It is hot, hot, hot. A trip to the mountains in early July was a nice break from the hot city. In my garden the tomatoes, basil, and eggplant are loving the heat. The lettuce, less so – but I have lots of chard in the garden for summer greens.

To cool off, and also to celebrate the upcoming Bouchercon in San Diego (at which I will be on a panel with the wonderful Charlaine Harris, Kerry Schafer, Leigh Perry, and Sheri Lewis Wohl – moderated by Heather Graham), I am sharing my short story Spirit of the Winter Woods.

I wrote this story as a submission for the Minneapolis Bouchercon anthology. It wasn’t selected, but it was later published on-line with Mystery Tribune. (I also thought of this story after seeing an episode in Season 2 of the series Joe Pickett, based on the books by C J Box. You’ll see why if you’ve watched the series and continue reading).

If you’d like to support this author, or just want to own the story, you can purchase the ebook here. It will be available on this website for free for one week. So, without further ado…