Category: <span>Janet Watson Chronicles</span>

Holiday Gifts (aka, Shameless Self Promotion)

Looking for holiday gifts for family and friends? Shopping for yourself? Consider a few of my books…

Passion Play

Epic fantasy. Magic. Multiple lives. My River of Souls stories include not only the eponymous trilogy itself, but also the prequel duology Mage and Empire, as well as several related shorter works, Thief of War, River of Souls, and Nocturnall.

Therez Zhalina is the daughter of one of Melnek’s most prominent merchants. Hers is a life of wealth and privilege, and she knows her duty—to marry well and to the family’s advantage. But when Therez meets the much older man her father chose, she realizes he is far crueler than her father could ever be.

She decides to run. This choice will change her life forever.

A Study in Honor

Science fiction. Political thriller. No Unnecessary Men. The Janet Watson Chronicles.

Set in a near future Washington, D.C., a clever, incisive, and fresh feminist twist on a classic literary icon—Sherlock Holmes—in which Dr. Janet Watson and covert agent Sara Holmes will use espionage, advanced technology, and the power of deduction to unmask a murderer targeting Civil War veterans.

“Readers who pick this up for the novelty of Watson and Holmes as black women will be impressed by how well O’Dell realizes them as full, rich characters. This is a real treat for fans of Conan Doyle and SF mysteries.” — Publishers Weekly

The Time Roads

Alternate history. The Time Roads is a series of linked novellas about mathematics, murder, and time.

As the young queen Áine Lasairíona Devereaux takes the throne, Europe hovers on the brink of war. In a series of braided stories, Claire O’Dell has created a tale about a queen who seeks to guard her kingdom, and the brilliant Éireann scientists who strive to conquer the nature of time.

“Different and cunning, The Time Roads serves up history too magical, too thoughtful, and too explosive to be dubbed merely ‘alternate.’” —Cherie Priest, author of The Clockwork Century series

Happy 4th, Our World is on Fire

It feels as though we are living in the latter days of the world. Unfortunately, we don’t have Crowley and Aziraphale to take on the bad guys. Elections this year will matter more than ever, but we need more than a few elections—we need to reform our country from the ground up. Universal healthcare. Free college education. Automatic voter registration. Stop gerrymandering. Mail-in ballots for everyone. Defund the police.

That would be a good start.

Meanwhile, at home, I have finally started writing again. I finished my Janet Watson story, now titled My Journal of a Plague Year, which you can read on AO3.

Also! I’m making sparkly good progress on my #NotMansfieldPark novella. At least, I think it’s a novella, but it might end up a very short novel. I’ll find out when I reach the end. 🙂

Spring, to which all things respond…

Our state is still in lockdown, though the governor might start phasing out restrictions. It all depends on when and how much the infection rate slows down, and if the rate spikes after that, we go right back into lockdown. Which is only sensible.

But! All is not gloom. Spring weather has finally arrived, and with it the wildlife has emerged. We’ve got baby snapping turtles, spotted turtles, the splendid egret, and an osprey, among others. Spouse has vanished for an afternoon of biking. And me? I’m slowly writing a new Janet Watson story just for fun. Once I’m happy with it, I might post it to AO3.

Speaking of AO3, I already have a vignette about Sara and Janet over there: A Moment of Trust.

Lammy Finalist!

I am absolutely stoked to report that The Hound of Justice is a finalist for the 2020 Lambda Literary Awards, for Best Lesbian Mystery. (Pause for lots of excited squeaking) As you may recall, the first book in the series (A Study in Honor) won the award last year, so I am extra pleased that this second entry made the list.

You can find the complete list of finalists here.

Sara Holmes…

…re-magined as a sprite, by the lovely and talented A. C. Adams. You can buy them one coffee for a sprite version of yourself, or three coffees for a sprite version of your character. (See here.)

Sara Holmes, forest sprite

Award Eligibility (2019)

2019 marks the first year where I’ve had two novels released in a single year. Both books are available in both electronic and print form. If you’re reading for awards and need a copy, please let me know.

The Hound of Justice (Harper Voyager, July 2019) is the second book in The Janet Watson Chronicles, set in a near future US divided by a second civil war. The first entry in the series, A Study in Honor, won the Lambda Literary Award for Best Lesbian Mystery. In Hound of Justice, a drone kills fifty people and injures hundreds more, and people speculate on a potential presidential assassination. Holmes and Watson are reunited to unravel a plot that has been concocted by one of the greatest enemies they have ever faced.

“O’Dell movingly portrays a proud woman struggling to regain her professional skills in a country still plagued by racism. Readers will hope this inventive series has a long run.”
— Publishers Weekly (starred review)

A Jewel Bright Sea

A Jewel Bright Sea (Rebel Base Books, September 2019) is the first book in Mage and Empire, an epic fantasy series set in the same world as the award-winning River of Souls trilogy. It was her talent for tracking magic that got Anna Zhdanov sent to catch a thief. A scholar’s daughter sold as a bonded servant, she has no desire to recover the Emperor’s jewel for herself. But a chance to earn her freedom has driven her to the untamed Eddalyon province, awash with warm breezes, lapping waves, and more danger than she could possibly guess.

“This is a fast-paced sword-and-sorcery pirate adventure filled with magic and double-dealing and high stakes for the characters, and I enjoyed it a lot.”
—Martha Wells, New York Times bestselling author

Comic Con

It’s been such a busy month, I forgot to mention that I will be at the New York Comic Con! I’ll be at the events below, plus I will be signing stock at the Harper Collins booth on Friday, October 4th. In between I will be roaming the floor and taking in all the sights. This will be my very first Comic Con, so I’m extra excited.

Murder, Mystery, and Mayhem (4-5pm, Room 1A18)

Murder, Mystery, and Mayhem Author Autographing (5:15pm – 6:15pm, Hall 1A Author Autographing Area – Table 1)

Release Day…

…for The Hound of Justice, the second entry in my Janet Watson Chronicles. And I am so absolutely delighted to see Janet’s second book out in the world. The first book introduced Janet in the aftermath of her military service. Her arm shattered by an enemy’s bullet. Her career as a surgeon destroyed. But Janet’s a stubborn soul, even when faced with the VA’s bureaucracy. Eventually she reclaimed her life and her work, with a little bit of help from Sara Holmes.

Now, Janet has the high-tech arm she needs to be a surgeon. But she also faces a new set of obstacles. Learning to use that high-tech arm. Negotiating the politics of George Washington University Hospital. Learning how to move on to new loves and a new life. If that weren’t hard enough, an old enemy from the past has resurfaced and Holmes has vanished in pursuit.

(Harper Voyager | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Indiebound)