BOOK THREE NOW AVAILABLE

Finally! My third book is now available on Amazon and Smashwords. Which means that you should be able to download a copy from any on-line book retailer. Amazon has the paperback version, and some of the other retailers also have it available. So, you should be able to download a copy and view it on any mobile device you have, or your PC. Right now the paperback is being shipped in 3-5 business days from Amazon. 

Be sure to let me know what you think if you read it! It was a long time coming, and I worked really hard on it. 

NOMINATE MY BOOK FOR PUBLICATION BY KINDLE

I have been approved by Kindle Scout to have my latest novel, Heirs to the Throne, featured. Many of you have probably never heard of Kindle Scout, so I will try to briefly tell you what it is.

If you click on this ink, https://kindlescout.amazon.com/p/12HOAWKQ4UBAX you will go to my book. There is a copy of the cover and an excerpt from the book. You can then read it and decide whether you think it is worthy of being published by Kindle under their banner. The site is self-explanatory. When you ‘nominate’ my book, they keep track, and will tally up all the nominations I receive in a 30-day period. If there are enough nominations, they will offer me a contract to publish the book.

Please, won’t you take just a few moments to check out this site and nominate my book if you find it worthy? I would greatly appreciate it, and so will Kindle. And, if Kindle accepts it for publication, they will send you a free copy of the book for nominating it, when it is released! Not a bad return for a few minutes of your time.

Oh, and if you don’t have a Kindle device, you can download their app for free on your PC or phone, then you will be able to read their e-books.

Thank you so much for helping.

BOOK THREE IN HANDS OF KINDLE

OK folks, I pulled the trigger and my third book, Heirs to the Throne, is in the hands of the Kindle Scout team. They will review it and decide if it merits publication by Kindle Press. They will put it out there before their select group of reviewers and if they nominate it for publication, I can get a real contract from them for publication as an e-book and audio version. If they don't care for it, then in 45 days, I get it back and can do with it as I wish. Which will be to self-publish again. So prayers and good thoughts please!

Keep an eye open in the Kindle store for this book soon!

ANOTHER RAVE REVIEW

Jan N. wrote about Life and Debt: GREAT READ!!  COULDN'T PUT THE BOOK DOWN AS USUAL, I REALLY ENJOYED IT!! KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!!

Thanks! It is always good to know how my fans like my books. 

I invite you to have a look at both books on Amazon or your favorite bookseller online. You can click on one of the links on the left to go directly to one of the two sites to preview or buy! 

COVER CHOSEN

Well, after much thought and work, I am within sight of publication of my next book. As you will see from the photo attached here, I have changed my mind about the cover art. I have also changed my mind about the title of the book.  It is now Heirs to the Throne. 

This is one of those things that I have gone back and forth on for some time.  And, that is not uncommon when deciding on the final title of a work. Sometimes you know immediately what the title will be, and sometimes you change your mind once or more times as you go. This is one of those times where the original title was ok, but this one fits so much better.  

Here is the synopsis of the book, and I hope it piques your interest so that you will want to read it.

In a small kingdom in the middle ages, Prince Reuben, the younger brother of the Crown Prince, chaffs at being second best. While his father and brother shut themselves away mourning the death of the queen, Reuben takes the opportunity to take over the kingdom, and orchestrates his brother’s death. But, the people of the kingdom are dismayed by the hardships placed upon them by Prince Reuben. 

When a stranger appears on the doorstep of an inn, beaten nearly to death, and missing his memory, the villagers take him in, and dub him Mark. He becomes involved, and leads the brewing revolt. But, Mark fears if he regains his memory, it could create a major obstacle to marrying the woman he has come to love.

As you can see, this is an historical/fantasy romance. This is another book I started years ago, and have recently learned what to do with.  I hope you will enjoy this one as well as the previous ones. 

BOOKCLUB REVIEWS

It's always nice to learn that someone has read your book and has really enjoyed it. The book club that I go to read my second book, Life and Debt, and the discussion that followed was so helpful to me. As a writer, it is always gratifying when you hear that someone who has read the book, gets what you were trying to say. It is also a huge ego boost when your readers ask when will the next one be ready, or is there a sequel going to happen for this one. Makes all those long hard hours feel like they were worth it.

When you're writing the story, you put it on paper in hopes  that maybe somebody will read it and find it entertaining. And, as you go, you put things into that story, pieces of yourself, that you don't even realize you're putting in there. As I sat there listening to the ladies discuss the book, it was touching to realize that I had managed to evoke the feelings in them that I had for my characters as I wrote them down. That was one of the things that concerned me when I decided to start getting my books ready to publish. I hoped that I had got my point across, but I wasn't sure. After hearing these dear ladies talk about my book, I know that I did something right. If you have not read my books, I hope you will, and I hope that you will so enjoy them  and get my point.

That being said, I've been working hard on the next book, entitled The Medallion. I am to the point now, where I am trying to find satisfactory cover art for the book. It is proving harder than I thought it would to find the appropriate artwork for this book. I have many talented nieces and nephews who do sketching, and I am hoping that one of them will come up with something that works. When I have found it, you will be the first to know. Well, maybe not first, but certainly one of the first. Keep watching, it won't be long. 

NEXT BOOK NEARLY READY

Well, a lot has been going on since my last post. I have been working hard on getting my next book ready for publication, and I am getting near the end. With a bit more work and polish, it should be ready for release in a couple more months. This one has taken a lot of time and research to get it all together and ready, but I think it is coming along very well now. 

I have already begun working on my next book, too. It will be a contemporary mystery, but it is still in the planning stages. I won't be starting in earnest on it until i finish this one and get it out there for sale.  There should be a synopsis of this one ready for my next post, so keep looking.  As soon as I can get one ready, I will post it. 

Keep an eye out for The Medallion, a historical adventure/romance, set in the middle ages, coming soon to an on line retailer near you!

PLUGGING AWAY

Here I sit, wading through an editing job on my next book. Trying to get all the sentences and paragraphs into the right structure and the story flowing in the right order is mind numbing work! And, after just an hour or two, the whole page becomes a giant white blur with little black ants crawling around, making up things that you are sure were not there before! 

This is another of the books that I wrote long ago, and then tucked away, not sure what to do with it.  But, now, with a few of Steve Alcorn's excellent writing courses under my belt, I do know what to do with it, and am able to get it market ready.  Hopefully, you will find it as enjoyable as I do, when I am finished.

The problem is, I am also working on a new course with Mr. Alcorn as instructor, and as a result, have begun a new work that I am anxious to get busy with.  But, being that I have become more and more OCD as I age, I can't just stop on the one I am in the middle of and start a new one, without finishing the first one ... so I plug away, the whole time thinking of a dozen other things I ought to do as well, not just writing! I must constantly remind myself to take 'one thing at a time' and 'finish what I start' before crashing off to do three others.

I will get through this, and I hope everyone will be pleased with the result.  And, I will get the other things done, in their turn.  Just need to train myself to schedule things better, and maybe write things down so I don't forget what I need to do next! 

SECOND BOOK NOW AVAILABLE

My second novel was published in April, 2015 and is available at most on-line book retailers now. It is an adventure/romance set in 1700s England and Scotland, about a young man who learns some hard life lessons on his way to adulthood.

A synopsis of the book is:

It is in late eighteenth-century Cambridge, England where young Mike Harrington discovers Jacob Tolabert, is stealing from the family company. Mike’s parents are killed in an apparent robbery, and Jacob Tolabert forces Mike to sell out to him at a severe loss. Beaten and robbed Mike flees the city in fear of his life. 

He meets three men who teach him how to survive. Together, they work their way around England. When Mike decides it is time to collect the debt he feels Tolabert owes him, things go horribly wrong. While in hiding in Edinburgh, Mike meets and falls in love with the daughter of a wealthy Englishman, and discovers her father has the influence that could keep him safe. 

Father John Osborn has been the one constant throughout his life. Mike discovers the secret that has kept the minister so close to him, and this secret will bring Mike to the ultimate showdown with Jacob Tolabert.

It is available at Amazon and Barnes and Noble


Writing this book took a bit longer than most books take.  I began writing it when I was in high school.  Over the years, it has seen many incarnations and re-writes, but until last year I had not gotten it to the point where it was finally ready for publication.  Though I have other projects in the works, this one was near and dear to my heart, and I was determined to get it to the point where I thought it was ready.  I hope you enjoy it.

My sister read it, and is already demanding a sequel ... I had left it where I could do that, but so far, that is not yet in the works.  I have a couple others I need to get finished before I get to that. 

Also, the art work on the cover is a portion of a painting I did in high school, when I was thinking about this book.  There is a copy of the entire painting on the back cover of the paperback.

RECENT LOCAL AUTHOR'S FAIR

I recently participated in a Local Author's Fair which was held in the Clark County Public Library in Springfield, Ohio (April 25, 2015).  The day was a rainy, cold spring day, but inside, it was warm and there were lots of people! Although, I believe most of the people who attended were aspiring authors looking for tips, and inspiration for their work, there were people there just looking to see what authors from our area had written and offered for sale. 

There were authors of all ages there.  One young lady looked like she was still in her teens, and one dear lady was 80 and a bride of 2 weeks!  And there were genres of every sort, from children's books to Science Fiction.  There was a local heart doctor, and mom's, and teachers, and retirees.  Proving there is no age limit, or occupation requirement, or for that matter, education requirements for being a writer.  If you have something to say, there is a way to get that message out there!

I will post the pictures I took that day.  Not all of them are perfect photos, but if you are interested in one of these folks or their books, you can look them up on the Internet. Here is a list of the attending authors and their books:

Children's and Teen's Literature:

Rebecca Wilman--Calamity's Daughter

Collene Miller--Saving Gideon: An Alpaca Story

Sheenah Freitas--The Chosen, The Number, Musings (short stories)

Jennifer Brown--The Edge of Springwood Series

Adrella Reliford--Mr. Peevy Forgets

Doug Robbins--The Bizarre Life of Edgar Strange

Non-Fiction:

Anna Gee Blackwell--He's All I Need: My Life Story

April Minger--Altars of the Heart: Discovering Your Path to Deeper Worship

Ken Whitt--The Extraordinary Ordinary Uplifts Us: Halfway to Heaven

Farzana Moon--Prophet Muhammad the First Sufi in Islam

Bernie Palmatier--The Grunch Who Ate the Bottom Line

Dr. Surender Neravetla--Salt Kills

Fiction:

Connie Chappel--Wild Raspberries

V S Foreman--State of Deception

Barbara Arnold--Murder is No Stranger

Roanne Fitzgibbon--Lies and Promises of the Secret Moon

Dianne Cogar--Blue Mountain Arts Books of Poetry/Prose and Greeting Cards



Dr. Surender Neravetla--Salt Kills



V S Foreman--State of Deception and Life and Debt



Connie Chappel (in peach shirt)--Wild Raspberries



T D Wilson--Echoes, Embrace, Crucible



April Minger--Altars of the Heart



Barbara Arnold--Murder is no stranger



Becky J. Neff--The Sad Sun



Collene Miller--Saving Gideon: An Alpaca Story



Dianne Cogar--Blue Mountain Arts Books



Doug Robbins--The Bizarre Life of Edgar Strange



Farzana Moon--Prophet Muhammad the First Sufi of Islam



Jennifer Brown--The Edge of Springwood Series



Rebecca Wilman--Calamity's Daughter



Roanne Fitzgibbon--Lies and Promises of the Secret Moon



Sheenah Freitas--The Chosen, The Number and Musings




Anna Gee Blackwell--He's All I Need



Adrella Reliford--Mr. Peevy Forgets

GREETINGS TO MY READERS

Hello everyone.  This is a totally new experience for me.  I have never blogged before, and have only ever viewed a very few of other people's blogs.  But, I am assured that this is a good way to get my books out there for the world to see, and hopefully, buy.

I have been writing for many years, but it has only been recently that I have been published.  It is a whole new world out there for me.  I have learned a few very important things along the way. And, the first is that in order to get the confidence to be an author, you have to think of yourself as an author.  Once you start doing that, you are halfway there!

Currently, I have two books on the market.  the first one I published is "State of Deception." It is set mostly in a small fictional Pennsylvania town, and is a romance mystery.  The main character goes there on what she thinks is a business trip, but soon learns that there is more there than business. She meets some colorful locals, and discovers the answers to some questions that have haunted her for many years.

So far, everyone who has read this book has told me they loved it, and were impressed by the great descriptions of the area, etc.  Several people told me they had to read it in one sitting, because they just had to find out what happens next. 

If you would like to read it, you can find it on just about any internet book retailer site as either an e-book or as a paperback.  If you do get a copy and read it, be sure to leave me a comment and tell me what you think of it.

I will write more later about the other book I have written.  Today, I just want to get this one out here.