Dallas! What a Trip!

My view from my room at the resort

This year I had the honor of being a vendor at the Blacks in Government National Training Conference in Dallas Texas. What a whirlwind. It started with a three-day road trip where I stopped at the Choctaw Casino and Resort for a couple days and saw some family in town. After a great stay, I made my way into the epic hustle and bustle that is downtown Dallas and to the Sheraton Hotel where this year's conference was hosted.  I didn't have any time to rest though as that night I met with more family. 20 of my dad's relatives got together at a local Mexican restaurant. Yeah, you read that right 20 of us. I had some downtime but finally, the convention started. For four days I enjoyed meeting people and sharing about my books and my writing journey. I even managed to encourage some people to keep up with their own writing projects. Through the whole trip, a new project started gelling in my mind and in a few weeks I will be starting a new podcast aimed at sharing what I've learned in my ten years of writing.  All I have to do is come up with a title and a new logo. But don't worry, my snoops and sleuths, I still plan on releasing a new season of The Cozy Sleuth come September.

 

Spot posed in front of the Hey Y'all sign
at the Sheraton Hotel

The Year of 10's

Ten is a big number for me this year Snoops and Sleuths! Not only will I be posting my 10th episode of The Cozy Sleuth on Monday, but next month I will be celebrating 10 years on the journey of being an author. It's hard to believe that ten years ago I published my first book. A Space opera called The Alestrion Chronicles: Slaves Redeemed, a story of a girl found in an intergalactic circus who's much more than she first appears and her journey to regain her past and future. Then I moved on to Steampunk and finally have found my place taking elements I've learned on my journey and weaving them into my cozy mysteries. I need to come up with some amazing way to celebrate this big occasion. A give away will be definite, but how it's done I'm not sure yet. Please subscribe to The Cozy Gazette and stay tuned for further details.

New Projects on the Calendar

This summer is going to be an exciting one. I've got Book 2 in my Mystic Ranch Mysteries being looked over by beta readers. I'm writing Book 3. And I'm working on making Book 1 ( Sparx of Suspicion) into an audiobook. Not to mention my podcast The Cozy Sleuth that uploads twice a week. To top everything off I've got to get ready for a convention. I can't wait to share pics of the event with you. 

Sad news in the Gazette

Last week was a hard week my snoops and sleuths. My aunt's husband died suddenly last Thursday. Well I guess it wasn't that sudden, he'd been battling liver cancer, but it looked like things were on an upward swing. Then he got a brain infection.  So if you think of it. have a dish of ice cream on his behalf tonight.

Welcome To The Cozy Gazette

Welcome to the first issue of the Cozy Gazette. I'm LeAnna Shields and I'm an author of two cozy mysteries both are available on Amazon.com. I'm a blogger, and now I have a podcast called The Cozy Sleuth where I'll be reviewing books, eventually interviewing authors, and in general giving my unasked for opinions on all things in the detective and cozy mystery genres. So yeah my life is pretty hectic but we should have fun together. You can find my Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and Anchor. That's me in a nutshell and I hope you'll enjoy following along on my journey. I'll be posting the schedule for the show in the sidebar and at least once a month I look forward to sharing big updates or funny happenings with you here in The Cozy Gazette. Until next time keep Cozy.