Cozy Wednesday with Richard Audry – Author of King Harald’s Snow Job #GuestPost / #Review / #Giveaway

Welcome to Cozy Wednesday!

I am thrilled to welcome Richard back to Escape With Dollycas today and be the 1st stop on his Great Escapes Tour! 

My Many Merrie Christmases
by Richard Audry

In my newest mystery, Andy Skyberg and his crime-sniffing pooch King Harald end up snowbound at a resort that’s hosting a Holiday Faire. I had fun creating the list of vendors, packing their booths with tempting foodstuffs and merchandise for holiday giftgiving. With my head so much into Christmas festivities, I did some timetripping back to my younger holiday seasons.

My mother Merrie has been gone for quite a while. But I catch myself thinking about her almost every day. She was a great mother, a super wife (she and my dad were head-over-heels from beginning to end), a nurse anesthetist, and a stalwart friend to everyone she cared about. A fun, smart, classy lady who liked her smokes and her Martinis at the end of a busy day. For the most part, she didn’t have any hobbies. But there was one exception.

Merrie was a Christmas tree nut. She positively adored all the fuss and trappings that went with putting up a ceiling-scraping pine, spruce, or fir. And from my very earliest memories of her, I recall her ardently shopping for pretty and colorful decorations—from tinsel and those old classic Polish bulbs to novelty figures and commemorative decorations. She wouldn’t stop until the tree was pretty much totally encrusted with sparkly, glinty, colorful stuff.

A lot of the decorations she put up were, of course, commercial products. She was on the prowl all year round for Christmas tree ornaments in stores and catalogs. And every succeeding holiday season another dozen or so items would find their way onto the tree. When I was a teenager and older, I added to the trove by gifting her with gold-plated and silver Metropolitan Museum of Art snowflakes and stars. That became an annual tradition.

But the decorations she most treasured were the ones with personal meaning. My dad’s red bell that he bought when he was a kid. My pathetic little cardboard Christmas tree that I made in first or second grade.

Toward the end of her life, Merrie’s tree was truly a spectacular sight. I’m not simply being a loyal son when I say that I’ve rarely seen a more gorgeous Christmas tree. The photo here is of the decorations she (mostly) acquired.

After she was gone, the family tree was transferred from the apartment where she and my Dad had lived to our new house. For a couple of decades, my wife and I hauled out the ornament boxes in early December, assembled the artificial tree, and spent a few hours trimming it. Often, we’d invite friends or family to help, capping off the evening with a nice supper and holiday music.

Then one year my wife and I were going through an over-busy and over-stressed period and decided not to put the tree up—opting for a few choice decorations around the living room. And thus we dropped the Christmas tree ball, so to speak. We eventually sold the artificial tree at a yard sale, and stashed the ornament boxes away.

But lately, my Merrie’s old decorations, sitting in two big red boxes in the basement, seem to be calling to us. Maybe this year we’ll find a nice fir or spruce and adorn the branches with all of those wonderful ornaments my mother loved so much. We’ll have ourselves a “Merrie” Christmas once again.

~Richard

What a wonderful post Richard!!

Now let me tell you about his latest King Harald mystery! 

 

 

It’s early December and Andy Skyberg is itching to blow town for a weekend of holiday cheer with old friends—including a date with an attractive divorcée who thinks he’s hot.

But first, Aunt Bev needs a teensy bit of help. She’s managing the Girls’ Weekend Out event at the Beaver Tail Resort and could use some extra muscle. Andy figures he can spare a few hours before hitting the road.

Mother Nature, though, has other plans. A giant blizzard makes an unexpected turn. Andy and his pooch King Harald find themselves snowbound—in a hotel full of hard-partying women, stranded travelers, a hockey team, a man-eating novelist, a belligerent blogger, and one violent, devious jewel thief.

Before you know it, man and mutt are up to their noses in another case. It’s a winter wonderland of fast-paced fun and merry madness, as the sleuthing duo dig out from King Harald’s Snow Job.

About The Author –

Richard Audry is the pen name of D. R. Martin. In addition to his career as a journalist and copywriter, D. R. has written a dozen books, both fiction and non-fiction. His current projects include a fantasy adventure trilogy, a canine cozy mystery series, and historical mysteries set at the turn of the last century.

Author Links

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/richardaudryauthor/

Webpage – http://drmartinbooks.com/

Purchase Links:

Amazon  B&N 

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TOUR PARTICIPANTS Please visit all the stops.

November 1 – Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book – COZY WEDNESDAY
November 2 –  Celticlady’s Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
November 3 – Island Confidential – INTERVIEW
November 4 – A Holland Reads – GUEST POST
November 5 – Cozy Up With Kathy – REVIEW
November 6 – Back Porchervations – REVIEW
November 6 –  Queen of All She Reads  – SPOTLIGHT
November 6 –  View from the Birdhouse – SPOTLIGHT
November 7 – Reviews by Martha’s Bookshelf – REVIEW
November 7 – Brooke Blogs – SPOTLIGHT
November 8 – FUONLYKNEW – REVIEW
November 8 – Laura’s Interests – SPOTLIGHT
November 9 – A Blue Million Books – INTERVIEW
November 10 – My Reading Journeys – REVIEW
November 11 – Lisa Ks Book Reviews – REVIEW, INTERVIEW
November 12 – StoreyBook Reviews – GUEST POST

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of this book. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”