Devon Ellington's Summer Quartet

CAPE COD, Mass. - June 17, 2014 - PRLog -- (Centerville, MA, June 17, 2014):  Cape-Cod based author Devon Ellington's spending her summer not only writing her upcoming books; she's got four releases from Amber Quill Press between April and August, in four different genres.

   Ellington, already known for her urban fantasy series The Jain Lazarus Adventures (http://hexbreaker.devonellingtonwork.com), releases the first book in a new paranormal mystery series, The Gwen Finnegan Mysteries, TRACKING MEDUSA, published by Amber Quill Press.  The digital version is already out, and the print edition will be available at the end of June.  In TRACKING MEDUSA, archaeologist (and practicing witch) Dr. Gwen Finnegan teams up with the younger historical researcher Justin Yates to find out who murdered Finnegan's lover, a prominent archaeologist obsessed with the goddess Medusa.  Their journey takes them from Manhattan to Lindisfarne to Edinburgh to Greece to Marseilles, pursued by those willing to kill to gain Medusa's power.

         Ellington used to live in Manhattan, and has set sections of the book in the iconic New Your Public Library on 42nd Street and 5th Avenue, and an exciting chase sequence in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  "The staff at the museum were wonderfully understanding when I spent time up there to choreograph it," she laughs.  Two of her plays were produced at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and she knows and loves Edinburgh, the Ayrshire countryside, and Lindisfarne (the isle cut off by the tide) where additional sections of the book are set.  "There's something eerie and inspiring about staying on Lindisfarne when the tide is in, the tourists are gone, and you're cut off from the mainland.  It's one of my favorite places in the world."  Ellington will post photographs she took as part of her research process and posted above her desk as she wrote scenes on the Gwen Finnegan website, http://gwenfinneganmysteries.devonellingtonwork.com.  Additional features will be added to the website in the coming weeks and months, both for TRACKING MEDUSA, and as Ellington works on the next book in the series, THE BALTHAZAAR TREASURE, which has to do with a sunken pirate ship in the Bahamas.  There will be some familiar faces from TRACKING MEDUSA in that book ("ones who survived Medusa," Ellington chuckles) and some interesting new characters.

         Paranormal mystery with a touch of romance not your cup of tea?  How about a good, old-fashioned ghost story?  "Lake Justice" is a short, released in digital format by Amber Quill Press.  When Bronwyn Rowan, a practicing witch, gets talked into chaperoning her godson's trip to Lake Justice, she doesn't expect to find some of his classmates have untapped paranormal talent, or that they'll need to use it to thwart a serial killer and lay to rest the ghosts of the killer's previous victims.

         If that doesn't float your boat, how about a science fiction/horror/western digital short?  "Severance", set to release in the coming days, fits that bill.  When Riker Cain walks into Linn Shek's bar, killing the man sent to assassinate her by her enemy Tarank, she knows her past as Eidolinn Sheekagh, The Annym Roosteyr (dispatcher of souls) has come back to haunt her.  Riker shows her photographs of her former team, who were injected with skin eaters, eaten from the inside out.  Only one member of the team, other than Eidolinn, is still alive -- Jett Masters, the man who defied Eidolinn fifteen years ago on Diran, when they rescued a man during a mission -- Riker Cain.

         Or go one step further, to a full western novella, "Elusive Prayers", another digital release, set in 1852's Tickweed, Missouri.  Brother Joseph shoots Taylor Cabot on the streets of Tickweed, Missouri, when Cabot threatens the widow Eliza Grief and her children.  The Sheriff isn't particularly pleased, but Mick Kane and the local doctor support Joseph's position.

         Brother Joseph wasn't planning to stop in Tickweed.  He's on leave from his monastery in Vermont to take care of a last piece of personal business in Iowa Territory before spending the rest of his life inside the walls.  But now, he's landed smack dab in the middle of a land dispute.

         The protagonist of "Elusive Prayers" is Brother Joseph, a supporting character in the western serial Ellington wrote for two years for Keep It Coming Publications called THE WIDOW'S CHAMBER, whose protagonist, Nora Cavanaugh, was an acquaintance of author Louisa May Alcott (in this fictional world).  Brother Joseph got such strong fan support that he landed his own novella.

         Devon Ellington will participate in the Local Author-Palooza event hosted by Books by the Sea in Osterville for Cape Cod Writers Center authors on June 28, from 1-4 PM at the Osterville Village Library's Summer Festival.  She'll have information on all these releases, along with her Jain Lazarus Adventures books and her paranormal romantic suspense novel set backstage on a Broadway show, ASSUMPTION OF RIGHT, under the Annabel Aidan pseudonym.  Books by the Sea in Osterville will also start carrying Ms. Ellington's print releases this summer. For more information on all her work, visit her blog on the writing life, Ink in My Coffee: http://devonellington.wordpress.com, and her main website, www.devonellingtonwork.com.