It's summer!

It's summer!

It may only be the first official day of summer today, but it's certainly felt like it for a while now. In fact, the temps hit triple digits in DC yesterday and the day before. Thank goodness I was safely ensconced in my air-conditioned office.

But my in-laws were not. They're visiting from California and have been sightseeing downtown. In the heat. The crazy triple digits heat. The crazy triple digits heat with humidity.

They live in Northern California, about a mile from Gemma, actually. And my 11-year-old twin niece and nephew have never experienced humidity before. So it was a rude awakening. But they've also never experienced DC before, so that won out. They just tried to stay indoors at museums as much as possible.

It's fun having the twins here. I've been using them for their brainstorming abilities, however. (They need to earn their keep.) Dani, the heroine in my mystery series is named after my niece, Daniela. And naturally, she's a fan. (Unless she's just saying that to get Auntie Amanda off her back, but I hope not.)

Anyway, my nephew decided it's unfair that his twin sister has a character named after her, so he wants me to name one after him. After all, he pointed out, he shares his first name with both my husband (his uncle) and my brother (not his uncle), so it would be appropriate. And he really, really wants the character named after him to be the murderer in my next book, Pas De Death.

(Oh, did I mention? Soon Robin will be the only Killer who's not a killer, since my heroine and pals are going to solve their first murder mystery this winter. Although it will actually be summer in the book. But it'll be released this winter.)

Hmmm...the murderer? Really? Why would he want to be the bad guy?

Of course, I'd say the same thing about someone wanting to be the murder victim. Last month, the naming rights to the murder victim in Pas De Death were auctioned off in the Brenda Novak charity auction to raise money for diabetes research. I'd billed it as a chance to get revenge on someone by having them killed off in a book. What I didn't expect was for the winner to want me to use HER name! But hey, who am I to judge? She paid good money for it, so I'm happy to oblige and kill off YA book blogger Jen Runkle from the At Random blog. I just want to make it clear that I'm not an unhinged author upset over a bad review or something and trying to get even. Jen actually likes my books! LOL

And I'm not REALLY killing her, of course. Just fictionally. And it's just a name. So I don't know...maybe I will have my nephew/husband/brother's namesake character kill her. What would you do?

Anyway, since it's now officially summer, I'd be remiss if I didn't help you find some great summer reading. Check out the middle grade and young adult mystery and suspense suggestions over at Kiss & Thrill.

And today's the last day to load up at the Booklover's Buffet. Over 150 e-books on sale for just 99 cents each. The only buffet where you won't gain a pound! (Although you might drop a few if you buy from the Amazon UK site. Ba-dum-bum!)



And did you know that Pointe of No Return is now available for the Kindle, on smashwords, and in print (as opposed to just for the Nook)? Grab your own copy today!