Series Spotlight including Trailer, Reviews & Giveaway – Skyler Foxe Mysteries by Haley Walsh

 

This GLBT mystery series follows the teaching and unwitting sleuthing career of Skyler Foxe, high school English teacher. He’s a brand new teacher in his hometown of Redlands, California, concerned for his students and just hanging out with his friends. His best bud is a cop, trying to keep him out of trouble, but it’s not easy to balance difficult students, a sexy football coach, tricks, dance clubs… and murder!

 

Series Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryiEsnDfTdk

 

And here’s the AMAZING Joel Leslie Froomkin working on the upcoming release of Desert Foxe!

Foxe Tail (The Skyler Foxe Mysteries Book 1) 

Gay teacher Skyler Foxe thought teaching English Lit was murder. Wait till he falls into the real thing.

Skyler Foxe is a brand new English teacher in his hometown of Redlands, CA. He loves literature, loves his students, loves his friends, especially his best friend Detective Sidney Feldman. But he doesn’t love keeping his orientation a secret, afraid of the backlash in this conservative county. But will murder thrust him into unwanted limelight? Who killed his principal’s son outside a gay dance club? And what’s the connection to James Polk High? Is the macho football coach or his mysterious and gorgeous new assistant coach involved? Can Skyler trust anyone at the high school when there seems to be conspiracies around every corner?

                     

Read Christina’s review here.

 

Foxe Hunt (The Skyler Foxe Mysteries Book 2)

High school English teacher Skyler Foxe finally hooks up with gorgeous assistant football coach Keith Fletcher. But is the man what he seems to be? Skyler still has his doubts when he spies Keith in some shady circumstances. And there are still some unanswered questions as to what exactly is going on at the high school. Who thought high school could be so sinister? Meanwhile, Skyler’s friends from college have their own problems. Lovers and partners, Evan and Jeff were kicked out of the Army for Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, and the depressed Evan is found dead. Suicide, says the police, but Skyler thinks otherwise. It’s Skyler Foxe on the hunt for a killer once more!

                

Read Christina’s review here.

 

Out-Foxed (The Skyler Foxe Mysteries Book 3)

YOUNG. GAY. TEACHES HIGH SCHOOL. SOLVES CRIMES. WHAT’S UP WITH THAT?

While chaperoning a high school dance, English teacher Skyler Foxe has just been dragged out of the closet by the hunky assistant football coach–a man he thought he knew. But when Sky discovers Keith has been keeping a big secret, he breaks it off, leaving both of them lonely and confused. With troubles mounting from the press, angry parents, confused students, Skyler’s own mom, and a murdered teacher, what’s a boy to do but discover–once and for all–who’s behind all the dirty doings at James Polk High?

                

Read Christina’s review here.

 

Foxe Den (Skyler Foxe Mysteries #3.5)

FOXE DEN follows high school English teacher Skyler Foxe and his friends throughout the holidays, from Thanksgiving to New Year’s. Along the way, Skyler gets to inflict his mother on his boyfriend Keith, meets Keith’s parents, and just generally tries to navigate the treacherous waters of a brand new relationship. Unlike the novels, this novella hasn’t any mystery to solve. It’s the sort of stuff that happens between characters once the book cover is closed; a gift of “DVD extras.”

               

Read Christina’s review here.

 

Foxe Fire (The Skyler Foxe Mysteries Book 4)

Can out-and-proud high school teacher Skyler Foxe find the Redlands firebug before he falls prey to a killer?

High school English teacher Skyler Foxe is now out and proud, even though a few months ago he had no intention of being so. But since the cat is now out of the bag, he embraces it as well as his boyfriend, head football coach, Keith Fletcher. But who is that good-looking gay parent hanging around Keith, causing mischief at the school as well as in Skyler’s private life? And then someone from Skyler’s past returns, stirring up trouble. Add to that a firebug and suddenly everyone seems up to no good, especially when a smoldering corpse is found outside of the local gay bar. Skyler can’t help himself and he gets up to his old sleuthing tricks once more.

                          

Read Christina’s review here.

 

Desert Foxe (The Skyler Foxe Mysteries Book 5)

Skyler and his friends go to Palm Springs for the annual White Party and find murder!

Out and proud high school English teacher Skyler Foxe and his posse of friends go to the annual Palm Springs White Party for a weekend of fun, frivolity, and luscious men. But there are boy troubles of all kinds ahead. Skyler’s boyfriend and high school coach Keith Fletcher has to endure an embarrassing number of Skyler’s former hook-ups, one of the SFC might be going solo, Skyler encounters unexpected and unwelcome participants at the party, and there’s a murder on the dance floor, literally at Skyler’s feet! Both Skyler and Keith are drawn into investigating more than murder when the FBI asks Skyler to do the unthinkable.

 

Foxe Den 2: A Skyler Foxe & Friends Summer Vacation (Skyler Foxe Mysteries Book 5.5)

Just like the original FOXE DEN: A Holiday Collection, there is no mystery to solve in this novella. Skyler Foxe is a high school English teacher, now out and proud. He’s “Mr. Foxe” to his students and just plain “Skyler” to his posse of friends and his boyfriend, high school football coach Keith Fletcher. In FOXE DEN 2: Summer Vacation, Skyler and Keith offer a Beach Party for the Gay-Straight Alliance kids; Two gay teens have an intimate moment in their own story; Skyler’s friend Mike de Guzman experiences Skyler’s favorite gay bar, Trixx; And finally Skyler and Keith go on a backpacking trip. This is a book of little extras, what the characters are up to when we don’t see them between the pages of a full novel. They have so many stories to tell that a full novel cannot contain them! This novella is Volume 5.5 and falls directly between DESERT FOXE and CRAZY LIKE A FOXE.

 

A Very Merry Foxemas: A Skyler Foxe & Friends Holiday Novella (The Skyler Foxe Mysteries)

Skyler Foxe and his friends take a break from solving crimes in this fluffy holiday treat. Four humorous and hot short stories make up this delectable holiday fare that is sure to warm hearts and sheets this cold winter season.

 

 

 

 

About Haley Walsh:

Haley WalshHaley Walsh tried acting, but decided the actor’s life was not for her. Instead, she became a successful graphic designer in Los Angeles, her hometown. After fifteen years of burning money in the ’80s and early ’90s, she retired from the graphics industry and turned her interests toward writing. She became a freelance newspaper reporter, wrote articles for quirky magazines, published award-winning short stories, and now writes an acclaimed gay mystery series, the Skyler Foxe Mysteries. She’s lived all her life in southern California, sampling wines and chomping chocolate. Yeah, it’s a living.

Q & A With Haley Walsh (from her website):

Q:  Tell us about Skyler Foxe. How did you come up with this character?

A:  Skyler is based on several people, including myself. He’s the kind of studious, high-maintenance kind of guys I used to know when I was a lot younger and that I always fell for who turned out to be gay. He is the kind of guy who was a lot of fun to hang around with but could be relied upon to be the grown-up of the group. Skyler has issues about coming out of the closet mostly because of where he lives and also because of his mother whom he took care of after her divorce when Skyler was about twelve. He’s always watched out for his mom as the man of the house and has always made his own way. He came out in college and hasn’t looked back in terms of his sexuality but in terms of his job, it’s all strictly business. He really loves being a teacher, loves literature, loves his students and watching them grow as people. But he’s a party boy and loves to dance and to hook up. Platinum blond and pale-skinned, has an inexplicable love for Motown music and Hawaiian pizza. He hasn’t ventured very far from home, though, even to go to college, and is even teaching high school at his old alma mater. So though he is pretty confident he also has a few hang ups. Who doesn’t?

As you might have guessed from the books, I am deeply interested in characters. They are never cardboard cut outs to me. Each person in the books has depth and a backstory that may never reach the page but it is there in their characterization, in their motivation, and in their dialogue. I care more about the characters and their interaction than any old mystery, but the mystery is fun, too. As well as the romance.

Q:  What does the future hold for Skyler? Any sequels?

Indeed.  It’s a series and I like to consider the opening trilogy a sort of “pilot” for the series. Each has its own murder but all three are connected to an overarching story. There are new secrets to be revealed and more answers along the way.  If there continues to be interest in Skyler I will continue to add more books to the series. I have plenty of ideas for where the story can go.

Q:  Any thoughts on the queer fiction publishing industry? Are ebooks the future? If we want consistently great reads, which publishers should we keep an eye on?

A:  Ebooks are the future of all publishing. They are here to stay, but I don’t think print will ever disappear either. People like collecting books, getting authors to sign them, and see them on their shelves. That being said, ebooks have been a tremendous boon to queer publishing because people from all over the world who don’t have access to these kinds of books can download them to their computer. I look to see who’s clicking on my website and I’ve noticed that an awful lot of visitors come from places where you are not allowed to be gay: Dubai, Saudi Arabia, lots of Asian countries. So I’m grateful for that and grateful the market is available. I definitely sell far more ebooks for my Skyler books than I do print. One reason for that is that gay bookstores are few and far between now. It’s the same for all indie bookstores, though, in reaction to internet marketing and pricing and now the ebooks. And as far as publishers, why I think that my own publisher MLR Press has fabulous variety of erotica, romance, mystery, and other genres!

Q:  Who’s your favorite writer, and why?

A:  This changes all the time, as it should, depending on one’s stage in life. Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammet for all the hardboiled crime fiction I have loved. Dorothy L. Sayers for superb character studies of her Lord Peter Wimsey character. He was the first sleuth to really grow up in his series, to change. Shakespeare because I am an honest to goodness card-carrying fan girl; Dickens because he comes up with the greatest names; Jane Austen because her characters are also based on wry observation of her own class. J. R.R. Tolkien for inspiring me to write in the first place when I was in high school and for J.K. Rowling for taking Tolkien’s world-building success and making it her own in her believable and wonderful world that is just beyond the magical barrier. I know it’s really there. I can’t possibly be a Muggle!

Q:  If your life was a movie or a song, which one would it be?

A:  The Ten Commandments. I’m pretty overly dramatic most of the time and I would like to rule a kingdom and lay down the law. (“So it is written, so it shall be done.”)

Q:  Who is Haley Walsh? And how is life treating her these days?

A:  Haley Walsh is an interesting character in her own right. She’s the name I invented for the branding of my gay mysteries. In real life, she is Jeri Westerson, who writes a series of medieval mysteries published by a mainstream big New York publisher (www.JeriWesterson.com). So why does a straight woman who is published by a big New York publisher write gay fiction under a pen name? It isn’t for the money. Definitely not. It’s really because it’s a lot of fun. My medieval mysteries take a great deal of research and the themes and plots are very dark. The prose is dense with story and research. I needed a way to kick back and let my natural sense of humor and fun out in my writing, and I also wanted a chance to poke a stick at all the Evangelicals I’m surrounded by in this conservative region in southern California. I was getting into reading queer lit and I decided to try my hand at it. Plus my gay friends encouraged me to do it. My characters are all from life (and they don’t even recognize themselves, that’s the funny part) along with a lot of imagination and really fun research! Bottom line (so to speak), it’s for the love of it and the love of my characters.

I write full time now with my two series and I’m working on an urban fantasy series, called Booke of the Hidden, so that’s three books a year! Of course, even the New York books don’t make a lot of money (please don’t get into publishing for the dough. There just isn’t any). I’m fond of telling people I don’t have a day job anymore but with my writing I’m now making part time office assistant money. Whoo hoo! Let the good times roll!

 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skylerfoxe.mysteries

Website: http://skylerfoxemysteries.com/

 

 

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