This is not an April Fool

Ok, so who in their right mind would pick All Fool's Day to release a book? Yep. You got it in one.
When I wrote Fox Among Wolves many decades ago (it was my very first full-length novel) I had no intention of writing a sequel. So there's a kind of resonance with this date - am I a fool for trying to continue with a done deal?

Apparently not - Wolf in Sheep's Clothing was created due to a number of requests from readers who liked some of these characters as much as I did. Really didn't need too much arm-twisting to spend more time with my lovely Welshman, Bryn. And what a complex character Carrie turned out to be. Who knew what she'd gone through? Hope you enjoy delving into her life as much as I did.

But for many of my fabulous beta readers, (thanks so much Hannah, Ace, V, Sho, Paula and JD) there was an unlikely hero who caught their attention.
Wonder if you'll guess which one?
As for the cover - Rebecca Sterling is on good form - another gem.

Here's a bit of a clue to the main themes:

And here's the back-of-book blurb:

Every man in Carrie's life wants to control her. That's just the way it is. So, when her ex-military father needs an undercover husband and wife team to root out a traitor, she endures the selection process. From self-defence training to sniffing sweaty tee-shirts, she holds her own.

The soldier picked to infiltrate her dad's factory is everything she's learned to hate in a man. Built like a Welsh mountain, Bryn is an unlikely partner whose detective skills expose her shameful secrets. Battling deeply-buried terrors, Carrie faces setbacks designed to stretch her tenuous grip on reality to its limit. His gentle kindness pierces her armour and their mutual interests restore her tattered self-esteem.

Things ramp up as the factory manager is kidnapped, but her dad doesn't seem unduly alarmed when a security breach catapults his firm into an unsavoury global arena. Carrie ends up in the wrong place at the wrong time. With her track record, the chances of her surviving unscathed are slim.

There's a Bunch of New in "New Year"

Whew! Well, didn’t we take quite the winter break?! But fear not; the WorldWiseWriters have been anything but hibernating. The six of us have rung in the New Year with new books, new day jobs, new babies, and new publishing deals. 

I’m the one with the new baby, AKA Hannah Sullivan, so if this blog comes out sounding particularly disjointed or a tad delirious, I will happily lay the blame at the feet of my infant daughter. Here’s a picture of her. She’s warning me to stay on task. I’m trying, Olivia, honestly. The Girl Scout cookies between me and the keyboard are not a distraction; they are brain food. I need my wits about me as I sneak in some middle-of-the-night reading to peruse Rowanna Green’s latest novel, a sequel to her Fox Among Wolves. How lucky am I to get early dibs on fantastic stories written by my favorite authors? 

I spend the other spare seconds of my day henpecking at my newest endeavor, which is actually a true-life story. Seeing as how my first novel, Thunder, has been waiting so patiently for its, um, sibling (is that taking it too far?) to be born, why am I not writing of news that Lightning has arrived? Frankly, I have this other story, and the universe has been giving me subtle hints that it’s time I share it.

Let me tell you how subtle the universe is. It’s taken me eight years to take this step. Yeah, I know. I think I get the Queen Procrastination crown. But listen.

I'd been toying with the idea of publishing a memoir comprised of journals, emails, and letters, ever since our third child, Clinton, died eight years ago. I just didn't know how to start the process. Once I wrote Thunder and realized how easy the process could be, I couldn't find the emails I'd printed to use. By this point, the originals were too old to be sitting pretty in my computer. I did have the journal I’d kept for him, but just doing a reprint publishing of that wasn’t what I wanted, so I tucked the idea into the back of my mind.

Recently, Ms. Green mentioned someone who was doing a project about explaining death to children, and the idea was there again. I’d figured scribbling in my kids’ journals was about all the writing my bleary brain could handle while living with a ravenous and unpredictably awake munchkin. And it clicked: yes, I could work on a journal. The time had come to author-up and figure out the polishing and publishing of Clinton’s story.

I looked everywhere for my emails again, double-checking the computer ... and there they were! Tucked away in a file I don’t remember moving them into. I had my material. Then I saw a Facebook notice from cover artist Rebecca Sterling, and I was reminded of some family history she’d shared, a history that could enable her to feel Clinton’s story. I had my cover. The universe had spoken.

I’m a blissful, sleepless writer and mommy, and I have a new book coming soon! I can’t wait to be able to offer it to you!