I know when fellow Tule author Shelly Jones stops by it’s always going to be fun and game! Delighted they’re here with us this week!  Their newest book in the Wren Winters series is Game Over and it just released on Monday!

Shelly Jones is a professor by trade and a nerd by design. Woefully introverted, their pockets are full of post-it notes and their head is full of (unsaid) witty come-backs and un-won arguments from years past. When they aren’t grading papers or writing new cozy mysteries, Shelly can often be found hiking in the woods or playing a board game while their cats look on.

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Thanks for having me on your blog, Nan! I always enjoy getting a chance to chat with folks, especially about books and the like.

Today I thought I’d pull back the curtain a bit on my latest book, Game Over, the third book in the Wren Winters cozy mystery series. When I first started writing about Wren and her bgf’s (best gaming friends), I knew I wanted the group to attend a game convention. These huge gatherings of industry professionals and fans are great spots to learn more about games, make new friends, and enjoy quality time around the games table. They are also a great way to thrust Wren and her friends out of Hollows Way and into a bit of intrigue and drama…(so Hollows Way doesn’t start having the reputation of Cabot Cove…).

As the group of friends settle in at the convention center, they immediately stumble across the body of a famous cosplayer who has been strangled with her own lanyard. They’ll need to move fast to find the killer before the convention ends and all the suspects scatter. Meanwhile, for much of this book, Wren is torn between her past and her future. Afterall, the games convention she’s attending now is the same one her husband attended and was on his way home from when he died in a car accident. She wants to move on and accept her life, but the puzzle and questions surrounding her late husband’s death keeps haunting her, literally at every turn of the convention center. The only way she can move on is by finding the truth.

Game Over is set in those festive and merry weeks in early December. With the holidays around the corner, Wren hasn’t made much of a dent in her to-do list before she and her friends go to the convention. She’s managed to hang a wreath on her door and that’s about it. Afterall, she’s been a bit busy running her game store, the Cardboard Sheep, planning this road trip, and digging up some new clues into her husband’s sudden death. Stringing up holiday lights has been less of a priority for her given everything, let alone going out shopping for the perfect present for her friends. Since Wren and her friends are always down for a game, they might enjoy a white elephant gift game where each guest brings a wrapped, anonymous gift to be randomly distributed at a holiday party.

To that end, I developed this holiday gift exchange game that you’re welcome to try out yourself! Have everyone sit in a circle and take turns rolling two six-sided dice. (If you don’t have dice, you can use a random dice generator online.) Follow the instructions on the table below based on what is rolled (e.g. if you roll a two and a four, you can either swap with someone older OR swap with someone younger – your choice!). When everyone has taken a turn rolling the dice, the game is over, and everyone opens the present they have.Giveaway: A signed, paperback copy of Game Over, a  Game Over bookmark, a hand-made mittens bookmark, a cat-shaped keychain decorated with bookshelves, a little notebook that looks like a library card catalog, a pen that reads “There is no such thing as too many books,” and a set of purple/pink dice.

Game Over

Wren Winters and her friends road trip to an annual gaming convention anticipating a fun getaway, not danger and a dead body.  

It’s been two years since game store owner Wren Winters’ husband died in a mysterious road accident, and she finally feels ready to attend the industry’s biggest gathering. She’s a little spooked because the event was where her husband had sent her a final text claiming he’d discovered something unexpected, but Wren is determined to push aside her doubts, purchase new games for her store and have fun.

Instead, she and her gaming group stumble onto a famous cosplayer strangled with her own lanyard, and the police are side-eyeing Wren. Then the threats begin, and Wren uncovers a new lead on her husband’s death. Surely, she can piece together what happened to Marcus at this very convention, despite the danger lurking around every corner. But the clock is ticking to solve the murder before weekend ends, when all the suspects will scatter like pieces swept off a board. Will she be able to trap a murderer before she becomes another victim?

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