Malice Domestic Upcoming

I leave tomorrow for Bethesda, Maryland, and this year's Malice Domestic conference for cozy mystery writers and readers.  I've been going to Malice for several years now and really enjoy it.  Maybe that's because I love writing, and reading, cozy mysteries! 

The panel I'll be on this year is Murder with a Little Education on the Side: Mysteries that Tackle Social Issues.  The social issue I tackle is, of course, pet rescue and how humans deal with animals.  My Pet Rescue Mysteries each have a theme involving pet rescue as their background but my intent is not to hit people over the head with the moral of the story.  Instead, I hope to provide an enjoyable mystery that just happens to involve something important.  So now you know some of what I intend to say on the panel!

This will also be an interesting Malice for me for another reason.  The Pet Rescue Mystery TEACUP TURBULENCE, which was published in January of this year, is the last one scheduled for publication by Berkley Prime Crime.  In fact, I don't have any other books currently scheduled with Berkley.  I've had a great run with them: 9 Kendra Ballantyne, Pet-Sitter Mysteries, plus the 5-book and 1 e-novella Pet Rescue Mystery series.  I'll be joining the Berkley crowd for dinner on Friday night.  And I hope perhaps to write for them again in the future. 

But I'll also be joining the Midnight Ink crowd at the Agatha awards ceremony on Saturday night.  My new Superstition Mystery Series will be published by Midnight Ink, starting with LOST UNDER A LADDER in October of this year.  I'm also working on a second series for my wonderful new publisher, although it's still premature to say much about it.  But both of them, of course, involve dogs.

So this Malice will be special to me in many ways.  Plus, I'll have the opportunity to see and hang out with a lot of fun people with whom I keep in contact over social media during the rest of the year. 

By the way, I'm delighted to repeat that I also have more romances coming up for Harlequin Nocturne and Harlequin Romantic Suspense.  There's no romance presence at Malice except perhaps for panels that happen to address romances in mysteries.  But I will be at the Romance Writers of America National Conference at the end of July to celebrate that aspect of my writing, too. 

Usually, after Malice, I've gone to Pittsburgh both to visit family and to attend the Mystery Lovers Festival in nearby Oakmont, Pennsylvania.  But there won't be any Festival this year.  And my Pittsburgh family is, unfortunately, dwindling.  As a result, no Pittsburgh for me this year. 

So... will I see you at Malice?  If so, what are you especially looking forward to there?