Nightwalker out, Capt Lacey to come

Nightwalker, the fourth book in my Stormwalker saga (written as Allyson James) has at last been released! This means that I can now turn to Captain Lacey (and I am raring to go).

Mystery fans might enjoy Nightwalker, which is an action-adventure / mystery with a paranormal touch set in the Southwestern United States, in and around the Navajo Nation.

Blurb for this installment:

Stormwalker Janet Begay, proprietor of the Crossroads Hotel, a place where the paranormal stop for a safe night’s rest, discovers the hard way that a slayer is targeting Ansel, a Nightwalker who’s become a more-or-less permanent resident.

When Janet and her boyfriend Mick intervene to save Ansel’s un-life, they find that the attack is the beginning of an oncoming storm. Janet has her hands full already with the upcoming marriage of her father, her crazy half-sister, the return of a woman who claims to be Coyote’s wife, a couple dragons on her back, and her worry about Mick, who’s behaving strangely again.

But it seems that everyone is after Ansel, who fears he killed the woman he loves in a Nightwalker frenzy. Janet must choose between protecting Ansel, or facing the most powerful magical beings in the world, who are willing to destroy Janet, Mick, her hotel, and everyone she cares about to get to Ansel and his secrets.

This book will be available in all e-formats and in print. I will post links as they become available.

Kindle:
http://www.amazon.com/Nightwalker-Stormwalker-ebook/dp/B009FFGEO2/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1348408441&sr=8-4&keywords=allyson+james+nightwalker

Smashwords (all formats): https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/238710

On to Disappearance in Drury Lane!

Firewalker (Book 2 of Stormwalker) Out, and Captain Lacey

I'm excited to annouce the release of Firewalker, Book 2 of the Stormwalker series done under my Allyson James persona. This series is set in the American Southwest and follows Janet Begay, a half-Navajo Stormwalker who solves crimes with her sidekick biker boyfriend, and a cast of colorful characters (including a bisexual magic mirror). I have a page dedicated to this series: http://www.allysonjames.com/stormwalker.html

For reasons I don't understand, the publisher has labeled these books romance, but they are not romance. I wrote them to be pretty straightforward urban fantasy/mystery. So if you enjoy Tony Hillerman, Charlaine Harris, or Nevada Barr, please give Stormwalker a look.

Captain Lacey mysteries: I am in the process of republishing the Captain Lacey novels on Kindle. My timetable is to have book one up by Feb, and the others to follow each month. (I have a gorgeous new cover for Hanover Square, which I will post as release time nears).

I am doing this with an eye to continuing the series. This series pretty much got dumped by the publisher, and I've been struggling to revive it ever since. It's been a hard row to hoe, and I appreciate the ongoing supportive messages about the books. I will get Book 7 and more out there one way or the other! Stay tuned.

Ashley Gardner

Stormwalker is out!

My mystery/fantasy series starring a Navajo heroine who can channel the power of storms (Stormwalker, by Allyson James), is out this week from Berkley. It's available in Wal-Mart, chain bookstores, indie bookstores, and in ebook at Sony and Barnes and Noble (among others).

More about the series, plus an excerpt is here:

http://www.allysonjames.com/stormwalker.html

Enjoy! Book 2, Firewalker, will be out in November.

Updates for Jan 2010

Hi all: The good news is that my agent and I are again talking about where to take the Lacey mystery series. We're kicking around ideas. We're slow because I'm contracted at Berkley now for four more romances and three urban fantasies. A lot to write!

The Stormwalker series will lean more toward the mystery side: Think Jim Butcher or Charlaine Harris meets Tony Hillerman.

More information on that series can be found at the series page: http://www.allysonjames.com/stormwalker.html

I will be posting a first chapter there soon. The book is out in May.

I am excited by what my agent and I are discussing, and am more hopeful about the Lacey series than I have been. I'll keep you posted.

Stormwalker

Right now I'm writing a fantasy/mystery/romance set in the Southwest U.S., a place I've lived for more than 20 years. (Stormwalker by Allyson James, Berkley, probably May 2010). The heroine is a young Navajo woman who makes her living as a photographer but also helps people in supernatural jams (locating missing persons, solving cold case murders).

I set the book in north central and northeastern Arizona, inventing a little town called Magellan, in small fictional Hopi County.

I travel frequently in this area and today was going over some of my "atmosphere" photos. I've set the fictional town of Magellan south of Winslow out in rolling desert hills. The elevation here is about 6000 feet, which means not so much cactus as scrubby juniper and cottonwoods (near water), and plenty of grasses. The rocks are mostly sandstone, and sudden washes and little canyons cut through seemingly flat land.

I was lucky enough last time I was there to drive out while storms built in the west and south. My heroine is a "Stormwalker" (which I invented), a person whose magic is tied to storms. She's very powerful when it's storming, not so much on a clear sunny day.

I like the area because at certain points, you can see miles upon miles in all directions.

Looking north and east to the painted desert and Navajo Nation.

Looking west from the same spot to the San Francisco peaks (highest point 12,000 feet), the traditional western boundary of Navajo lands and one of the four sacred mountains. The city of Flagstaff is in the foothills of this mountain range.

I'm working hard to get this book finished and thought I'd give you a taste of the landscape while I write.