Elisabeth Grace Foley

Historical Fiction Author

New Adventures With Mrs. Meade

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A year or so ago, I thought the Mrs. Meade Mysteries series was basically dead in the water. I’d tried to start Book 6, but didn’t get anywhere with it; and though I was determined to write it at some point so I would have two complete volumes of three stories, I had no idea when it might happen. I was resigned to working on other things and just waiting for Mrs. Meade’s next moment to come, even if that ended up being years in the future.

Then, last November, I suddenly started writing Mrs. Meade short stories!

I’d always thought it would be nice to write some short stories for the series, but the ideas for them had just never come. Now, they came. And what’s more, they actually got themselves out onto paper. So far, I’ve written two short stories and released them as free ebooks, and I have ideas for a few more waiting in the wings. It really is fun getting to play around with small adventures for Mrs. Meade and the other residents of Sour Springs, which don’t require the amount of plotting and planning that a novelette or novella does! I’m looking forward to doing more. Meanwhile, you can download the first two for free at your favorite ebook retailer:

Mrs. Meade and the Invisible Lodger

Mrs. Meade and the Invisible Lodger

Mrs. Meade’s landlady has an unnerving problem: her new lodger doesn’t seem to exist! No one in Sour Springs besides Mrs. Henney has ever seen him—so where does he go when he leaves the house every morning? The obvious solution is to lay the question before Mrs. Meade.

This is a stand-alone short story, which can be enjoyed in any order with the Mrs. Meade Mysteries or by readers new to the series.

Kindle | Kobo | Smashwords

 

Mrs. Meade and the Schoolboy Prank

When the Wellmans receive a letter from their son’s boarding-school informing them that Allen has been accused of stealing from a classmate, they promptly head for Denver to investigate. The situation looks bad, since almost the whole rest of the school have perfect alibis. It’s fortunate that Mrs. Wellman thought to bring along her friend Mrs. Meade to see if she can spot the solution…

This stand-alone short story can be enjoyed in any order with the rest of the Mrs. Meade Mysteries, but does feature characters introduced in Book 5, The American Pony.

Kindle | Kobo | Smashwords

 

Small Snippets

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When I paused recently to take stock of what I’d written this year, I was surprised—as I often am when I look back over a few months’ work instead of focusing on how much I am accomplishing (or not accomplishing) in the day-to-day of the present. I admit, the first three-quarters of the year were tough going, but I did make inches of progress here and there; and October was a good month indeed. Once again I’ve racked up more words on short story projects than on any of my novels-in-progress, but I don’t really mind. I’m very happy with several of these stories, and I’m now looking at releasing another Western collection sooner rather than later. And hopefully the bit of momentum I’ve been gaining will spill over onto one of those “big” projects at the right time.

Meanwhile…we have snippets! For the first time in ages! Most of these are from the aforementioned Western short stories, plus a tiny taste of a Mrs. Meade short story which you’ll be reading in its entirety even sooner…

Dell Paget had not said a word. He moved between the men without looking at them, seemingly unconscious of the threatening attitude that radiated from them, and stood staring down at the calf, which had ceased to struggle and lay there with slightly heaving sides, raising its head every once in a while and letting it fall back with a thump of its muzzle in the dust. There was a freshly burned brand on its flank—a little crude as might be expected of one done with a straight iron, but a perfectly legible Paget mark.

*

“You’ve got an idea,” said McCreath. “I can see it running round inside of you. What’s up, Giff?”

“I’ve got a hunch,” said Gifford. “It’s a long hunch, but I’ve got to play it, because I don’t see any other way out of this. I’m going out for a while. Owen, you think anybody’ll try to scare up trouble here tonight?”

“Not without my say-so.”

“Well, then don’t say so. I’ll be back before dark if I can. But if I don’t make it back till morning, just remember I voted for you last election, and I’ll be sorely disappointed if you let any unauthorized persons get in this jail when they shouldn’t.”

~ “The Smoking Iron”

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“Outlaw Fever” now available in paperback!

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For some time it has irked me a little that there was no physical copy of Outlaw Fever in print. The ebook was a bit of a spontaneous production, originally compiled to be a newsletter-subscriber freebie, but since Bridge to Trouble took over that role and Outlaw Fever went on sale as a regular ebook, it’s gotten some lovely reviews and I’m really quite fond of it myself. But until recently I doubted whether it was worth producing a paperback simply because it was so short. (Honestly, I’m still wondering how I ever managed to write such compact short stories as the first four in this collection.) This summer, though, I began thinking of it more seriously, got a few nudges of encouragement in the right direction, and…well, here it is! Outlaw Fever is now available as a little but lively paperback.

The discovery that you can now actually do custom trim sizes through KDP was a major factor in deciding to go for it—unlike my other books, this one is a compact 4×7, basically mass-market paperback size. It’s still an infant of a book as thickness goes, but at least in this size it’s more than a pamphlet! The one drawback is that it isn’t eligible for Expanded Distribution, so it’s currently only available through Amazon. (I’m hoping to one day get set up to sell my paperback copies directly online. But that’s another story.)

What is a bit hilarious is that as I drew up this post, I discovered that the original publication of Outlaw Fever was so spontaneous that I apparently never announced it here on this blog. So if you follow me primarily here and not through other social media, here’s the description of this book you may be hearing of for the first time!

Three men poised on the brink between honesty and crime. A spunky young woman determined to foil claim-jumpers. Christmas Eve among the wolves and the winds. Rebellion by a brother, and betrayal from a friend.
Five short stories of the West and its people.

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What readers have said:

“No writer has ever whisked me so entirely off my feet in so few pages. Every single one of these stories was superbly crafted, emotionally raw, and descriptively compelling. I think I experienced every human emotion in the space of an hour.”

“Some are funny, some are touching, all are deeply human and redolent of the air of the Old West.”

Get your paperback copy!