Dark Deeds Cover Reveal on Dec 15

On Monday, I will be revealing the cover for Dark Deeds here on the blog. I'm very pleased with the cover. It shows the danger and the whimsy of the Asher Blaine stories. Alex Storer is amazing at translating my incoherent babblings into beautiful artwork.

It was nice to go back and visit with Asher, Ellie, George and the gang. I was able to slide back into that world pretty easily. And I have to admit that it was nice to give him a happy ending. I'm not sure if there will be another book, it's always possible, but not in the immediate future. I have other stories that need to be told.

Next week I will be getting the feedback on the final round of readers. So far the reactions have all been favorable. I will be doing the final rewrite after that and it's off to line editing. Whew!

I am now shooting for a January 30 publication date. It should be available for presales by the beginning of January. The Dark Deeds ebook will be $2.99. I haven't sorted out the print version, yet.

Book 1 of the Asher Blaine series

 

The White Lies ebook will remain at 99cents at least through January, possibly longer.

Alex is also working on a trailer. More news on that soon. There will also be a giveaway coming up at Goodreads. Lots of things happening. Sign up for the newsletter to hear more about them.

New Cover for White Lies

A brand new cover for book 1 in the Asher Blaine Mystery series. Book 2 will be out in January 2015. To get ready for the 2nd book, the price for White Lies will drop to .99 through January.

Check here for a cover reveal for book 2 in December.

I would love to hear how people feel about the new cover in comparison to the old cover. I love it!

Shake it up!

I had company last week. Aside from having a nice visit, I got a big break from my routine. Every day we did some sightseeing and shopping and eating in restaurants. Wonderful. I didn't realize how much I needed a break from my everyday rut.

Now don't mistake me, I love my rut. But sometimes you just need to be doing something other.

I looked at artwork, heard some live music, walked all over and had a fabulous massage. When I got back into my comfortable rut I was energized and enthusiastic. Yes!

In other news:

I still have a kitten on the keyboard. She's getting a bit more aggressive about it now.

And I have finally approved the last proof for Unintended Consequences.

YAY!

Please email me if you would like to purchase a signed copy. Click on the tab above for details on the book.

And I am hard at work on End of the Lines.

Whew!

2 Years!

As of this week, this blog is 2 years old. Wow. That old cliche is true - the older you get the faster time passes.

Or maybe it's because of the way I am spending my time. I am lucky enough to enjoy my whole day. My pay-the-bills job is easy. The people I work with are pleasant and competent...and that means a whole lot to the working environment. In my spare time I write and work in the garden. What could be more enjoyable?

I can remember long boring afternoons as a kid in school, watching the clock and begging for recess to arrive. Or lunch. Or the final bell so I could go home.

I've had jobs where the minutes dragged by. Those were mostly the sit-down jobs. When I worked for the nursery, time went pretty quickly. But again, I was doing work that was fun for me.

What have I learned in 2 years? Mostly that I'm not on display. When I started writing this, I was afraid that people would come to the blog and argue or attack me. How silly. Looking at my numbers, I'll guess it's mostly family that visits. I may have a presence on the web, but I don't have a following as yet.

All the advice I read says to take your time and do it right. I will be publishing my second novel this month. (Fingers crossed!) My writing income is miniscule, but it exists! That's something new. It dribbles in as the writing dribbles out. I will plug along at my own pace, but always making progress.

Vacation!

I am off to France! Woo Hoo!

It has been years since I took a real, far away, vacation. The last big trip was to Hungary in 2005. But that was before I moved to the house in Asheville. Now a trip is trickier, we have pets and a garden and way too much stuff to worry about!

Now is a bad time to be away. I have a book in final edits, almost ready to publish. The audiobook is in the works. It's time to be sowing my warm crop veggies and the cool crop veggies are almost ready to harvest. The strawberries are just coming on. I need to keep spraying the fruit trees with organic pest and fungal preventatives...Yeesh. And with all the rain, the lawn needs mowing again!

Eh. It'll all have to wait.

I'm off to France with my sisters and cousin to visit family in the Loire Valley. So cool. When I get back I will be refreshed, revitalized and ready to go back to my old routines. It's important to jump out of the rut from time to time. I will have new adventures and new information to add to my stories.

Unintended Consequences will rest till I came back. Then I can do a final read through to see how all the tweaks I made, from beta readers suggestions, work in the story. Sometimes a tweak feels right in a chapter, but when you come upon it, with the whole story freshly read, it clanks horribly.

White Lies audiobook should be ready for review in early June.

Once those two are taken care of, I can get back to the first draft of my post-apocalyptical, near-future story - End of the Lines.

So - no blogs for a bit. Oh, did I mention...I'm off to France!

I'm Local!

White Lies is now available in print at my local independent bookstore, Malaprops. It is so exciting to see it on the shelves! Malaprops has a special section for local authors. There are a lot of writers in the area. It's always been artsy, back to F. Scott Ftizgerald and Thomas Wolfe.

Can you tell it was a brutally cold day when we went there?

First reading done!

Whew!

This is a picture of Michael Havelin, author of the Ben Bones series, and me at our first reading. There were about 7 people in the audience, which was a good number for my first event. I wasn't insanely nervous. I didn't plan much, thinking that I would interact with the audience, if there was one. Oops. Not the best plan.

I am a quiet audience member myself. I don't jabber at the speaker...not sure why I expected that to happen. So now I need a plan for the next one.

Thanks to David Pereda for stopping by and giving me some advice.

And thanks to Jim Weikart for filming it. It's very weird watching myself, but helpful!

I'm learning and things will only get better!

First Reading!

I will be doing a reading at the West Asheville Library with Michael Havelin, author of the Ben Bones mysteries on December 8th from 2 - 4pm.

As soon as I figure out how to put the poster on my blog it'll be here!