Word of Mouth: Lazarus animals
I actually had a different definition in my mind when I started looking into Lazarus animals. I thought they were any animal revived from extinction, like in the De-Extinct Zoo Mystery series.
Not quite. They are animals found in the fossil record, then go extinct from the fossil record (sometimes after an extinction crisis, like the Eocene-Oligocene 34 ma), only to reappear later in the fossil record.
The most famous Lazarus animal is the coelacanth, an ancient fish that lived during the age of the dinosaurs but was discovered alive in 1938 off the coast of South Africa.
The fanciful image of the frog is actually inspired by the Lazarus Project that revived the Southern Gastric-Brooding Frog (Rheobatrachus silus), a frog that went extinct in 1983. But scientists had frozen samples and were able to extract DNA containing nuclei and inject them into another frog egg using somatic cell nuclear transplantation or cloning. It almost worked. FYI, Dolly the sheep was cloned using the same method.
Lazarus animals are named after Lazarus of Bethany, brother to Mary and Martha, and a close friend of Jesus, best known in the Bible for being miraculously raised from the dead by Jesus after being buried for four days.
One more FYI, and this is hilarious. Not only are there Lazarus animals, but there are also Elvis taxa: animals thought to have gone extinct and re-emerge in the fossil record, but aren’t the actual descendants of the extinct animal. Just a look-a-like or impersonator from convergent evolution!
Rather than continue the biblical tradition favored by Jablonski (for Lazarus taxa), we prefer a more topical approach and suggest that such taxa should be known as Elvis taxa, in recognition of the many Elvis impersonators who have appeared since the death of The King.
Writing updates
Sacred Ghosts, book 4 in the Nicky Matthews Mystery series
I polished and spit-shined (remember when your mom used to lick her thumb to smooth your eyebrows? Gross) the first 50 pages (Ch 1-6+) of SG and submitted it to the Killer Nashville Claymore contest this August for unpublished manuscripts. I’m going to the conference with an author friend and will present a workshop on structuring your novel, the latest hot topic in fiction writing.
Since I’m sharing it with the KN judges, I’d like to share the opening of Sacred Ghosts with you.
CHAPTER 1
Okay, maybe this had been a stupid idea.
Yep. That’s Nicky, and she’s put herself in a sticky situation on top of a narrow sandstone fin bridging two mesas (one forbidden) in a sandstorm with a thousand-foot drop to the canyon floor.
Having fun with this one, and the action doesn’t stop. More to come!
Shattered, a De-Extinct Zoo Mystery, book 4
I promised you the cover, so …
I have the greatest cover artist of all time! She took the Woolly Rhino image (that’s Balder) I sent her and really delivered. She changed the eye to make it more intense. She added a “cut” to the face using red light. She added the glowing, flowing red fabric along the left side and the glass slipper hanging on the E (Yes, there is a gala ball, but remember the book title!)
GRAND OPENING!
Woolly Rhino Vivarium
Join us to welcome Balder and Freya to their NEW HOME at the
PLEISTOCENE BIOPARK, U.S.A.
As you can guess, things don’t run smoothly because rhinos like to throw their weight around—very dangerous—although Milly does get to waltz with Luther.
Unmasked: Book 1 — Signs: Book 2 — Ambushed: Book 3 — Shattered: Book 4
Woolly rhinos, mammoths, and Ice Age predators are back from extinction—but someone is weaponizing them for murder.
Please de-extinct this little guy …
The first time I visited my husband’s family in Albuquerque, New Mexico, he took me for a walk in the foothills, and a jackrabbit, Lepus callotis, exploded from some sage and bounded off.
In my excitement, I blurted, “Is that a jackalope?”
He’s never let that go 😑 and we’ve been married for decades. He’ll probably have it inscribed on my tombstone.
The little guy above is not a “jackalope”, but a Ceratogaulus rhinoceros. Those are real, permanent horns protruding from its skull (not antlers—antlers are shed annually and grow back). It went extinct 5 million years ago.
I wrote them into a scene in the De-Extinct Zoo Mystery, Signs. Milly Smith, my protagonist, gives everyone she meets a de-extinct animal designation:
Felicity Top hobbled toward them, a soft cast wrapping her leg from thigh to ankle. Compact and strong with short straight brown hair and eyes just slightly too close together, she’d always reminded Milly of a Ceratogaulus rhinoceros—a horned gopher.
I wish we could Lazarus-find this animal …
Dump the next boring bestseller. Try a New Author.
Quick note from the Author Universe
A big traditional publisher recently bought a self-published hit, hoping to skim some of the sweet indie cash after a repackage and republish. Then readers accused the book of being AI slop—not because it was conclusively proven, but because the writing, to say the least, was rough. After the backlash, the publisher cancelled the release. Boo.
Moral? Traditional publishers don’t always vet for quality, and indie authors aren’t automatically “less than.” Some of the best, most original books out there are independently published.
So give more indie books a shot. Your next lifelong favorite author might be one of them.
History kills
The Stockholm Secret: In a city of a thousand islands, journalist Luna Moreno investigates a brutal murder that mirrors a 300‑year‑old legend of five powerful families and vanished rivals. As she digs into buried secrets and billion‑krona interests, she discovers the old story isn’t just history—it kills.
The Western is back
Frontier Justice: New Montana game warden and Afghanistan vet Danny Coogan is shot and left for dead by a Native friend, then dragged into an FBI tangle of weapons dealers, tribal politics, and revenge. To stop more murders on the Dead Horse Reservation, he may have to choose frontier justice over the law.
A sweet tooth fix …
Black Forest Cake Murder: When a famous food critic is murdered after visiting Sinclair’s Sweets, the small-town bakery lands in the hot seat, and the owner becomes suspect number one. Now the three Sinclair sisters must unmask a killer amid rival bakers, buried grudges, and a simmering romance—before someone serves up a second helping of murder.
Thank you for reading and making it down this far! More updates on Sacred Ghosts and Shattered to come, as well as a new project I have in mind …
I'd love to see a Ceratogaulus rhinoceros. I just hope they aren't aggressive... And we have a store in SF called Jackalope. It sells pottery.
Elvis meets science?! Who knew! But you must tell all-have you ever seen a jackalope for real?