My first mystery of 2013 is out. A Ton of Gold was released in early February. The cover is at the right.

A Ton of Gold looks at how an old folk tale can affect the lives of innocent people today. Crystal Moore stands on the brink of losing everything-her only family, her self esteem and her career.

Because of a long-forgotten folktale, murders, arson, kidnapping, and firebombs besiege Crystal. And while she struggles to sort out the mystery, the man who nearly destroyed her emotionally reappears. This time, he can end her career.

Crystal will need all the help she can get from a former bull rider, her street-wise housemate and Crystal's feisty grandmother.

A Ton of Gold will be available shortly at bookstores, but it's on Amazon right now. Click here for paperback, or here for Kindle. It's also available from the publisher Oak Tree Press by clicking here.

Character: The Heartbeat of the Novel is a non-fiction book which will help a writer improve the development of characters for a novel. With many examples and exercises, it guides the reader along the path to creating memorable characters.

Released from Oak Tree Press in March, 2013, it is available on Amazon by clicking here.

My first book released in 2012 was Cleansed By Fire, in both paperback and in Kindle editions. You can see the cover here, but on Amazon, you can even look inside. I'm very pleased with both editions, although the cover on Kindle it is only in black and white.

Cleansed by Fire is a murder mystery, and is propelled by church burnings. A small east Texas town is in turmoil as two churches are burned by arsonists within a ten day period. Father Frank learns that another church will be torched, but he hears this in the confessional, so he can't tell anybody, not even the police. He knows he can't sit still and let another church burn, so he has to try to find out who is behind this, why are they doing it, and which church is in danger.

He finds there are a number of people he can consider as suspects: the new man in town who seems to be connected to the drug scene; the young man, obviously into drugs; the burly man who burns a paper cross to taunt Father Frank and suggests maybe the churches deserve what they got.

And as he investigates, he becomes a target himself. Can he save another church? Can he even keep himself alive?

To read an independent review of Cleansed by Fire click here.

To read Chapter 1, just click on the "Chapter 1" button on the upper left. To view a book trailer on Cleansed by Fire, click here.

Cleansed by Fire is out and available from Amazon in paperback by clicking here, or by clicking on the "order" button on the upper left of this page. For a Kindle edition, click here .

The other book published in 2012 is Murder a Cappella .

To see a book trailer on
Murder a Cappella, click here.

It's a mystery, set during the International Competition of the Sweet Adelines (women who sing barbershop harmony). James wrote this book with one of his daughters, who has sung with the Sweet Adelines. Her name is Diane Bailey and she is an accomplished writer with many books published, primarily non-fiction. Click on the "Links" button to the left and visit her website.