Now On Kindle: Among the Departed

At long last Among the Departed is available for your Kindle. At only $6.99 What a bargin. I actually stumbled across it when searching for something else. My name is spelled wrong - sigh - so it doesn't link up with the other versions of ATD. Anyway, click here.


And remember - it has been out for some time for Nook and Sony.

Win a signed copy of Among the Departed

Haven't read Among the Departed, the fifth in the Constable Molly Smith series? Well, hasten over to Dru's fabulous blog and read all about a Day in the Life of Constable Molly Smith, and you can enter your name to win a signed hardcover book. http://notesfromme.wordpress.com/2011/08/24/a-day-in-the-life-of-molly-smith-by-vicki-delany/

A Joy to be Home

I'm home. Hurrah! The trip was great but it is so nice to be home. I wouldn't normally go on a long trip in Spring but my cross-Canada book tour for Among the Departed was planned around Bloody Words in Victoria so I had little choice. When I left, the garden was a bunch of stubby hosta tips poking out of the cold ground. Now it's a riot of peonies and iris and the hosta are HUGE. I won't get my vegetable garden in this year - it's getting too late and my priority will be the annuals and cleaning up the perennial gardean and the weeds that have had their way with the edges of the lawn. Fortunately a neighbouring boy came regularly to cut the grass.

I have lost six weeks of writing time. I don't write when travelling, but i did do a lot of thinking about the new standalone and am really eager to dive right in. I find that I am able to do edits when in cheap motel rooms, so was able to get the editor's suggestions incorporated into Gold Mountain (coming March 2012).

Good thing I like to drive - I put in over 10,000 Kms on the car in five weeks.

Among the Departed Blog Tour

I love doing guest blog posts and the release of a new book is the best time to do them. Here are some links to the things I've written about lately.

Jungle Red Writers on the Appeal of the Villiage Mystery: click here

Omnimystery on Standalone vs. series: Click here

Mystery Maven Canada on Writing What you want to Know: Click here.

Crime Writers of Canada on Writing the Villain: Click Here

Remember that all authors love comments on their postings. Agree/Disagree? I do want to know.

Stay tuned for a few more as the month continues.

Spring Travels

One of the things I like best about being a writer is the travel. I love to go to new places to attend conferences and meet readers and fellow-authors and to go back to the places that I’ve enjoyed before.

This spring I have quite a bit of both lined up. I have a couple of people coming to house sit when I’m away, so hopefully there won’t be too, too much gardening for me when I finally settle back down.

I’ll be in New Mexico next week for Left Coast Crime. I’ve never been to New Mexico, but I’ve always wanted to and when I heard that one of my favourite conferences was going to be held in Santa Fe I jumped at the chance.

And, as long as I’m in New Mexico, might as well pop over to Scottsdale to visit the Poisoned Pen. I’ll be there, along with Canadian writers R.J. Harlick and Wayne Arthurson, on Tuesday March 29. The next day, Wednesday, R.J. and I are going to be visiting Lesa Holstine at the Teague Library in Glendale. I always love getting together with Lesa and talking books.

That evening I have the honour to be the guest speaker at the monthly meeting of the Scottsdale Society of Women Writers. I’ll be talking about the Simple Writer’s Life and how I’ve achieved it. (That’s the simple life of a writer, not the life of a simple writer).

I’ll barely be back from the South West when it’s time to get on the road again to join Mary Jane Maffini and Elizabeth Duncan in a road trip to North Carolina, to Maryland for Malice Domestic, and Pittsburgh for the Festival of Mystery which is definitely a must-do for me every year.

Back to Ontario with scarcely enough time to get the new house-sitter settled in, wash some laundry, and then I’m going to Ottawa for the launch party of Among the Departed on Monday May 9th and from there it’s points west ending in Victoria for Bloody Words.

All the details of my stops are on Book Tour, so if you’re in the neighbourhood, be sure and drop in and say hi.

Among the Departed - First chapter and pre-ordering

I've put the prologue to Among the Departed up on the web page (www.vickidelany.com) along with pre-order information. The book will be released on May 3rd. Poisoned Pen Press has made the ARC available to bloggers, reviewers, bookstore owners, librarians etc at Net Galley. So if you are in that exhaulted company and would like to review Among the Departed, please go click here. Kirkus has reviewed it, and this is what they have to say.

Delany (Negative Image, 2010, etc.) invigorates the cozy genre with an unsparing look at love in all its variations, including coming to terms with it the second time around.