Authorpreneur Dashboard – Kate George
Moonlighting in Vermont
Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
MOONLIGHTING IN VERMONT: Sometimes a girl just has to get dirty TROUBLE FOLLOWS SOME WOMEN… Bella Bree MacGowan is your average country girl. She works two jobs to support her farm and the menagerie of stray animals that accumulate there; she’s almost always covered in mud; and everyone in her small town of South Royalton, Vermont, feels free to comment on everything from her love life ("That Jim just isn't right for you!") to her expired inspection sticker ("Better get that car looked at!"). Is there any such thing as privacy anymore? … BUT IT FELL IN LOVE WITH BREE MACGOWAN. When Bree finds a dead body at the five-star resort where she moonlights as a maid, her life careens out of control. Her lawyer boyfriend, Jim, dumps her; the surly and sensual investigating officer, Lieutenant Miles Brooks, keeps giving her the beady eyeball; and a reporter at the paper where she works names Bree as the primary suspect in the murder! Can your average hard-working country girl prove her innocence, rein in a love life gone wild, and maintain her sanity all at the same time?
Book Bubbles from Moonlighting in Vermont
Meet Bree MacGowan
Bree does her best to do the right thing, she just is a little off center about what the right thing might be. What do I mean by that? Well faced with a choice to do what I would really like to do and what society dictates, I do what society dictates. Bree is much more likely to do what she'd really like to do. What she really likes to do when faced with a dead body is NOT throw up.
What an awful name for a hotel!
Yes, I know. Whispering Birches is a really bad name. But it's only slightly worse than the name the real hotel has!
The Five Star Hotel
Whispering Birches is based on a real hotel. I worked there evenings as a turn-down housekeeper. We'd turn down the beds, place treats on the bed side tables, tidy the bathrooms. Sometimes more than that. It doesn't seem difficult, does it? However, we were not to been seen or heard. If we ran into a guest we were not to speak unless spoken to. The secret passages made it possible for us to move through the main houses like house elves. The secret closets (small rooms really) made it possible for us to enter the cottages without using the front doors. We worked during dinner. If a guest was eating in instead of going to the dining room we'd wait in the closet until the food service people arrived. We'd come out while the food was being prepared and whip through the room getting it ready for the evening. (I say room, but they were really little houses.) Most guests never knew there were secret rooms in their cottages, or secret passages in the houses, but if they did order room service they were often amazed or thrilled by the possibilities presented by a secret room.
California Schemin'
Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
CALIFORNIA SCHEMIN’ She's on a killer vacation. Finding one dead body is unlucky. Finding two means you’re Bella Bree MacGowan. Most people can relax by an idyllic riverside without fishing a dead body out of the water; Bree MacGowan is not most people. And as luck would have it, it's not just any old corpse she's tripped over this time. It's the late wife of Senator R. Carl Wallace, a paragon of upstanding American citizenship to anyone who looks… unless they look too closely. Which is, of course, exactly what Bree does, and what she finds is definitely more trouble than she bargained for. Where power and murder collide, danger follows, and Bree soon finds herself the target of break-ins, vandalism and kidnapping, all at the hands of the dubious Senator who insists that she identify two criminals she’s never seen before as the people who killed his wife. Now Bree has to save herself and the ones she loves from a conspiracy where the bad guys look good, the good guys look bad, and nothing is as it seems…
Book Bubbles from California Schemin'
Sacramento - My Home Town
I was born in Sacramento and grew up on a cattle ranch about half an hour north. I love that region of the country with all my heart, but that didn't stop me from making changes where I needed to. Story is everything, at least when you write them for a living. One of my clearest memories as sixteen year old was watching the speedometer spike at 125 mph while riding in a car across the Forest Hill Bridge. My mother would have had a fit if she had known. I do apologize to the proud citizens of that part of California for the changes to their landscape.
Don't Tell My Kids
I grew up in Auburn, California, not terribly far from the Forest Hill Bridge. One of my most vivid memories is being in a car full of teenage kids watching the speedometer inch over the 125 mark as we sped across the bridge. It was a huge scary thrill. I hate to think what might have become of us if the driver lost control. But back then? I was fearless and immortal.
Crazy Little Thing Called Dead
Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
CRAZY LITTLE THING CALLED DEAD Vermont: Come for the maple syrup… stay for the murder Bree MacGowan is back… and in just as much trouble as ever! It takes a lot to shock Bella Bree MacGowan these days, but that's what happens when she goes to Planet Hair and discovers a dead guy with diapers covering the bullet wound that killed him, and not a drop of blood anywhere. She'd be happy to let the cops handle this one—after all, finding three dead bodies in the space of a year is enough for any girl—but when the South Royalton Weekly starts to topple, Bree knows how to save it (and her job): Get the scoop on the investigation. But there's no scoop if you wait around for the police to drop stale information, so Bree takes things into her own hands... while bumping heads with sexy, stubborn federal agent Richard Hambecker. Can she get the goods and get out without getting in over her head? Well, crazier things have happened… and they usually happen to Bree.
Book Bubbles from Crazy Little Thing Called Dead
Bree Broken Beyond Repair
I've gotten a lot of criticism for the death of the dogs and Annabelle, but what else could bring Bree to this point? She's experiencing a break in character here, she's gone far beyond her normal moral compass. It takes a major event to shift a person that far. What would it take to push you to take action that is that far out of character?
Dogs Are Her Life
Bree's dogs are her family. Sure she's got parents and brothers, but she lives with her dogs. Without the dogs this story would never have come to resolution. There some dark stuff in this story, but's it's Brees connection with her dogs that makes it all work. Be warned, some people are going to hate me for what happens.
Food
Food is a theme throughout Crazy Little Thing Called Dead. Bree loves her food, it goes with her everywhere. It's her comfort and her sustenance. She loves flavor. And junk food. Chocolate is the best.
The Gypsy RV
If I was ever to own a RV this is the interior I would have, full of color and rich with textures and fabric. In fact, because I don't have a need to keep my whereabouts a secret, the outside of my RV would be colorful too. If it was practical I would have a real gypsy caravan pulled by a big old draft horse. I could park it in my field and use it as a writing studio. Wouldn't that be cool? Well I think so!
Bohemian-Catastrophe
Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
Bohemian Catastrophe: Stuck on a roller coaster caught in a landslide Bohemian Catastrophe is a cross between The Amazing Race and Fear Factor. Think Gilmore Girls meets Die Hard on a treasure hunt across America with Physical Challenges like Survivor - only more dangerous - and funny because it's Bree MacGowan. The only people Bree likes better than her dogs are her brothers, so when kid brother Lock calls in a favor, Bree is all over that. Except things get complicated. Who would want to steal a huppah from the back of her pick up? And why hold her dog hostage? And most importantly, will Special Agent Richard Hambecker be able to keep a handle on the situation? Finding the answers takes Bree, Hambecker and Special Agent Marshall Moore across and even out of the country on a treasure hunt of epic proportions. Kate George says, "I drew on my background as both a backwoods Vermonter and, in a previous life, a California girl, and combined that with my love of caper comedies and mysteries. So you get maple syrup and murder, dogs and drugs, Sex and scandal, pizza and pratfalls, mixed up with mirth and mayhem."
Book Bubbles from Bohemian-Catastrophe
On Driving RVs
Heck, I run over curbs in my RAV4. I'd cut Bree some slack for taking a couple in a parking lot. It's not like she hit the gray sedan.
Why Not a Hedgehog
And six animals isn't? I really don't think one little hedgehog would have made that much difference, Bree. After all, you've got a skunk in there, don't you?
Your Average Bree
Brothers. They can be so annoying. I should know. I've got two.
