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RJ the Story Guy
Children’s, Fantasy, Science Fantasy, Pets and Animals
RJMirabal.com
TrixieTheBrownDog.com
RJTheStoryGuy.com
DragonTrainQuest.com
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RJ Mirabal has lived in the Middle Rio Grande Valley of New Mexico most of his life. Recognized with awards for teaching, RJ taught high school English, speech, and drama. Now retired, he pursues writing, playing music on his hammered dulcimer, driving his sports car, and volunteering for a motorcycle club and New Mexico Dulcimer Festival.
His first novel is 2012’s The Tower of Il Serrohe, Book I of The Rio Grande Parallax series. In 2015, Extreme Dust Storms May Exist (Book II) followed, and Zero Visibility Possible, Book III, concluded the series in 2016. All were finalists in the New Mexico/Arizona Book Awards. RJ’s more recent books have also earned finalist places for the New Mexico Press Women’s Communications Contest as well as the NM/AZ Awards.
The Rio Grande Parallax Series follows the exploits of a troubled man and his young cousin as they confront a powerful enemy in an alternative New Mexico, an ancient and magical version of the Southwest.
His recent books under the pen name RJ The Story Guy — Trixie Finds Her People and Trixie: Round Brown Ball of Dog — are middle elementary reading level books with built in appeal for all ages, 8 to 108, about his rescue dog and the shared adventures as she and her new people discover and adjust to each other. Included are the occasional fantasy stories based on Trixie’s dreams.
His newest series, also as RJ The Story Guy, is Dragon Train Quest. The stories target teen and young adult readers: Dragon Train (Book 1), Dragon Train Rebellion (Book 2), and 2024’s Dragon Train War (Book 3). The series explores the relationship and adventures of Jaiden, a 15- to 18-year-old young man, and Skye, a giant blue dragon who have developed a very close relationship in their quest to free all enslaved dragons from human domination in an 18th/19th Century-type world in which the stories are placed. Family relationships, friendship, the tragic price of war and the struggle for freedom are the main themes of this unique series.
RJ has occasionally mentored new writers and those seeking self-publication.
All signed books are available directly from RJ at https://rjm-creative-arts.square.site
2015 (The Tower of Il Serrohe)
2017 (Rio Grande Parallax series)
2020 (Trixie Finds Her People)
2021 (Dragon Train)
2022 (Trixie: Round Brown Ball of Dog)
2023 (Dragon Train Rebellion)
Title: Dragon Train War (Dragon Train Quest, Book3)
Published: May 1, 2024
Genre: Fantasy
Jaiden’s simple act of freeing Skye, the blue dragon, along with her family became a movement to free all dragons. And that escalated to a rebellion. Now, all-out war seems to be the only solution. Jaiden and friends Tristram, Wyetta, Gorn, and Aleena represent the surge of humanity who joined the fight for Dragon Freedom. Skirmishes, ambushes, intense battles and undercover operations transform everyday reality. Uncertainty surrounding the strength and weaponry of the Dear Leader’s human army adds to the tension. Mysteries, surprises, unexpected revelations and shocking outcomes mark the Final Dragon War.
Title: Dragon Train Rebellion (Dragon Train Quest, Book2)
Publisher: High Desert Libris/2022
Genre: Fantasy
After Jaiden’s dramatic exploits to free Skye, the Blue Dragon, and her family from enslavement, Jaiden returned to his father’s farm. Father and son tried to get along, but after nearly two years, it didn’t work out. Then Skye reappeared and took Jaiden to join the free dragons living in the far northern lands called Septrion where only the warriors from the Old Dragon Wars and new escapees from slavery ruled those desert lands. The Blue, Silver, and Gold Dragons of Septrion hoped to free all dragons and stop the abuse. But when humans abduct Skye and Caerulus’ children, the time comes to stand up for Dragon Freedom!
Title: Trixie: Round Brown Ball of Dog
Publisher: High Desert Libris/2021
Genre: Middle Grade
Trixie’s adventures continue as she learns to have more Dog Fun with her people and looks for new things to do. Then everything is put aside when the Brown Dog takes on an unexpected challenge. Sure, Trixie likes fun, sniffing, walking, running, and playing, but those have to take a back seat for a while. Trixie still can’t talk like you, but she can get across what she wants and how she feels when she grunts, whines, whistles, barks, growls, wags her tail and body while singing her Dog Opera. Fortunately, RJ The Story Guy has interpreted all this for your reading enjoyment. Big things to overcome, toys to chew and tug, new people to bring into her life, places to go, lots of exploring, and a new fantasy adventure await inside.
Title: Dragon Train (Dragon Train Quest, Book 1)
Publisher: High Desert Libris/2020
Genre: Middle Grade
Jaiden, a 15-year-old farm boy, dreams of a more exciting life in a world where people have enslaved dragons as beasts of burden, guard animals, and soldiers. He has never been more than a few miles beyond his farm and the quiet village of Hilltop. Yet Jaiden desires escape from his grouchy and somewhat abusive father. And then the dragon train makes an unscheduled stop in Hilltop. Skye, the huge Blue Dragon pulling the train, may die of exhaustion unless someone can help. Thus, a boy and dragon embark on an epic adventure in the hopes of fulfilling their longing for freedom, excitement, and happiness.
Title: Trixie Finds Her People (Trixie the Brown Dog Book 1)
Publisher: Ralph J. Mirabal/2019
Genre: Children’s
RJ the Story Guy tells the story of Trixie the Brown Dog. This mama dog is rescued from a situation where she and her puppies were part of a hoard of 23 dogs. Soon, her puppies were adopted, and she joins a girl and her grandparents as her new family. At first, everything is new: living indoors in her new home, learning to potty outdoors, getting the occasional bath (not fun!), and being locked in the laundry room at night (really not fun!). Soon Trixie and her people’s lives turn into a series of wonderful, humorous and sometimes scary adventures. In addition to her real life, Trixie embarks on three fantasy adventures while she sleeps. In the end it’s all about the bond of love between a rescue dog and her true forever family.
Title: The Tower of Il Serrohe
Publisher: Black Rose Writing/2012
Genre: Fantasy
The Rio Grande Parallax series, set in New Mexico, starts with The Tower of Il Serrohe, Book I. After his wife kicked him out of their house, Don Vargas rents a dilapidated South Valley casita which—unknown to him—is actually a portal to another world. A bat, Nightwing, lures Don through the dusty Portal on a quest into the Valle Abajo—a parallel New Mexico—where local clanspeople urge him to save them from the wily Soreyes and their mysterious Tower. Complications arise, spawning the dramatic conclusion.
Title: Extreme Dust Storms May Exist
Publisher: Black Rose Writing/2015
Genre: Fantasy
Five years after the conclusion of Book I, in Extreme Dust Storms May Exist (Book II), the bat persuades Esther, a sixteen-year-old cousin to Don, to help drive the Soreyes from the Valle Abajo. Once there, new dangers threaten Esther and the clans while a mysterious presence lurks in the background. The saga continues, leading to a gut-wrenching cliffhanger…
Title: Zero Visibility Possible
Publisher: Black Rose Writing/2016
Genre: Fantasy
In Zero Visibility Possible, Book III, adventure builds at a breakneck pace to the shocking conclusion of the series. Impossible odds face two companies of comrades while new Soreye terrors abound. Riddles—including those surrounding Don—and unforeseen threats add confusion. Can the hapless clanspeople hope for freedom?
Authors RJ Mirabal, Don Morgan, Robin Perini, and Vicki Turpen represent the diverse membership of SouthWest Writers (SWW) with 2019 releases in the genres of children’s books, mystery, romantic suspense, and science fiction. Look for interviews or updates for these authors in 2020.
A list of previously interviewed SWW authors with 2019 releases is included at the end of this post.
Trixie Finds Her People, written by RJ the Story Guy (aka RJ Mirabal), tells the story of Trixie the Brown Dog. This mama dog is rescued from a situation where she and her puppies were part of a hoard of 23 dogs. After her puppies are adopted, she joins a girl and her grandparents as her new family. At first, everything is new: living indoors in her new home, learning to potty outdoors, getting the occasional bath (not fun!), and being locked in the laundry room at night (really not fun!). Soon Trixie and her people’s lives turn into a series of wonderful, humorous, and sometimes scary adventures. In addition to her real life, Trixie embarks on three fantasy adventures while she sleeps. In the end it’s all about the bond of love between a rescue dog and her true forever family. Available on Amazon.
Visit RJ’s websites at TrixieTheBrownDog.com and RJMirabal.com. Read his 2015 interview and 2017 interview update.
The Voxlightner Scandal is book six in the BJ Vinson Mystery series written by Don Travis (SWW member Don Morgan). No good deed goes unpunished, as investigator BJ Vinson is about to discover. Writer John Pierce Belhaven was murdered before he could reveal the name of another killer—one connected to the biggest scandal to rock Albuquerque in years. Two of the city’s most prominent citizens—Barron Voxlightner and Dr. Walther Stabler—vanished in 2004, along with fifty million dollars looted from Voxlightner Precious Metals Recovery Corp. BJ agrees to help novice detective Roy Guerra reopen the old case which the wealthy and influential Voxlightner family doesn’t want dredged up. But Belhaven was part of their family, and that connection could’ve led to his murder. Or did the sixty-year-old author die because of a sordid sexual affair? Available on Amazon.
You’ll find Don on his website at DonTravis.com. Read his 2018 and 2019 interviews.
Robin Perini’s Forgotten Legacy is the second release in the Singing River series published by Montlake Romance (2019). Forgotten secrets. Forgotten lies. A family legacy…A determined killer. On the outskirts of Singing River, Wyoming, a couple dies in a fire that ravages their remote mountain home. Everyone believes it’s a tragic accident—except FBI profiler Riley Lambert. She isn’t convinced, and neither is her fiancé, ex-Navy SEAL turned sheriff Thayne Blackwood. When they discover that the couple’s daughter is missing, Riley’s dark memories of her own sister’s kidnapping ratchet up the urgency to find the girl—before it’s too late. Dodging danger, they follow a tangled web of clues pointing to a forgotten secret that Thayne’s Alzheimer’s-stricken grandmother holds dear. But when their deadly investigation veers too close to home and brings a twisted killer to Riley’s and Thayne’s doorsteps, can they save those they love and stop the murderer before time runs out? Available on Amazon.
Last Stand in Texas, by Robin Perini, was released by Harlequin Intrigue in early 2019. Two people whose dangerous pasts are never far behind… Will their secrets catch up to them? Stranded in small-town Texas, desperate to keep her daughter from her serial-killer ex, Faith Thomas must rely on covert operative Léon Royce. But he, too, is on the run, hiding his real identity and denying his real attraction to Faith. Protecting her and Zoe becomes his mission…one he’ll risk his life—and heart—for. Available on Amazon.
Visit Robin’s website at RobinPerini.com and read her 2016 interview.
The Delicate Balance is a post-apocalyptic thriller written by Vicki Turpen and Shannon Horst. The Earth is dying—its life forms bound for extinction—unless the most fundamental of changes is made: Carbon-based fuels must be abandoned. Chaos results—migrating hordes of starving people, abandoned hospitals and prisons (patients and inmates still inside), and deserted cities where only cockroaches still live. But then Jesse Forester, the U.N. scientist responsible for the changes that survival demands, finds hints that the data at the core of the new global policy may be flawed. And murders start happening. Rushing headlong into a frantic search for the truth, Jesse and his team discover pockets of people who are living rich and satisfying lives in Eden-like landscapes without any use of carbon fuels. As the plotters Jesse is seeking become more desperate, can these flourishing communities help avert humanity’s slow death from the poisonous fruits of climate change growing at its doorstep? Available on Amazon.
SWW Author Interviews (2019 Releases)
Sherri L. Burr • Complicated Lives: Free Blacks in Virginia, 1619-1865
Kit Crumpton • Please Send Ketchup: WWII Letters from a B-29 Pilot
C. Joseph Greaves (Chuck Greaves) • Church of the Graveyard Saints
Scott Archer Jones • And Throw Away the Skins
Jacqueline Murray Loring • Vietnam Veterans Unbroken: Conversations on Trauma and Resiliency
Neill McKee • Finding Myself in Borneo: Sojourns in Sabah
Sharon Vander Meer • Thunder Prime Hunter’s Light
Don Morgan • Abaddon’s Locusts
KL Wagoner (writing as Cate Macabe) is the author of This New Mountain: a memoir of AJ Jackson, private investigator, repossessor, and grandmother. Kathy posts to a speculative fiction blog at klwagoner.com and writes about memoir at ThisNewMountain.com.
Joseph Badal, Parris Afton Bonds, Susan Cooper, Randy Cooper, and Elaine Carson Montague are just a few authors who represent the diverse membership of SouthWest Writers (SWW). The new releases in this post cover different genres—suspense, historical romance, an anthology of short works, and memoir. Look for interviews or author updates for these authors in 2020.
A list of previously interviewed SWW authors with 2019 releases is included at the end of this post.
Bestselling author Joseph Badal delivers Justice (Suspense Publishing, 2019), the third in his Curtis Chronicles series, with the same relentless tension that is a trademark of his award-winning suspense novels. As with all of Badal’s novels, Justice is a bold and complex thriller. It weaves an intricate plot involving multiple international locations, a human trafficking organization, the CIA, Special Operations, corrupt politicians, Bulgarian organized crime figures, Swiss bankers, and a compelling cast of engaging, inspiring, and diabolical characters. The Curtis Chronicles is an epic series that delves into the age-old conflict between good and pure evil, where each book leaves you begging for more. Available on Amazon.
Homicide detective partners Barbara Lassiter and Susan Martinez return in Natural Causes (Suspense Publishing, 2019), Joseph Badal’s third novel in the Lassiter/Martinez Case Files series. Called in to investigate a mysterious death in a retirement center, Lassiter and Martinez find themselves entangled in a case that might very well involve multiple murders committed by a psychopathic killer. The deeper they get into their investigation, the more complex and dangerous the case becomes, threatening the lives of the detectives and their loved ones. Joseph Badal offers up another suspenseful tale with twists and turns that will keep the reader on a roller coaster ride of drama, action, and emotion from the first to the last page. Available on Amazon.
Visit Joe’s website JosephBadalBooks.com and Amazon author page, and read his 2016 and 2018 interviews.
Before there was New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, California, or Utah, there was Texas. Molded by Old Mexico and a new rough and ready breed of hearty settlers from around the world, The Lone Star Republic was the thing of dreams—land, riches, liberty, home. With the first volume of her highly addictive Texicans saga, The Brigands (Lagan Press, 2019), New York Times bestselling author Parris Afton Bonds brings us the riveting tale of four wayward souls colliding on the eve of revolution. From the shadow of the Alamo to the bloody fields of San Jacinto, their lives and loves, hopes and allegiances, will be tested in ways none of them could ever imagine. Fast-paced and tightly-plotted, The Brigands is a triumph of historical romantic fiction that will leave readers breathless. Available on Amazon.
When the Heart Is Right (Lagan Press, 2019) by Parris Afton Bonds: When Washington D.C. socialite Alessandra O’Quinn is diagnosed with tuberculosis, she must leave everything she knows to seek a cure in the dry desert air of New Mexico. In her new home, Alessandra meets the local Taos Indians and shaman Manuel Mondragon. As she learns how to heal her body, she finds herself fighting to save her true self, as well as her heart. She soon joins the fight against the Bureau of Indian Affairs for the rights to Blue Lake, where the tribe believes their ancient culture was created out of the sacred waters. Set in 1920s New Mexico, this is a story of politics, male domination, racism, and love against all odds. Available on Amazon.
You’ll find a list of Parris’ publications on her SWW Author Page. Visit her website at ParrisAftonBonds.com and read her 2015 interview.
SWW members Susan Cooper and Randy Cooper are two (of seven) contributors to Lost Echoes Found: An Anthology of Speculations and Memories. Are you looking for stories that will make you laugh or cry or cringe—or wonder? Lost Echoes Found, written and published by the group Lost Echoes, Albuquerque Writers, includes poetry, memoir, and stories for all ages, ranging from science fiction and fantasy to thriller, from horror to ghost stories. You’ll find an alien who looks like a giant grasshopper, a pirate story, an imaginary friend who’s real (and scary), a canine ghost, and a true feel-good story about Parisians. Available on Amazon.
Connect with Lost Echoes, Albuquerque Writers on Facebook and their website LostEchoesAlbuquerqueWriters.com. Read Susan’s 2015 interview.
Elaine Carson Montague and husband Gary Ted Montague’s debut Victory From The Shadows (ABQ Press, 2019) celebrates the human spirit with this true story of love by authors who understand the complexities of being a child who needs educational modifications. Courageous love of a mother. Encouraging love of a teacher. Unselfish love of volunteers. Enduring love of a wife. Pull on Gary’s cowboy boots to see his world with low vision as he abruptly leaves his farm home at age eight and enrolls in a residential school for the blind. With one train ride, his life changes forever. The darkness frightens Gary when he hears Mom’s footsteps fade away. Available on Amazon.
Visit Elaine’s website at ElaineMontague.com.
SWW Author Interviews (2019 Releases)
Sherri L. Burr • Complicated Lives: Free Blacks in Virginia, 1619-1865
Kit Crumpton • Please Send Ketchup: WWII Letters from a B-29 Pilot
C. Joseph Greaves (Chuck Greaves) • Church of the Graveyard Saints
Scott Archer Jones • And Throw Away the Skins
Jacqueline Murray Loring • Vietnam Veterans Unbroken: Conversations on Trauma and Resiliency
Neill McKee • Finding Myself in Borneo: Sojourns in Sabah
Sharon Vander Meer • Thunder Prime Hunter’s Light
Don Morgan • Abaddon’s Locusts
KL Wagoner (writing as Cate Macabe) is the author of This New Mountain: a memoir of AJ Jackson, private investigator, repossessor, and grandmother. Kathy posts to a speculative fiction blog at klwagoner.com and writes about memoir at ThisNewMountain.com.
Memoir, Adventure Travel, History, International Themes, Asian Languages and Cultures, Volunteering, International Development, Film Making, Media Production, Ecology and Environment
Email: nmckee20@gmail.com
Neill McKee is a creative nonfiction writer based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He has written and published three books in this genre since 2015. His latest work is Kid on the Go! Memoir of My Childhood and Youth, a humorous and poignant account of his growing up in an industrially-polluted town in Ontario, Canada, and his university years. This memoir is a stand-alone prequel to his first travel memoir Finding Myself in Borneo: Sojourns in Sabah (2019) on his first overseas adventures in Sabah, Malaysia (North Borneo), where he served as a Canadian volunteer teacher and program administrator during 1968-70 and 1973-74. This book won the 2019 New Mexico/Arizona Book Award for Biography–Other (than a New Mexico/Arizona subject) and a Bronze Medal in the 2020 Independent Publisher Book Awards (Ippy Awards).
In late 2020, McKee also released Guns and Gods in my Genes: A 15,000-mile North American search through four centuries of history, to the Mayflower—an entertaining account of how he searched for his roots in Canada and the US, in which he employs vivid descriptions, dialog, poetic prose, analytical opinion, photos and illustrations. In this work, McKee slowly uncovers his American grandmother’s lineage—ancestors who were involved in almost every major war on North American soil and others, including a passenger on the Mayflower, as well as heroes, villains, rascals, and ordinary godly folk. Through his search, McKee exposes myths and uncovers facts about the true founding of America.
McKee, who holds a B.A. Degree from the University of Calgary and a Masters in Communication from Florida State University, lived and worked in Asia, Africa, Russia and traveled to over 80 countries on assignments during his 45-year international career. He became an expert in communication and directed/produced a number of award-winning documentary films/videos, and wrote many articles and books in the field. McKee is now busy writing another travel memoir on his career. He does readings/book signings and presentations with or without photos. He prefers lively interactive sessions.
See interviews, presentations and listen to the podcasts here: https://www.neillmckeeauthor.com/blog.
Title: My University of the World: Adventures of an International Film & Media Maker
Publisher: NBFS Creations, LLC (August 2023)
Genre: Memoir
Neill McKee takes us on an entertaining journey through the developing world from 1970 to 2012. His memoir is filled with compelling dialog, humorous and poignant incidents, thoughts on world development, vivid descriptions of people and places he visited and worked in, and over 200 images (ebook and hardcover in color), all of which bring readers into his “University of the World.” The story starts when he becomes a “one-man film crew,” documenting the lives of Canadian CUSO volunteers working in Asia and Africa as teachers, medical doctors, nurses, engineers, agriculturalists, foresters, technicians, and a biologist.
In 1990, McKee joins UNICEF in Bangladesh, and later in Africa, where he initiates long-lasting multimedia programs for child health, with a focus on empowering girls. In 2001, he moves to Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA, and then to Moscow, Russia, where he oversees similar initiatives. That experience leads him to a memorable last post in Washington, D.C. as director of a large and complex global communication project.
Throughout the short chapters and in a brief epilogue, McKee reflects on the long-term impact of the projects he documented and of his media creations. This is a book for anyone interested in world affairs and development, film and multimedia production, the use of media for behavior and social change, exotic travel, and interesting career choices.
NeillMckeeAuthor.com
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Barnes & Noble
Title: Kid on the Go!: Memoir of My Childhood and Youth
Publisher: NBFS Creations, LLC (August 16, 2021)
Genre: Memoir
Kid on the Go! is Neill McKee’s third work of creative nonfiction. It’s a standalone prequel to his award-winning Finding Myself in Borneo. In this new book, McKee takes readers on a journey through his childhood, adolescence, and teenage years from the mid-40s to the mid-60s, in the small, then industrially-polluted town of Elmira, Ontario, Canada—one of the centers of production for Agent Orange during the Vietnam War. McKee’s vivid descriptions, dialog, and self-drawn illustrations are a study of how a young boy learned to play and work, fish and hunt, avoid dangers, cope with death, deal with bullies, and to build or restore “escape” vehicles. You may laugh out loud as the author recalls his exploding hormones, attraction to girls, rebellion against authority, and survival of 1960s’ “rock & roll” culture, emerging on the other side as a youth leader. After leaving Elmira, McKee describes his intensely searching university years, trying to decide which career path to follow. Except for a revealing postscript, the story ends when he accepts a volunteer teaching position on the island of Borneo, in Southeast Asia.
Organic Books
Bookworks
NeillMckeeAuthor.com
Amazon
Title: Guns and Gods in My Genes: A 15,000-mile North American search through four centuries of history, to the Mayflower
Publisher: NBFS Creations, LLC (2020)
Genre: Travel Memoir
Neill McKee, author of the award-winning travel memoir Finding Myself in Borneo, takes the reader through 400 years and 15,000 miles of an on-the-road adventure, discovering stories of his Scots-Irish ancestors in Canada, while uncovering their attitudes towards religion and guns. His adventure turns south and west as he follows the trail of his maternal grandfather, a Canadian preacher who married an American woman in Wisconsin, and braved the American Wild West. Much to his surprise, McKee finds his American ancestors were involved in every major conflict on North American soil: the Civil War, the American Revolution, and the French and Indian War. In the last chapters, McKee discovers and documents his Pilgrim ancestors who arrived on the Mayflower, landing at Plymouth in 1620, and their Puritan descendants who fought in the early Indian Wars of New England. With the help of professional genealogical research, he tracks down and tells the stories of the heroes, villains, rascals, as well as, the godly and ordinary folk in his genes, discovering many facts and exposing myths. He also lets readers in on a personal struggle: whether to apply for Canadian-United States dual citizenship or remain only a Canadian.
Organic Books
Bookworks
NeillMckeeAuthor.com
Amazon
Title: Finding Myself in Borneo: Sojourns in Sabah
Publisher: NBFS Creations, LLC (2019)
Genre: Travel Memoir
An honest and buoyant chronicle of a young Canadian man’s adventures during 1968-70, while teaching secondary school as a volunteer in Sabah, Malaysia (North Borneo). Travel with Neill McKee on his unique journey through vibrant Asian cultures as he learns the craft of teaching, the Malay language and local customs, and gains many friends in his small community. He climbs the highest peak in Southeast Asia—Mount Kinabalu, has a love affair, and navigates Borneo’s backwaters to make his first of many documentary films. He takes hilarious motorcycle journeys in Sabah with his American Peace Corps buddy, making a hallucinogenic discovery—North Borneo is, indeed, J. R. R. Tolkien’s famed Middle-Earth of The Lord of the Rings! McKee’s many return trips to Sabah offer the reader the opportunity to match the early anecdotes to what in fact happened to the land and people who touched his life, and he theirs.
“Unpacking the Batik Painting” ♦ Ekphrastic Review, 2018
Romantic Suspense, Westerns, Sagas, Contemporary
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Parris Afton Bonds is the mother of five sons and the author of close to fifty published novels. She is the co-founder and first vice president of Romance Writers of America, as well as, cofounder of SouthWest Writers.
Declared by ABC’s Nightline as one of three best-selling authors of romantic fiction, the award-winning Parris Afton Bonds has been featured in major newspapers and magazines, as well as, published in more than a dozen languages.
The Parris Award was established in her name by SouthWest Writers to honor a published writer who has given outstandingly of time and talent to other writers. Prestigious recipients of the Parris Award include Tony Hillerman and the Pulitzer nominee Norman Zollinger.
She donates spare time teaching creative writing to both grade school children and female inmates, whom she considers her captive audiences.
Title: When the Heart Is Right
Publisher: Lagan Press/2019
Genre: Historical Romance
When Washington D.C. socialite Alessandra O’Quinn is diagnosed with tuberculosis, she must face certain death at home, or leave everything she knows to seek a cure in the dry desert air of New Mexico. Arriving at her new home, Alessandra is introduced to the local Taos Indians. Most importantly, she is introduced to shaman Manuel Mondragon. Renowned among his people as a leader and a healer, Man is handsome, intriguing…and promised to a young Taos Indian girl. Man informs Alessandra her sickness is caused by her spirit. As she learns how to heal her body, Alessandra finds herself fighting to save her true self, as well as her heart. In 1920s New Mexico, these aren’t the only battles she will fight. With Alessandra’s connections and knowledge of politics, she joins the local people in the fight against the Bureau of Indian Affairs for the rights to Blue Lake, where the tribe believes their ancient culture was created out of the sacred waters. As a place of ritual worship, the lake is essential to their religion and everyday life. Set against the rich cultural background of the Taos Indians, this story of politics, male domination, racism, and love against all odds will capture your attention from the very first page until the unanticipated ending.
Title: Dancing With Wild Woman ~ Book I
Publisher: Paradise Publishing/2013
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Hopi Indians believe it is their duty to dance in order to keep the world in balance. But with the recent Chilean earthquake, our axis has shifted, and our world is now off balance. Maybe Janet Lomayestewa, U.S. Customs tracker, ICE, needs to learn to dance if she is to find a serial killer and restore balance to the earth, her reservation and her own off-kilter love life.
Title: Dancing With Crazy Woman ~ Book II
Publisher: Paradise Publishing/2013
Genre: Romantic Suspense
U.S. Customs tracker Janet Lomayestewa must recover the sacred crystal chip, corner piece to the Fire Clan’s famed Stone Tablet, if she is to ever see her daughter again, much less keep the world in balance. But can she trust the irresistible counter-cultural Jack Ripley not to break every rule in danger and desire and break her heart with his passion and pain, as they begin a desperate high-wattage chase across the magic-carpet land of southern Arabia?
Title: Temptation ~ Book I
Publisher: Paradise Publishing/2013
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Kingdom Come…Sam Cooper’s Passion Place. A passion that for the young woman had once meant the Texas high desert, its stark beauty, and a cutting-horse operation of her own. Then Hollywood and Matt Kratowski came to Kingdom Come, and suddenly her passion changed.
Title: Trespass ~ Book II
Publisher: Parris Afton, Inc./2015
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Anjanette Adams, golden girl of Hollywood, was the cowboy’s chattel, his piece of property, according to the State of Texas justice system—at least, for six months. Ted Cooper was a true cowboy, rugged and plainspoken, and he didn’t have much use for hothouse flowers like Anjanette Adams. Then, again, she had trespassed and belonged to him for six months, and he would use her the best way he could think of—and that thought was pretty damning.
Title: Midsummer Midnight ~ Book I
Publisher: Paradise Publishing/2014
Genre: Romantic Suspense
That time of Midsummer-Midnight when all is revelry and debauchery in Macedonia. That unbelievable moment when Damon Demetrios kidnaps Helena Hamilton, a journalist whose byline draws as much interest as her subjects. He wants her to cover the Macedonian struggle for freedom. She wants him for all the wrong reasons—the worst being the freedom fighter, irrevocably wedded to his country, has the ability to make her forget the independent principles she believes in. Then there is the knowledge she won’t ever be able to forget him, that long after she escapes he’ll haunt her like a madness.
Title: Man for Hire ~ Book II
Publisher: Paradise Publishing/2014
Genre: Romantic Suspense
He is the Lion of the Desert, an urbane British-educated sheikh with unlimited wealth, unlimited women, and unlimited talents. Khalid Rajhi has risen above his primitive upbringing to become a man of the world, irresistible to women. Alyx Langford, ex-wife of an American diplomat stationed in Paris, has come to him with a proposition. Her daughter has been kidnapped, and Alyx needs a man who will be at one with the night, who can blend into the Paris social scene or the fierce life of the Bedouin warriors. She is a woman like no other, and Khalid knows he will consent to her plea in order to add her to his possessions.
Title: Wanted Woman ~ Book III
Publisher: Paradise Publishing/2014
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Does love truly triumph over all—even both age difference and a war-torn country’s alliances? Lovely and elegant Lady Philippa Fleming with her quiet courage, complexity of mind and vast experience works undercover to assure the independence of the newly established Macedonia. Posing as her brother, former British Secret Service agent Giles Hayes-David possesses a young god’s face and an extraordinary male physique, honed by those sports that build the kind of long, ropy muscles that make a couturier purr. But Philippa will not allow herself to fall for him, not with the fourteen-years-difference in ages—and especially not with the undermining suspicion of both patriotic and personal betrayal as rampant as the chemistry sparking between them.
Title: Dream Time ~ Book I
Publisher: Paradise Publishing/2014
Genre: Historical Romance
Australia was the land of the Aborigines’ Dream Time. For Amber Briscoll, exiled there as a convict, Australia was her nightmare. But she vowed to survive for one reason only—revenge against the man who had sealed her fate…even as her body continued to yearn for his touch. For Amaris Wilmot, Australia was her Dream Time. And an ex-convict named Sin was her nightmare—because she loved him and couldn’t have him. Fall in love with Australian history on a grand scale—from the mind-boggling Outback to the heart-ravaging passions of Amber, Amaris, and Annie—and Miles, Sin, and Ryan.
Title: Dream Keeper ~ Book II
Publisher: Paradise Publishing/2014
Genre: Historical Romance
Annie Tremayne rises to the top of her family’s shipping empire in 1870’s Sydney—while holding at bay her grandmother’s stronghold manipulations. But can she hold at bay her heart’s yearnings, when besieged by newspaper owner Ryan Sheridan’s powerful magnetism, and cattleman Reggie Lewis’s sensuous lovemaking? Like each of us, Annie must learn to follow her own heart and find enduring love. Only the strongest keep their dream. Dream Time and Dream Keeper are Australian history on a grand scale—from the mind-boggling Outback to the heart-ravaging passions of Amber, Amaris, and Annie—and Miles, Sin, and Ryan.
Title: Blue Bayou ~ Book I: Fleur de Lis
Title: Blue Bayou ~ Book II: Lion and Ramparts
Publisher: Paradise Publishing/2014
Genre: Historical Romance
From 1683 to 1803. From the corrupt courts of Versailles to the windswept tracks of Montreal. From the sea-washed coasts of Nova Scotia to the searing deserts of Algiers. And from the lush marshes of Louisiana. The proud, aristocratic du Plessis lived, loved, and fought to reclaim what was theirs. Damien, who claimed the unattainable Minette as his wife and took a nun as his mistress. Natalie, who escaped the horrors of Paris’s La Salpétrière prison to flee to the colony of New Orleans as a proxy bride. Nicolas, the handsome mysterious half breed, whose dark secret shadowed his love for his half-brother’s wife. Reinette, Natalie’s daughter, raised wild in the bayous outside New Orleans, who gave her heart to an outcast and her body to her handsome captor. And Daniel, Reinette’s son, who thirsted for vengeance and took his enemy’s daughter as hostage.
Title: The Captive ~ Book I
Publisher: Paradise Publishing/2013
Genre: Historical Romance
“You swore to make me love you,” Ranald said. “I swear to make you hate me.” “I may have yet to make you love me,” Enya chided, “but you canna make me hate you. Not after what happened between us.” The mighty Kincairns, once a powerful Highland clan, are now rebels out to destroy the conquering British invaders. Ranald Kincairn, chieftain of the rebels, swears to take his vengeance by stealing his ruthless foe’s virgin bride. But his captive swears to take her own vengeance by making his heart her own captive.
Title: The Calling of the Clan ~ Book II
Publisher: Paradise Publishing/2016
Genre: Historical Romance
From somewhere among the colony of North Carolina’s Gaelic gentry, twenty-five-year-old backwoodsman Jacob Dare is determined to find a young woman to recreate the home that his father’s Dare Castle must have been. She would have to be well bred, well read, and gifted with the ability to turn the primitive into the palatial. If she Is favorable to look upon and sweetly dispositioned, that would be even better. That she could ever come to love him is irrelevant. The Lady Catriona Kilcairn is desperately seeking to save her familial colonial home from 1776’s bloodthirsty insurrectionists, demanding she take the American Oath of Allegiance. Marriage with the backwoods oaf Jacob Dare is her only immediate option, and a most objectionable one, given that her love and loyalty belong to the Sassenach of her youth, the aristocratic Barrett Fairfax. Yet, as the famous Scotsman Sir Walter Scott warned, “Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive!”
Title: Wind Song
Publisher: Paradise Publishing/2013
Aristocrat Abbie Dennis has signed on as a reservation school teacher, searching for autonomy her soon to be ex will never allow her. She hasn’t anticipated encountering a primitive place full of primitive passion or on dealing with the enigmatic and extraordinarily handsome silversmith, Cody Strawhand. And she certainly hadn’t expected to be seduced by the Indian’s way of life—and by Cody.
Title: Widow Woman
Publisher: Paradise Publishing/2013
Inaccessible and untouchable, Cass Duval Garolini has risen from hometown girl to international model. Now she is back home in New Mexico AND the sheriff—and something else. The Widow Woman. Cade Montoya is determined to have Cass, but the activist is harboring a secret that can destroy both the town and her heart.
Title: Renegade Man
Publisher: Paradise Publishing/2013
Rita-lou left behind in Silver City, New Mexico the biggest scandal ever to quake the town. Now she was back with a vengeance, but not the wild hell-raiser of her youth. Searching for evidence that prehistoric man had once roamed the area, she collided with Jonah Jones, a part of her reckless past. He was out to claim gold—and claim her.
Title: Spinster’s Song
Publisher: Paradise Publishing/2013
Young Dr. Mary Margulies has been assigned to desolate Kingdom Come, Texas for six months to work off her government loan. She can’t wait to escape from the poverty-stricken border town to the profitable practice awaiting her back East. But, until then, can she escape the vengeful wrath of Border Patrols agent Joe Hanson? Worse, can she escape her body’s demands of surrender to the commanding passion of Kingdom Come’s el patron, Rafe Anaya?
Title: Made For Each Other
Publisher: Paradise Publishing/2013
When New Mexico’s youngest senator, Nick Raffer, rescues Santa Fe report Julie Dever from a car wreck, circumstances collide to trap them in a temporary Marriage of Convenience.
But can Julie claim her husband’s love before the signatures on the marriage vows expire?
Title: Run To Me
Publisher: Paradise Publishing/2013
Jaclyn Richardson, in fleeing to the Arizona Indian reservation, must confront childhood monsters. Yet she has to protect herself and her son from her ex-husband. However, she meets Joe Watchman, a reservation detective and a man all women find irresistible. He saves her life and her son’s, then helps her to learn what loving~ passionate loving, not just lusting—is really about. Yet, is he the one man the socialite Jaclyn can never have?!
Title: Ravished
Publisher: Paradise Publishing/2013
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Nelli Walzchak was a no-nonsense nurse at Kansas General Hospital, but her personal life was virtually nonexistent…until an enforced Mexican vacation altered her life’s course—and she found herself kidnapped by a dashing buccaneer and learned that ravished could mean, quite literally, not to take away by violence but most definitely to fill with pleasure.
Title: Extraordinary
Publisher: Paradise Publishing/2014
Genre: Sweet Romance
Is thirty-something Sarah Hartman asking for too much, by refusing to settle for anything less than the extraordinary—especially when it comes to matters of the heart? But her selections appear to be nothing more than ordinary. However, appearances can be deceiving.
Title: At First Sight
Publisher: Paradise Publishing/2017
Genre: Historical Romance
Unlike Any Christmas Story You Have Read. New Sweden, American colonies (when Christmas was outlawed). Five years before, in 1649, the heads of Lady Evangeline Bradshaw’s father and brother rolled on Cromwell’s chopping block, along with those of King Charles’s and others. Not waiting to see if her head was next, she fled England with the family’s remaining gold and silver crowns, putting a vast ocean between herself and peril. Even here, in this remotest place on earth one could imagine, Evangeline still does not feel safe. And especially not now, this Christmas Eve, when she opens her Virgin Queen Tavern’s door to admit the midnight traveler Nathan Sutcliff, who is most devilishly handsome—and most determined to carry out Cromwell’s order.
Title: The Latest and Greatest
Publisher: Amazon Digital Services/2014
Genre: Young Adult
When a heart-throb, drop-dead aviator steps off the theater screen to give seventeen-year-old Natalie McFarland an ultimatum of her death or that of detested geek-nerd, brain-drain Ted Kohlhaussen—and she has mere minutes to make the choice—well, that should be a no-brainer, right?
Blue Moon
Deep Purple
Dust Devil
Enchantment
Flash of the Firefly
For All Time
Gypsies, Tramps & Thieves
Highlander Heartthrobs
Indian Affairs
Lavender Blue
Monarchs and Painted Ladies
Mood Indigo
No Telling
Snow and Ice
Star Dust
Sweet Enchantress
Tame the Wildest Heart
The Arrangement
The Maidenhead
When the Heart Is Right
Will-O’-the-Wisp
Sherri L. Burr is the president of New Mexico Press Women and a long-time member of SouthWest Writers. She holds degrees from Mount Holyoke College, Princeton University, and Yale Law School and is Dickason Chair in Law Emerita and Regents Professor Emerita at the University of New Mexico (UNM) School of Law. A national and international speaker, Sherri has also authored 27 nonfiction books. Her newest release, Complicated Lives: Free Blacks in Virginia, 1619-1865 (Carolina Academic Press, 2019), was timed to coordinate with the 400th anniversary of Africans arriving on the shores of Virginia. You’ll find Sherri on her UNM faculty profile page.
What is your elevator pitch for Complicated Lives?
Complicated Lives examines the lives of Africans who arrived on the shores of Virginia in 1619 and what happened to them, their progeny, and subsequent arrivals. This book challenges beliefs about slavery that all Blacks were slaves, that all Whites were slaveholders, and that slavery only took place in the South. This book illustrates how Free Blacks integrated into the fabric of a land far from their homeland.
When readers turn the last page in the book, what do you hope they take away from it?
I hope readers have been transformed in their thinking about how slavery developed, how wrong it was, and how we must work to make sure that it never happens again.
What would you like readers to know about the foundation of the book?
Complicated Lives was written to make difficult history accessible for the general public. It’s a page turner and I hope readers continue until they have read the last word and contemplated the book’s meaning for our current lives.
The Amazon category for the book is African American Demographic Studies. You’ve combined fiction and nonfiction writing techniques for Complicated Lives—how do you personally categorize this work?
I categorize the book as a good read for people interested in learning more about U.S. history, particularly why slavery has been so difficult to discuss.
Tell us how the book came together.
Complicated Lives evolved out of serendipitous events and discoveries. I wanted to know why my great-great aunt Lillian had chosen to live in Wyoming. When I knocked on the door of her former home, I was invited in by her former neighbor and friend, Ms. Lucy Vigil, who had been born in Wagon Mound, New Mexico. A few months later, I was flying into Salt Lake City to attend the National Federation of Press Women conference when a seatmate suggested I visit the Family History Library. Thinking I would check it out for 15 minutes, I walked out three hours later with a stack of census records showing that Aunt Lillian’s father and my great-great grandfather had been born free in Virginia in 1847. I was hooked!
There were many starts and stops in getting the book published. I worked with an agent who sought to sell it to major publishers. In the end, the book was picked up by Carolina Academic Press after I engaged directly with the publisher at a national law conference.
What are a few of the most surprising facts you discovered while doing research for this book?
I was shocked by how indentured servitude evolved into perpetual enslavement, and how often legal changes impacted the way people chose to lead their lives. After Virginia passed a law requiring newly freed slaves to leave the state within a year and a day of receiving freedom, several families who had purchased their relatives out of slavery were left in a quandary. For example, as she was dying, Sarah Spears, a Free Black woman who had purchased her husband’s freedom, chose not to free him but rather willed him to her free-born children so he would not have to leave Virginia.
What was your favorite part of putting the project together?
I loved researching in libraries and archives all over the world. When I lost track of time at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, that was the first of dozens of times where I entered a flow state while researching material for this book. When I found a nugget of history that shed light on so many forgotten elements, I was thrilled.
You recently participated in a ceremony honoring your ancestor, John Pierre Burr, who was the son of Aaron Burr, the third Vice President of the United States. What did you take away from that experience?
The John Pierre Burr headstone project began when I drafted a grant proposal to the Pennsylvania Abolitionist Society (PAS) to place a small marker and have a program discussing his anti-slavery activities. After the PAS gave only $500 for a reception to the Aaron Burr Association, ABA president Stuart Johnson scrambled to raise donations for the headstone and its installation. In the end, the entire project cost about $7,000. John Pierre Burr was a person any Founding Father would have been proud to call a son, and Aaron Burr deserved to have John Pierre Burr added to his legacy.
Along with his wife Hetty Elizabeth Emery, John Pierre Burr was an avid abolitionist who became a conductor on the Underground Railroad. The Burrs hid self-liberating slaves in their attic, cellar, and a concrete hole in the backyard, while their front parlor was used as JPB’s barbershop where he cut the hair of white patrons. As I researched their history, I found their names on just about every anti-slavery group formed in Pennsylvania during their adult lives. I tell a tidbit of their story in Complicated Lives to illustrate the roles of Northern Blacks to free all blacks from bondage.
What does a typical writing session look like for you?
I typically write in 90-minute sessions and take 30-minute breaks in between. If I keep my workload to a maximum of three such sessions a day, then I conserve energy for the next day. I’ve learned that it doesn’t pay to over-work on a particular day, because then the next day is far less productive.
What writing projects are you working on now?
I am currently working on Aaron Burr’s Family of Color. The activities of both of Vice President Burr’s children of color were so extraordinary that readers might wish to know more about them and his relationship with them.
KL Wagoner (writing as Cate Macabe) is the author of This New Mountain: a memoir of AJ Jackson, private investigator, repossessor, and grandmother. Kathy posts to a speculative fiction blog at klwagoner.com and writes about memoir at ThisNewMountain.com.
The husband and wife team of Jim and Jasmine Tritten share not only a love of one another from their home in Corrales, New Mexico, they also share a love of writing. Jasmine is an artist, as well as a short story and essay writer, and the author of the memoir The Journey of an Adventuresome Dane (read her 2016 interview). Jim, a retired U.S. Navy officer, has published six books and over three hundred chapters, short stories, essays, articles, and government technical reports. Kato’s Grand Adventure is the authors’ first children’s book collaboration. For a complete list of Jasmine’s published work, visit her SWW author page. You’ll also find her on Facebook. Jim’s work is listed on his own SWW page, and you’ll find him on Facebook and Twitter.
What is your elevator pitch for Kato’s Grand Adventure?
An adventure story written from the perspective of a kitten named Kato who gets lost looking for his sister. With the help of several animals he overcomes obstacles and finds his way home. Suitable to be read-aloud to children and grandchildren or as a first chapter book for anyone with a 4th–5th grade reading level.
Who are your main characters, and why will they appeal to the book’s audience?
Kato is the adventurous main character and the protagonist. He has all of the characteristics of a young child who will meet obstacles on life’s path. The story includes Kato getting help from some unlikely animals in nature who adults might consider predators.
What part did each of you play in creating the book?
We both worked back and forth on the text. Jasmine did all of the original artwork and designed the cover. Jim took care of the grunt work of uploading files to CreateSpace for a finished product.
What was the hardest part of collaborating, and what was the easiest?
Collaborating was easy since neither one of us was pressured by time. The hardest part was to learn how to write for an early reader. Jasmine and Jim have collaborated on other pieces which include the soon-to-be published “KALE—the Ultimate Vegetable” that will appear in Kale Chronicles (working title) to be compiled by the Corrales Writing Group.
How did you decide what aspect of the story to illustrate?
Jasmine first wanted to capture Kato to put him on the cover of the book. Next she decided to depict the other characters in the story that helped Kato, so the reader could imagine what they looked like. Finally she drew a couple of scenes with setting and characters.
What is the greatest challenge of writing for the children’s market?
The professional children’s publishing market is dominated by requirements set by school districts. We learned that Kato’s Grand Adventure would not fit because it did not follow guidelines for teaching in today’s classrooms. Somewhat disheartened by this reality, we simultaneously got appreciation for the story from potential purchasers who were not connected to the professional children’s market. Since receiving so much positive feedback from just plain folks we decided that an independently published book with original artwork by Jasmine would work. This year we were rewarded by recognition in the form of professional contest awards from the NMPW Communications Contest 2019—first place for Book Designed by Entrant and second place for Children’s Books, Fiction. The book design went on to win an honorable mention at the national level.
Tell us how the book came together.
The story idea originally came from a telephone call from Jim’s daughter telling us she and her daughter were going to pick up some new kittens at a neighbor’s house. That day we both happened to be en route for the first class of a University of New Mexico Continuing Education course of writing about animals. It sparked the idea of the story and we went to additional classes on how to write for children and additional drafts. We worked on it for many years and donated copies of the text to two different charitable organizations for fundraising anthologies. Finally we thought the text was as good as we could ever write it, and Jasmine turned to the illustrations and then Jim to the mechanics of book production.
What was your favorite part of working on Kato’s Grand Adventure?
Jasmine says: Doing the illustrations. Jim says: Hitting the button to publish.
Do you prefer the creating or editing aspect of writing? How do you feel about research?
Jim really likes doing the research and all aspects of the creating stage. Jasmine enjoys creating, rewriting and editing. Both Jim and Jasmine detest marketing.
What is the best compliment you’ve received as an author?
Jim is the recipient of the Alfred Thayer Mahan award from the Navy League of the United States. This is the highest honor awarded to authors who write in this field. Jasmine received an honorable mention award for her memoir The Journey of an Adventuresome Dane in 2016 from the New Mexico Press Women (NMPW) Communications Contest.
Do you have a message or a theme that recurs in your writing?
You can overcome obstacles.
What is the best encouragement or advice you’ve received on your writing journey?
Keep writing no matter what happens in your life.
What writing projects are you working on now?
Jasmine is working on several short stories for anthologies and contests. Together they have outlined a new children’s picture book. Jim has completed two novellas (one is a romance and the other is an adventure) co-written with a member of the Corrales Writing Group. They have a contract for one of those books. Jim has another novella (historical fiction) out for consideration in two different contests. He is in the final stages of re-writing the first of three planned novels set in Sandoval County. The second novel is fully outlined and the third is in the concept development stage. In addition, he has a number of short stories and essays scheduled to appear in anthologies and journals.
KL Wagoner (writing as Cate Macabe) is the author of This New Mountain: a memoir of AJ Jackson, private investigator, repossessor, and grandmother. Kathy posts to a speculative fiction blog at klwagoner.com and writes about memoir at ThisNewMountain.com.
Mystery, Romance (romantic suspense, romantic thriller, cozy mystery, paranormal romance, romantic mystery), Suspense, Thriller, Other Fiction, Other Nonfiction
RobinPerini.com
act.alz.org/goto/1MemoryChallenge
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Publisher’s Weekly Bestseller of Forgotten Secrets, Robin Perini is an internationally bestselling author devoted to giving readers fast-paced, high-stakes adventures with a love story sure to melt their hearts. A RITA Award finalist and winner of the prestigious RWA Golden Heart Award, she sold fourteen titles to two publishers in less than two years. A nationally acclaimed writing instructor, by day she is an analyst for an advanced technology corporation but her passion remains as an advocate for those who battle Alzheimer’s Disease, in honor of her mother. You can learn more about Robin’s writing, teaching and advocacy by connecting with her through her website at www.robinperini.com.
The following was written by Kathy Louise Schuit for the February 2023 issue of SouthWest Sage.
Robin Lynn Perini was a member, supporter and frequent speaker for SWW, with her most recent presentation taking place in November 2022. Robin passed away on January 10, 2023 after a short illness.
The author of 16 mystery romance novels with more than a million copies sold, Robin, nevertheless, busted all the stereotypes of a romance author. Her obituary details her many academic accomplishments as well as her literary success. Robin was Valedictorian of her Hobbs, NM high school class, earned a degree in biochemistry from the University of Oklahoma, and attended the University of New Mexico School of Medicine for three years before deciding to become a writer. She also obtained a master’s degree in Business Management Technology, held down a full-time job at Sandia Laboratories, and cared for her ailing mother through a lengthy illness.
Social media manager Maegan Marshall posted a final message to Robin’s Facebook account:
“It is hard to say goodbye to Robin, as she has been an amazing friend and client for the past nine years. Though we are having to say goodbye to Robin, we can smile knowing her writings will live on forever. Please take a moment to send a prayer to the Perini family during this difficult time.
This will be the final post under this account. Please take a moment to leave a comment in her memory or about one of her novels; she would have loved reading them all.”
Eight days before her death, Robin was still marketing books on her Facebook page. Current posts register disbelief at her sudden passing:
Harlequin Intrigue
It is with great sadness that I must tell you Author Robin Perini has died at the young age of fifty-seven. She was a wonderful author, a super-intelligent woman, one of the kindest human beings I’ve ever known, a sister-of-the-heart to many, and one of my closest friends. ~ Angi Morgan
A memorial service for Robin was held on January 28, 2023 at St. Stephens United Methodist Church in Albuquerque. The full obituary is available HERE, and condolence comments may be made on her Facebook page.
Title: Forgotten Secrets (Singing River Book 1)
Publisher: Montlake/2016
Genre: Romantic Thriller
For Riley Lambert, being an FBI profiler isn’t just a job, it’s a calling. At the age of ten, she witnessed her twelve-year-old sister’s abduction from her bedroom. Fifteen years later and still searching for her sister, Riley has been called to another kidnapping, this time in the small Wyoming town of Singing River, to save a doctor snatched in the light of day. To complicate matters, her only witness, the woman’s grandmother, is afflicted with Alzheimer’s.
Battling against few leads and little time, Riley delves into a small town’s secrets with help from the missing woman’s brother, Navy SEAL and Acting Deputy Sheriff Thayne Blackwood. Can Riley decipher enough evidence to save Thayne’s sister, even as her past and his present collide in a shocking revelation no one could expect?
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Title: In Her Sights (Montgomery Justice Book 1)
Publisher: Montlake/2011
Genre: Romantic Thriller
Jasmine “Jazz” Parker, Jefferson County SWAT’s only female sniper, can thread the eye of a needle with a bullet. But she carries a secret from her past that she thought she buried for good at the age of fifteen. Two years ago she even drove away the one man she believed she could love—ex-Army Ranger turned reporter Luke Montgomery—to keep her past hidden. Now, in a fleeting second, the time it takes for one clean shot, one perfect hit, to save the life of the governor’s daughter, Jazz’s world begins to crumble around her.
Luke splashes her face and name across the front page of the newspaper, reawakening her past with a vengeance. A vicious enemy is now bent on destroying her life, forcing Jazz to turn to the one man she can never have in order to stop a killer before she and everyone she cares about pays the ultimate price. Full of explosive action and almost unbearable suspense, In Her Sights is a relentless, steamy thriller surprisingly infused with soul and poignancy.
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Title: Finding Her Son (Carder Texas Connections Book 1)
Publisher: Harlequin Intrigue/2012
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Investigating a cold case is SWAT cop Mitch Bradford’s worst nightmare—especially when it involves a kidnapped infant. But thanks to an injury, he’ll have to settle for following Emily Wentworth instead of breaking down doors and cuffing criminals. The prime suspect in a mysterious disappearance, Emily has always claimed she was framed. And as he earns the trust of the incredibly desperate—and unbelievably beautiful—mother, every instinct tells Mitch to believe her. Then new evidence unfolds, revealing an elaborate conspiracy and forcing Emily into a deadly spotlight. Now, torn between loyalty to the badge and his promises to Emily, Mitch may have to make the ultimate sacrifice if he’s to bring her little boy home.
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Albuquerque is an ethnically diverse city, which is one of the things that make it a great city to live in or visit. We have Native Americans, Hispanics, Anglos, Asians, and other cultures living side-by-side, all enriching each others’ lives. You can’t beat the scenery or the skies or the weather, which is why Albuquerque draws people like a magnet.
Below are a few of the many sights to see in the Old Town area where the MWSA Conference in Hotel Albuquerque is located. A few sights at the end of this list are farther away, but worth checking out.
A final note: Albuquerque is home to many incredible restaurants, world-renowned microbreweries, and other museums and art galleries. You may want to check them out on Yelp, TripAdvisor, or other similar sites.