Today I am so pleased to welcome Nicole Kimberling to Joyfully Jay. Nicole has come to talk to us about her Bellingham Mystery series (which we reviewed here). She has also brought along some copies to give away! Please join me in giving Nicole a big welcome!
Hi, I’m Nicole Kimberling and I’m here today talking about the print release of the first volume of my Bellingham Mystery Series.
For those of you not familiar with this, it’s a series of five novellas, published digitally by Loose Id, now being made available in print by Blind Eye Books’ new contemporary imprint, One Block Empire.
The stories star Peter Fontaine, an intrepid, small-town reporter for The Hamster:
In addition to being the city’s most alternative, free weekly paper, The Bellinghamster, usually referred to as just the Hamster, supplied Peter Fontaine with most of his income. Though nowadays he often freelanced for national markets, he felt for Bellingham a strange devotion. He had decided that he could—nay—would make a lifelong project of chronicling the fundamental strangeness in the City of Subdued Excitement.
He would make a portrait of a particular city in a particular time. He would be the first to immortalize a Pacific Northwest town for something other than fictitious vampiric habitation, grunge, or software. His work would make a great monument of drizzle-fed conifers and ferns and moss. It would chronicle whole weeks of winter fog. It would put a hoodie on the back of every right-thinking human being as well as some smaller, less cold-hardy dogs.
Because of his lofty artistic goal, Peter felt justified engaging in a level of nosiness that would have been otherwise indefensible in polite society. He felt that everything that transpired within the Bellingham city limits—in addition to greater Whatcom county—could plausibly be his business.
But it’s really his daydreams that are the star of the series. Fantasy-prone Peter slides in and out of flights of fancy as he solves crimes ranging from the mistreatment of a kitten to the theft of a statue to murder so cold-hearted that the dead guy ends up encased in a snow sculpture.
Peter is in love with Nick Olson: artist, recluse and former military translator. Over the course of five stories the guys meet, solve crimes, adopt a cat and eventually get hitched. They also volunteer at a farmer’s market, attend a snow sculpture festival and crash a fundamentalist Christian “Hell House” on Halloween.
And in spite of all this, they still find time to get down.
I wrote the first Bellingham Mysteries novella because I was trying to impress Josh Lanyon. He’d thrown a contest where the writer of the best story got to be the new partner in MLR’s Partners In Crime anthology.
I didn’t win. I didn’t even meet the contest deadline. (As it turns out, learning to write a mystery is hard.)
But I went ahead and sold the story anyway. As I continued to explore the lives of Peter and Nick I began to develop a deep and abiding love of the cozy mystery. In particular I loved how these mysteries allowed me to fictionalize the real town where I live and immortalize the people who I meet on the street every day. I wanted to show the town as I see it and share the adorable peculiarities of the weirdos who live here.
So in the spirit of sharing, I’m giving away three print copies of The Bellingham Mystery Series, Vol. 1. I will ship these books anywhere in the world so non-Americans don’t be shy, okay?
All you have to do is answer my question in a comment. Here goes: What do you like best about your town?
Bio
Nicole Kimberling lives in Bellingham, Washington with her wife, Dawn Kimberling, two bad cats as well as a wide and diverse variety of invasive and noxious weeds. Her first novel, Turnskin, won the Lambda Literary Award for Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror. She is also the author of the Bellingham Mystery Series.
Giveaway
Nicole has brought along three print copies of the first volume of the Bellingham mysteries to give away to three lucky readers. Just leave a comment at the end of the post to enter. The contest ends on Sunday, July 19th at 11:59 pm EST.
- By entering the giveaway, you’re confirming that you are at least 18 years old.
- Winners will be selected by random number. No purchase necessary to win. The number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning.
- If you win, you must respond to my email within 48 hours or another winner may be chosen. Please make sure that your spam filter allows email from Joyfully Jay.
- Winners may be announced on the blog following the contest. By entering the contest you are agreeing to allow your name to be posted and promoted as the contest winner by Joyfully Jay.
- Prizes will be distributed following the giveaway either by Joyfully Jay or the person/organization donating the prize.
- All book prizes are in electronic format unless otherwise specified.
- By entering you are agreeing to hold Joyfully Jay harmless if the prize or giveaway in some way negatively impacts the winner.
- Readers may only enter once for each contest. Duplicate entries for the same giveaway will be ignored. In the event of technical problems with the blog during the contest, every effort will be made to extend the contest deadline to allow for additional entries.
- Void where prohibited by law.
Count me in, please! Would love a chance to read the first book in this series!
Portland celebrates and rejoices in being weird; one never knows what might happen next (dildos hanging from utility wires over busy streets, a flaming bagpiper on a unicycle, free calls from an old-fashioned phone booth) as well as lots of trees, easy access to both ocean and mountains, and of course Powell’s Books, a serious candidate for the best bookstore in the world.
This looks interesting. Count me in!
The thing I like best about my town is that my husband also lives here!
Thanks for the giveaway.
I can think of worse reasons to write a novel than to impress josh lanyon! Please count me in.
I’ve been a fan of Nicole since Turnskin and would love to win!
I live in a very small town (90.000 habitants) in the northwest of Spain. What I like best of my town is that it is full of Roman remains that we take for granted. We have a Roman wall which surrounds the city centre, and people go there normally to jog or walk their pets… Not realising that they are walking the same path Roman soldiers did 2000 years ago… Isn’t it amazing?
Thank you for the giveaway. I love a good mystery!
We have a museum on the site of the old Works in our town and occasionally we’ll see a traction engine travelling down the road towards the traffic lights.
Thanks for the giveaway 🙂
Sounds like something I’d love to read, thank you for the chance to win.
I live in a small village near the sea it is really quiet and that’s what I love about it, previously I lived in a busy town and life just seemed so rushed. In the summer it gets busy with tourists but come the end of September it quiet again bliss.
It has two related gyms that I can choose a class to take, so more to choose. Thanks for the contest!
A natural reserve that I want to go some day, the most interes thing for me is the comino crespo tree it’s called the vegetable gold.
I love my town since it is small but fairly close to a big city…best of both worlds.
Well, right now I live in the middle of a cornfield, sooo… I gotta say I love the quiet and not worrying about walking around naked with my curtains open. 😉
I live in a small town in southern New Jersey (the Philadelphia end of the state, not NYC). I love that I can be on the beach in about an hour, go skiing in the mountains in the winter, visit the birthplace of America in 20 minutes, make a day trip to NYC to see a Broadway show, have some of the best local produce all spring & summer, etc. I think it sucks that people stereotype all of NJ as the northern part of the state, when I live in an area that has a lot of farmland and open spaces but is still very close to a major city for all of those perks.
I live in a small town surrounded by cities. Beast of both worlds.
I love in the metro area between Dallas & Fort Worth so there are tons of things to see and do. I don’t do a whole lot because I’m always working, but if I wanted to I could. 😉
I live in a smallish town with a peaceful park and some great restaurants that’s also not far from the city and the beach. Thanks for the chance to win!
Sounds like a wonderful read. Thank you for the giveaway chance!
I live in a small town just north of NYC, and the things I like most are the crows. Not a single pigeon anywhere, just the big black birds.
What wonderful replies! Thank you so much, everyone. 🙂
I live in a small town in central Jersey. I know everyone makes fun of Jersey, or thinks we’re all like those people on Jersey Shore, but most of us are nothing like that. Hamilton has a fairly large population, but we aren’t just a suburb. We’ve farms where one can stop at a roadside stand and buy fresh fruit and vegetables, parks where festivals and fireworks are held all throughout the year, and are located smack dab between New York City and Philadelphia. We’re also known for Thee Grounds For Sculpture. Driving through town, one can come across all types of sculptures tucked here and there—everything from realistic figures to abstracts. I love my town, and no matter how many times I move away, I always find myself back here.
Peter sounds like a hero I’d adore! Anyway, my town has an unassuming but strong art scene and amazing Mexican food!
First, thank you for sharing with us. I haven’t heard of these stories before, and they sound great. As to your question, I honestly love how much of a big city we are with all the attendant amenities, but we’ve got these great pockets of nature in the heart where we can get away with not too much effort.