Delectable Digital Delights for the Holidays

Dec. 5, 2012 - PRLog -- (Cape Cod, MA) -- December 5, 2012:  Cape Cod-based author Devon Ellington released a trio of holiday-themed fiction shorts, having fun with Yuletide themes, and providing an inexpensive introduction to her other work, perfect for reading on-the-go during this busy season.
   Ellington, who spent over 20 years working backstage on Broadway and in film and theatre production, moved to Cape Cod in November of 2010 to write full-time, and was recently elected to the Board of Directors of the Cape Cod Writers Center.  She publishes under a half a dozen names in fiction and non-fiction, in addition to teaching online and in-person, and providing freelance writing and editing services for an international client base.
   Two of the three digital shorts are under the Devon Ellington name and feature her popular Nina Bell.  Nina made her debut in the Keep it Coming serial “Tapestry”, which ran from 2004-2006, consisting of two one-thousand-word episodes per week.  Set in New York City’s East Village of the 1990s, on the cusp of gentrification and before 9/11, these comic mysteries with a gritty undertone have college graduate Nina trying to navigate a life in the arts in New York City while murder, mayhem, and a complicated love life to rival Stephanie Plum’s.  In the novella Too Much Mistletoe ($1.99) , she juggles too many men who want her under the mistletoe with trying to track down her missing college roommate, getting a shot of inspiration in front of The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s famed Angel Tree.   In “Tumble” ($1.25), Nina discovers the body of a theatre colleague in the dryer, and realizes it has to be someone connected to their shows.  But can she track down the killer before she’s the next victim, and is the handsome actor courting her a suspect?
   Excerpts and buy links for both of these are available at www.devonellingtonwork.com/ninabell.html.
   “I’ve always loved Nina, and her fans have asked for years when I’m bringing her back,” says Ellington.  “While she’s very much her own person, the environment in that time is one that helped shape my theatre career, and I miss a lot of the places that have come and gone since that time of working hard and playing harder.”  Is there a possibility that the Nina Bell series will return in novel form?  “Well,” Ellington winks, “keep an eye out around April 1.  That would be a fitting day for Nina to make a return.”
   Under the Ava Dunne name, Ellington’s work focuses more on the romance and comedy side than the mystery side.  “Just Jump in and Fly”, originally written several years ago as a gift for family and friends, was revised and now released as a holiday short (for only 99 cents).  Samantha Wright has a problem.  The very attractive Kris Teague and his eight not-so-tiny reindeer crash-landed in her driveway.  Kris’s Uncle Nick is THAT Nick, and they need her help turning back the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse not only to save Christmas, but save the world.  And then Samantha decides she wants Famine’s horse.  The story takes a fresh approach to many of the myths around the yuletide season and beyond.  “There may be a new Samantha Wright/Kris Teague tale coming out around February 1, for Imbolc,” Ellington hints in her Ava Dunne persona.  “Their adventures are just starting.”
   Excerpts and buy links for “Just Jump in and Fly” are available at:  www.devonellingtonwork.com/avadunne.html.
   All three digital downloads are available as PDFs on Payloadz, and will shortly be available in multiple formats from Smashwords.
   Another Ava Dunne romantic comedy/mystery, “That Man in Tights” will release over the next few weeks, followed by a fantasy/steampunk Devon Ellington by-lined short “The Ramsey Chase”, a Cornelia True and Roman Gray Adventure.  When fixer Roman Gray, from the future (Newest Yorkke, to be exact), lands naked in Cornelia True’s petunia patch due to a glitch in his Device, life in Bodwin’s Ferry may never be the same. A non-fiction release, Creative Stimulus, to help writers strengthen their work, will be released in mid-January, followed by a series of “Topic Workbooks” based on Ellington’s online seminars.
   Not to be left out, a Jain Lazarus short called “First Feet” will be available for free download from the Winter Solstice (December 21) through Twelfth Night (January 6).  HEX BREAKER, the first Jain Lazarus Adventure, released digitally earlier this year from Solstice Publishing, and will soon be out in print.  The second Jain Lazarus Adventure, OLD-FASHIONED DETECTIVE WORK, will be digitally released on March 4, 2013; the third book in the series, CRAVE THE HUNT, will be at the publisher shortly.  Excerpts and information on those tales can be found on the Jain Lazarus site, http://hexbreaker.devonellingtonwork.com. For those who love paranormal romantic suspense and want to know what it’s like to work backstage on Broadway, ASSUMPTION OF RIGHT (under the Annabel Aidan name) is available in print and digitally from Champagne Books, with excerpts and buy links at: www.devonellingtowork.com/annabeldaidan.html.  As always, the ups and downs of the writing life are found on Ellington’s blog, the popular Ink in My Coffee.