Annelise Ryan's Blog
October 6, 2016
Change Is In The Wind
I'm delighted to report that the Mattie Winston series is going to continue for several more books, but the look and the titles are changing a bit. Book #8 in the series, Dead in the Water, has a beautiful cover with a wholly different look as well as a new title theme. And it's coming out in hardcover! No more "Stiff" titles, but the content is the same old Mattie Winston adventures and humor.
Thank you to all you readers out there who have helped to make the series successful!
Thank you to all you readers out there who have helped to make the series successful!
September 13, 2013
Good news!
I'm happy to report that there will be two more Mattie Winston mysteries after Board Stiff, which comes out in March of 2014. And we just did a deal for books 1-5 to come out as audio books! Can't wait to hear them.
August 13, 2013
Exciting News!
My very, VERY close friend, Allyson K. Abbott just had her first book released last week and it debuted at #32 on the Barnes & Noble Bestseller list for mass market paperbacks! Thank you readers!
MURDER ON THE ROCKS is a mystery featuring Milwaukee bar owner, Mackenzie "Mack" Dalton, who has a neurological disorder known as synesthesia. Her disorder causes her senses to become cross-wired, something she considers a pain. But Detective Duncan Albright considers it his secret weapon when it comes to solving the murder of the woman Mack found in the alley behind her bar.
Not only will MURDER ON THE ROCKS give you an entertaining and unique mystery read, there are some fun drink recipes included, both in alcoholic and virgin form.
MURDER ON THE ROCKS is a mystery featuring Milwaukee bar owner, Mackenzie "Mack" Dalton, who has a neurological disorder known as synesthesia. Her disorder causes her senses to become cross-wired, something she considers a pain. But Detective Duncan Albright considers it his secret weapon when it comes to solving the murder of the woman Mack found in the alley behind her bar.
Not only will MURDER ON THE ROCKS give you an entertaining and unique mystery read, there are some fun drink recipes included, both in alcoholic and virgin form.
June 5, 2013
The Three Faces of Me
My very, VERY close friend, Beth Amos (who looks exactly like me!) has some new e-books available. She has issued two of her three suspense novels that were published by HarperCollins in the late nineties in e-book form for the first time: Cold White Fury and Eyes of Night The third book, Second Sight will be available as an e-book soon.
Beth also has two never before published novels available. If you like romantic suspense (with an occasional touch of the paranormal) check these out:
Nick of Time and The Face of Death. They can all be found at an e-book store of your choosing.
And my other very, VERY close friend, Allyson K. Abbott (who oddly enough, also looks just like me--creepy!) has her first cozy mystery coming out in August from Kensington Books: Murder on the Rocks. Look for a Goodreads Giveaway starting June 15th and you might win one of ten free copies.
Beth also has two never before published novels available. If you like romantic suspense (with an occasional touch of the paranormal) check these out:
Nick of Time and The Face of Death. They can all be found at an e-book store of your choosing.
And my other very, VERY close friend, Allyson K. Abbott (who oddly enough, also looks just like me--creepy!) has her first cozy mystery coming out in August from Kensington Books: Murder on the Rocks. Look for a Goodreads Giveaway starting June 15th and you might win one of ten free copies.
November 6, 2011
Funny How the Mind Works
With three books out in the Mattie Winston series and a fourth coming next fall, I am finally (belatedly) trying to update my author information here. And I thought I'd start off this blog with a story about how the whole Mattie Winston series came to be.
In the late eighties to early nineties I went back to school to get my bachelor's degree and I ended up taking an independent study sociology class. I was working as a hospice nurse at the time and I was both fascinated and fearful of death. So I decided to fashion my study around the sociological aspects and traits of people who work with death and dying on a day-to-day basis. It involved interviewing and spending on-the-job time with homicide detectives, medical examiners, funeral home workers, and hospice employees. The one that worried me the most was the medical examiner because I'd never seen an autopsy done before. I had seen and cared for dead people, and observed several surgeries during my nursing career, but I was afraid the inside of a dead body would smell so bad that I might wuss out and get sick, or worse, faint.
When the time finally came, I steeled myself for my reaction once the incision was made. I mouth breathed for a few seconds before taking my first sniff. Much to my surprise (and relief), the inside of this dead body didn't smell all that different from the inside of a live one.
In the next instant, my writer mind went, "Oh, my, that would make a great opening line for a book!" I tucked it away and saved it for when the moment was right.
It was ten years, three published thrillers, and a move to Wisconsin later before that first line grew into a book. It is the only one of my books written that way; all the others came out of a basic "what if?" scenario and the characters were added in where needed after the plots were developed. But the Mattie Winston series evolved from taking that one first line and figuring out what type of character would think it, and why. Everything else built from there, and it's been one heck of a fun ride for me ever since.
In the late eighties to early nineties I went back to school to get my bachelor's degree and I ended up taking an independent study sociology class. I was working as a hospice nurse at the time and I was both fascinated and fearful of death. So I decided to fashion my study around the sociological aspects and traits of people who work with death and dying on a day-to-day basis. It involved interviewing and spending on-the-job time with homicide detectives, medical examiners, funeral home workers, and hospice employees. The one that worried me the most was the medical examiner because I'd never seen an autopsy done before. I had seen and cared for dead people, and observed several surgeries during my nursing career, but I was afraid the inside of a dead body would smell so bad that I might wuss out and get sick, or worse, faint.
When the time finally came, I steeled myself for my reaction once the incision was made. I mouth breathed for a few seconds before taking my first sniff. Much to my surprise (and relief), the inside of this dead body didn't smell all that different from the inside of a live one.
In the next instant, my writer mind went, "Oh, my, that would make a great opening line for a book!" I tucked it away and saved it for when the moment was right.
It was ten years, three published thrillers, and a move to Wisconsin later before that first line grew into a book. It is the only one of my books written that way; all the others came out of a basic "what if?" scenario and the characters were added in where needed after the plots were developed. But the Mattie Winston series evolved from taking that one first line and figuring out what type of character would think it, and why. Everything else built from there, and it's been one heck of a fun ride for me ever since.
