N.J. Litz's Blog
July 17, 2022
Scent of Death
Scent of Death expected to launch on July 31. This second in the "Scent" series features Haley Richardson; her faithful search and rescue dog, Jax; and her fiance, Sheriff Dane Campbell on another case that leads them into a web of deceit, darkness and death.
A Goodreads Giveaway for print copies of Scent of Death will begin late this month. Watch for it!
A Goodreads Giveaway for print copies of Scent of Death will begin late this month. Watch for it!
October 4, 2020
Interested in reading Just in Time?
Thank you for following me (Author NJ Litz) on Goodreads!
I have a new book, Just in Time, being published on Friday, Oct. 5. If you would like an electronic copy or pdf, please let me know. A review on Goodreads or Amazon is always appreciated for a new-ish author, but there are no strings. I’m happy for you to have a copy.
I’d say the book is my usual face-paced story. It’s the second book in the Federal Bureau of Time series; NOT necessary to have read the first book to enjoy the second. The book has an unusual setting, but I promise that there is not a lot of jargon or science—just enough to move the story along.
Here’s a blurb: Natasha Petrov is running out of time. Despite not being an actual Federal Bureau of Time (FBT) agent like her sister, she’s determined to take down a child kidnapping ring. She needs a person with the skill and talent to bend time to help her get the job done. She’ll use any means possible–even partner with a rigid, humorless FBT agent.
Agent Heath Meyers is on leave, recovering after being shot on his last mission. He’s convinced Tasha is rash and undisciplined. Still, he recognizes the case she’s brought to him has the potential to put him back in contention for a director’s position in the FBT, which he wants more than anything. Agreeing to pose as Tasha’s husband, he travels with her to an isolated outpost on the moon. To discover the leaders of the kidnapping ring, they set a trap by buying children.
All the people they encounter are potential suspects. Their mission gets complicated, especially when they realize a growing attraction to each other. As they get closer to the truth, they realize more than just the desolate moon atmosphere is trying to kill them.
Will they run out of time? Or find the answers just in time…?
Let me know if you are interested. Thanks again for following me! Litz
I have a new book, Just in Time, being published on Friday, Oct. 5. If you would like an electronic copy or pdf, please let me know. A review on Goodreads or Amazon is always appreciated for a new-ish author, but there are no strings. I’m happy for you to have a copy.
I’d say the book is my usual face-paced story. It’s the second book in the Federal Bureau of Time series; NOT necessary to have read the first book to enjoy the second. The book has an unusual setting, but I promise that there is not a lot of jargon or science—just enough to move the story along.
Here’s a blurb: Natasha Petrov is running out of time. Despite not being an actual Federal Bureau of Time (FBT) agent like her sister, she’s determined to take down a child kidnapping ring. She needs a person with the skill and talent to bend time to help her get the job done. She’ll use any means possible–even partner with a rigid, humorless FBT agent.
Agent Heath Meyers is on leave, recovering after being shot on his last mission. He’s convinced Tasha is rash and undisciplined. Still, he recognizes the case she’s brought to him has the potential to put him back in contention for a director’s position in the FBT, which he wants more than anything. Agreeing to pose as Tasha’s husband, he travels with her to an isolated outpost on the moon. To discover the leaders of the kidnapping ring, they set a trap by buying children.
All the people they encounter are potential suspects. Their mission gets complicated, especially when they realize a growing attraction to each other. As they get closer to the truth, they realize more than just the desolate moon atmosphere is trying to kill them.
Will they run out of time? Or find the answers just in time…?
Let me know if you are interested. Thanks again for following me! Litz
September 13, 2020
Just in Time launching soon!!
Just in Time, the second book in the Federal Bureau of Time series, will launch in mid-October--just 30 days away!
Natasha Petrov is running out of time. Despite not being an actual Federal Bureau of Time (FBT) agent like her sister, she’s determined to take down a child kidnapping ring. She needs a person with the skill and talent to bend time to help her get the job done. She’ll use any means possible–even partner with a rigid, humorless FBT agent.
Agent Heath Meyers is on leave, recovering after being shot on his last mission. He’s convinced Tasha is rash and undisciplined. Still, he recognizes the case she’s brought to him has the potential to put him back in contention for a director’s position in the FBT, which he wants more than anything. Agreeing to pose as Tasha’s husband, he travels with her to an isolated outpost on the moon. To discover the leaders of the kidnapping ring, they set a trap by buying children.
All the people they encounter are potential suspects. Their mission gets complicated, especially when they realize a growing attraction to each other. As they get closer to the truth, they realize more than just the desolate moon atmosphere is trying to kill them.
Will they run out of time? Or find the answers just in time…?
Natasha Petrov is running out of time. Despite not being an actual Federal Bureau of Time (FBT) agent like her sister, she’s determined to take down a child kidnapping ring. She needs a person with the skill and talent to bend time to help her get the job done. She’ll use any means possible–even partner with a rigid, humorless FBT agent.
Agent Heath Meyers is on leave, recovering after being shot on his last mission. He’s convinced Tasha is rash and undisciplined. Still, he recognizes the case she’s brought to him has the potential to put him back in contention for a director’s position in the FBT, which he wants more than anything. Agreeing to pose as Tasha’s husband, he travels with her to an isolated outpost on the moon. To discover the leaders of the kidnapping ring, they set a trap by buying children.
All the people they encounter are potential suspects. Their mission gets complicated, especially when they realize a growing attraction to each other. As they get closer to the truth, they realize more than just the desolate moon atmosphere is trying to kill them.
Will they run out of time? Or find the answers just in time…?
May 1, 2019
Dr. Brianna Kincaid Interview
Urban fantasy author Ally Shields interviewed Dr. Brianna Kincaid, the heroine of No Bed of Roses on her blog today.
See what Brianna has to say for herself.
Hi! I’m Brianna Kincaid. I have a PhD in botany and work for the world-renowned Missouri Botanical Garden,
the oldest botanical garden in the U.S.
My colleagues and I are mourning the death of my research assistant, Megan, in a car accident when a police detective shows up, asking a lot of questions about her, and my team’s travels out of the country. The police also need our help in identifying a mysterious substance in her body.
Once I figure out the substance, I suspect Megan’s death wasn’t an accident, especially when I stumble onto clues she left. She planned a treasure hunt for the mysterious father of her unborn child. I believe her lover killed her. To prove it, I partner with Nick Mancini, a down-on-his-luck journalist, to decode the clues and reveal her murderer. Along the way, the killer figures out what we’re trying to do, and suddenly Nick and I are no longer the hunters, but the hunted.
INTERVIEW:
Ally: Your story sounds very exciting, Brianna. I know you won’t reveal any more of the plot, but I have a lot of other questions. Let’s start with one about you…name three of your favorite things.
Brianna: All three of them are featured in the book. I love roses, which play an important part in the story, and I love to run, which both relaxes and challenges me. I get my best ideas when I run. I also love to eat. Because both Nick and I travel so much in our careers, we like many different types of food. From our travels, we know how much sharing a meal can form a bond with other people.
Ally: So getting back to the story, who was your favorite supporting character?
Brianna: My favorites were Riley O’Shea or my father, Scottie Kincaid. Riley works for her father’s detective agency. She makes a brief appearance, but she was different both times that we met so I think she would be intriguing if I had more time to get to know her.
My father is a force of nature. He’s a successful lawyer, a partner in a large firm, and he’s handled major trials throughout the country. Quiet is not often a word associated with my father.
Ally: Do you have siblings? Are you close to them?
Brianna: I’m close to my sister, Carly, though readers never get to meet her. She lives in Boston. She’s an assistant coach for a women’s college basketball team. Sports is one way that my sister and I bonded. I was a nationally ranked runner in high school and college.
What unites us both in the book is that we’re worried about our father, who is still grieving deeply over the death of our mother six months earlier. We connive to get him to visit Carly in Boston so I can store my mother’s things (with Dad’s permission.)
Ally: Is your love interest the way you pictured him or her? What would you change in appearance or personality?
Brianna: I’m a scientist so I recognize a superior specimen when I see it. Sure, I noticed Nick Mancini was tall, dark and handsome when I first met him. But he was also rude and condescending. If I hadn’t needed his help, I would have been happy never to have run into him again. On top of that, I wasn’t sure I could trust a journalist who had reported from every country with a beach. He seemed like a slacker, but he ended up having several useful skills.
Watching Nick charm drinks and information out of women, and talking with him made me realize he had a colorful past that included a lot of women. It happened before me, so I accept that part of his life.
Turns out he’s easy to talk with. I’ve always preferred plants because they’re less complicated and messy than humans. But Nick . . . he listens better than I thought for a man with a handsome face and rakish charm. He brings out the best in me, so there’s not a darn thing I would change.
Ally: How many re-writes did you have to live through?
Brianna: Shockingly, I only had to live through two rewrites. My author is slow, and normally she’s a firm believer that most writing isn’t polished enough for other eyes until the third draft. However, she had so much fun with the hero (and I can understand why because he becomes my favorite too). She also loves to garden and has been going to the Missouri Botanical Garden since she was a child so she’d been figuring out the clues for a long time, whether she realized it or not.
Ally: Are you hoping to make an appearance in a sequel or series? Why or why not?
Brianna: Oh, I have to make an appearance in another book—if I want to help save the life of someone who’s important to Nick—because a crisis develops during the epilogue.
The other wonderful thing about being a botanist is that I can travel all over the world so the mysteries I can solve can be in so many fantastic locations. It helps that Missouri Botanical Garden, for which I work, is a global leader in plant conservation. Not surprisingly, I’m very concerned both personally and professionally about climate change.
All this said, though, my author’s next two books are already written. They’re romantic mysteries set in the future (but without the scientific detail she thinks bogs down those kinds of stories.)
See what Brianna has to say for herself.
Hi! I’m Brianna Kincaid. I have a PhD in botany and work for the world-renowned Missouri Botanical Garden,
the oldest botanical garden in the U.S.
My colleagues and I are mourning the death of my research assistant, Megan, in a car accident when a police detective shows up, asking a lot of questions about her, and my team’s travels out of the country. The police also need our help in identifying a mysterious substance in her body.
Once I figure out the substance, I suspect Megan’s death wasn’t an accident, especially when I stumble onto clues she left. She planned a treasure hunt for the mysterious father of her unborn child. I believe her lover killed her. To prove it, I partner with Nick Mancini, a down-on-his-luck journalist, to decode the clues and reveal her murderer. Along the way, the killer figures out what we’re trying to do, and suddenly Nick and I are no longer the hunters, but the hunted.
INTERVIEW:
Ally: Your story sounds very exciting, Brianna. I know you won’t reveal any more of the plot, but I have a lot of other questions. Let’s start with one about you…name three of your favorite things.
Brianna: All three of them are featured in the book. I love roses, which play an important part in the story, and I love to run, which both relaxes and challenges me. I get my best ideas when I run. I also love to eat. Because both Nick and I travel so much in our careers, we like many different types of food. From our travels, we know how much sharing a meal can form a bond with other people.
Ally: So getting back to the story, who was your favorite supporting character?
Brianna: My favorites were Riley O’Shea or my father, Scottie Kincaid. Riley works for her father’s detective agency. She makes a brief appearance, but she was different both times that we met so I think she would be intriguing if I had more time to get to know her.
My father is a force of nature. He’s a successful lawyer, a partner in a large firm, and he’s handled major trials throughout the country. Quiet is not often a word associated with my father.
Ally: Do you have siblings? Are you close to them?
Brianna: I’m close to my sister, Carly, though readers never get to meet her. She lives in Boston. She’s an assistant coach for a women’s college basketball team. Sports is one way that my sister and I bonded. I was a nationally ranked runner in high school and college.
What unites us both in the book is that we’re worried about our father, who is still grieving deeply over the death of our mother six months earlier. We connive to get him to visit Carly in Boston so I can store my mother’s things (with Dad’s permission.)
Ally: Is your love interest the way you pictured him or her? What would you change in appearance or personality?
Brianna: I’m a scientist so I recognize a superior specimen when I see it. Sure, I noticed Nick Mancini was tall, dark and handsome when I first met him. But he was also rude and condescending. If I hadn’t needed his help, I would have been happy never to have run into him again. On top of that, I wasn’t sure I could trust a journalist who had reported from every country with a beach. He seemed like a slacker, but he ended up having several useful skills.
Watching Nick charm drinks and information out of women, and talking with him made me realize he had a colorful past that included a lot of women. It happened before me, so I accept that part of his life.
Turns out he’s easy to talk with. I’ve always preferred plants because they’re less complicated and messy than humans. But Nick . . . he listens better than I thought for a man with a handsome face and rakish charm. He brings out the best in me, so there’s not a darn thing I would change.
Ally: How many re-writes did you have to live through?
Brianna: Shockingly, I only had to live through two rewrites. My author is slow, and normally she’s a firm believer that most writing isn’t polished enough for other eyes until the third draft. However, she had so much fun with the hero (and I can understand why because he becomes my favorite too). She also loves to garden and has been going to the Missouri Botanical Garden since she was a child so she’d been figuring out the clues for a long time, whether she realized it or not.
Ally: Are you hoping to make an appearance in a sequel or series? Why or why not?
Brianna: Oh, I have to make an appearance in another book—if I want to help save the life of someone who’s important to Nick—because a crisis develops during the epilogue.
The other wonderful thing about being a botanist is that I can travel all over the world so the mysteries I can solve can be in so many fantastic locations. It helps that Missouri Botanical Garden, for which I work, is a global leader in plant conservation. Not surprisingly, I’m very concerned both personally and professionally about climate change.
All this said, though, my author’s next two books are already written. They’re romantic mysteries set in the future (but without the scientific detail she thinks bogs down those kinds of stories.)
April 26, 2019
The Language of Flowers
My second romantic mystery, No Bed of Roses, is set in the Missouri Botanical Garden. The heroine, a botanist named Bree, stumbles onto clues left by her deceased assistant who was planning a clandestine treasure hunt in the Garden for the mysterious father of her unborn child. Bree believes her assistant’s lover poisoned her with a plant from Central America, and Bree must decode the clues to reveal the murderer.
The 79-acre Garden is the oldest botanical garden in the U.S. I live in the St. Louis area and have visited this paradise since I was a child. It has more than 30 specialized or sub-gardens within it. For example, there’s a sensory garden for those with visual impairment, a maze, English Woodlands, and a Japanese garden among others. It’s visually stunning and stirring to the senses year-round. But even paradise can’t hide betrayal and murder!
Bree reluctantly teams with Nick, a journalist who’s reported from every country with a beach. His hard-partying lifestyle has caught up with him, though. Down on his luck, he needs a scoop to put him back on top. He hopes there’s a sensational story behind the murder of an employee of the Garden, an institution with an esteemed international reputation. Botanists who might be smuggling drugs from Central America would be perfect for his purposes.
One key to success for Bree and Nick rests on understanding the language of flowers. Mankind has been assigning meanings to flower for thousands of years. Victorians, those great suppressors of emotion, would send flowers as coded messages to express feelings that could never be spoken. William Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Charlotte and Emily Bronte are just a few famous writers who have given emblematic meanings to flowers in their works.
For Bree and Nick, decoding the clues is complicated. Almost every flower has at least one meaning, covering a wide range of human emotions from jealousy (hyacinth and hydrangea) to strength and valor (iris) to love (red rose). Frequently, a flower can have multiple meanings—both positive and negative.
Most of the clues center on the themes of love and family, which were important to the young woman who died. When Bree researches the Garden’s database, she discovers dozens and dozens of roses, daylilies and irises with the word “love” in their names.
And in such a dramatic and huge space, think of all the unique places to hide clues! As Nick points out, they can’t go digging up a national historical landmark, forcing them to be both resourceful and secretive.
When they finally succeed at decoding some clues, the hunters become the hunted as the killer reappears and tries to stop them.
A red rose also plays a role in the romance between Bree and Nick. (Notice I resisted calling it a “blooming” romance. Plus in mysteries, a red rose also goes so much better with blood, right?) Sure, a red rose means “I love you”, but it also has several other meanings. When Nick wants Bree to know all the different ways she means something to him, he turns to the language of flowers to let the red rose do the talking for him.
The 79-acre Garden is the oldest botanical garden in the U.S. I live in the St. Louis area and have visited this paradise since I was a child. It has more than 30 specialized or sub-gardens within it. For example, there’s a sensory garden for those with visual impairment, a maze, English Woodlands, and a Japanese garden among others. It’s visually stunning and stirring to the senses year-round. But even paradise can’t hide betrayal and murder!
Bree reluctantly teams with Nick, a journalist who’s reported from every country with a beach. His hard-partying lifestyle has caught up with him, though. Down on his luck, he needs a scoop to put him back on top. He hopes there’s a sensational story behind the murder of an employee of the Garden, an institution with an esteemed international reputation. Botanists who might be smuggling drugs from Central America would be perfect for his purposes.
One key to success for Bree and Nick rests on understanding the language of flowers. Mankind has been assigning meanings to flower for thousands of years. Victorians, those great suppressors of emotion, would send flowers as coded messages to express feelings that could never be spoken. William Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Charlotte and Emily Bronte are just a few famous writers who have given emblematic meanings to flowers in their works.
For Bree and Nick, decoding the clues is complicated. Almost every flower has at least one meaning, covering a wide range of human emotions from jealousy (hyacinth and hydrangea) to strength and valor (iris) to love (red rose). Frequently, a flower can have multiple meanings—both positive and negative.
Most of the clues center on the themes of love and family, which were important to the young woman who died. When Bree researches the Garden’s database, she discovers dozens and dozens of roses, daylilies and irises with the word “love” in their names.
And in such a dramatic and huge space, think of all the unique places to hide clues! As Nick points out, they can’t go digging up a national historical landmark, forcing them to be both resourceful and secretive.
When they finally succeed at decoding some clues, the hunters become the hunted as the killer reappears and tries to stop them.
A red rose also plays a role in the romance between Bree and Nick. (Notice I resisted calling it a “blooming” romance. Plus in mysteries, a red rose also goes so much better with blood, right?) Sure, a red rose means “I love you”, but it also has several other meanings. When Nick wants Bree to know all the different ways she means something to him, he turns to the language of flowers to let the red rose do the talking for him.
