggle, and the bullet struck his heart.  

A. "FROM THE CLUTCHES OF EVIL"

B. "WAITING FOR SANTA"

C. "THE GHOST ORCHID MURDER"

D. "MURDER IN HALF MOON BAY"

E. "PACIFIC BEACH"

F. "THE MARK OF EDEN" 

To win, leave your answers in a comment and follow the site. First one to guess all six correctly wins an e-book of their choice (including an upcoming copy of Book 7 "The Ruby of Siam") in the Jillian Bradley Mystery Series. Winner announced next Monday. Thank you for playing! 

See you in my books!

 ~Nancy Jill 

Mystery novelist Nancy Jill Thames began publishing Christian fiction in 2010. The author of six books in the Jillian Bradley series, she is an award winning blogger and is listed numerous times on the Author Watch Bestseller’s List, this in addition to winning first place for her Chocolate Cream Pie.

When she isn’t plotting her next book, she spends time with her six grandchildren in two states, tags along with her husband on business trips, and plays classical piano for her own personal enjoyment. She is an active member of the Leander Writers Guild and supports the Central Texas SPCA with a portion of her book sales.

nd. Nancy Jill is busy working on book 7 "The Ruby of Siam" a mystery taking place in London.

CONTACT INFORMATION

jillthames@gmail.com