Have you joined my mailing list? Well, if not, now is the time! Everyone who adds themselves to my mailing list by April 30 will be entered to be one of an as-yet-undetermined number of people who will receive a free autographed copy of my upcoming new book, Throw the First Stone: A Sam and Meg Stone Mystery! If you’re already on my list, don’t worry–you’re already entered in the drawing. Just fill in the above form to be added. And even if you don’t win a free book, you’ll get early access to pre-order the book at a members only discount price.

Hi everyone! I’m author JD Stephens. I have published, and then un-published five books called the Shalan Adventures. I am in process of starting a new series called the Sam and Meg Stone Mysteries. My intent is for that to be an ongoing series. I have two full novels in the series almost complete, with one that should be published by the fall of 2025. I’m also working hard and fast on a prequel novella that tells a story from Sam’s younger years before he met his beloved Meg. It’s entitled Sam Stone Came Home, and it’s about the first case Sam and his cop buddy Cal ever worked together. It involves the appearance of a ghostly hound on Blennerhassett Island, near Parkersburg, West Virginia, in the days leading up to the biggest tourist event of the year on the island. It should be great fun, but the only way to access it will be by joining my mailing list. So, if you haven’t already done that, just scroll up to the top of this page and enter your email address.

I am also embarking on two other writing projects, one a series of cozies and another a book based on/inspired by my blog. The cozies will be set in a small fictional town in West Virginia called Angel Run and will star Jamie and Pip Halloran, both of whom have other jobs, but find themselves solving murders way more often than they like.

To learn more about me and my writing, take a look at my blog, which you’ll find by clicking on the “My Train of Thought” tab. This week’s post is about my new writing project and my plans and questions about it. I’m seriously looking for input on that.

For my other new project, I am reading back through my blog and evaluating whether I have sufficient material to put them together in a book, or maybe two. I seem to have gone in two directions over the years, for the most part: writing tips and life tips/observations. Not sure either merits an entire book, but not sure yet how to tie them together. For the time being, I’m reading and putting old posts into one of three categories: writing, life, and neither. That last one is a gentle word for rejected.

Below are some pictures from our recent trip to Canaan Valley. We wandered around Davis and Thomas, ate at a really quirky but good restaurant named Sirianni’s, took a very long drive to and very short hike in Dolly Sods, and stopped at Blackwater Falls on the way out of town. In between, we spent some quality time just enjoying doing nothing with each other.

Joe