Happy September! This is a busy time of year for me. The garden is in full swing with tomatoes, eggplants, beans, and herbs. I also released book 4 in my Rowan O’Donnell mystery, Exposure. Thanks to everyone who has already bought a copy! (Available as an ebook and in paper at Amazon).

I’m also at Bouchercon San Diego right now. This world mystery convention is so much fun. I get to meet writers I admire and new readers of my own books.

This year is super exciting because I’m on a panel tomorrow called Inhuman: Vampires, Werewolves or other Supernatural Happenings. Who doesn’t love a genre blend of fantasy and mystery?

I get to talk about my Private Investigator Rye Gannon who learns she can sense magical objects and is hired by a secret society to find and secure these objects for them. I have a collections of short stories that I’ll be talking about, and Book 1 in the series, The Water in Our Blood, will be released October 1 and is available for pre-order right now as an ebook (there will be print books also on 10/1).

In addition to talking about my work, the best part of the panel is I get to meet some great writers: Heather Graham (moderator), Charlaine Harris (!), Kerry Schafer, and Leigh Perry.

So, in celebration of this event, the first short story in the P.I. Rye Gannon short story collection, The Empress Josephine’s Opal, is available to read for free below for one week.

If you’d like to support me, you can purchase the book, Mysteries, Magic, and the God of Secrets, by clicking the link.

The pre-order link for The Water in Our Blood is here.

And, if you haven’t yet purchased Exposure: A Rowan O’Donnell Mystery, click this link here.

Thank you! and enjoy the story.

The Empress Josephine’s Opal

by Heather Ormsby

This story is no longer available here for free but remains for sale as part of the collection, Mysteries, Magic, and the God of Secrets, at the link above.