WORK PROGRESSES

I am working on my latest book, hoping to have it available before Christmas. It is set on a small island off the Newfoundland coast, and is about a young boy who faces some daunting struggles when he loses his father. His life takes a downward turn, but he is eventually pulled back with the help of family, friends, and a new person in his life, a Mountie.

The idea came from a dear friend who spent some time on Ramea island several years ago with her husband. They thought it would be a wonderful spot for a book to be set, and I agree. Fortunately with the internet these days, I can 'visit' the island without having to go there, although I would love to if time and finances permitted.

This is the working cover and title I have developed, and they are both subject to change before the book is finally published. But be on the lookout for it in the coming months!

APRIL 2018 AUTHOR FAIR

Eighteen authors from all around our area here in Springfield, Ohio participated in the Local Author's Fair last Saturday. The morning began with a talk from Vick Mikunas, a radio personality who has interviewed numerous authors throughout his career. His talk was fun and enlightening.

It never ceases to amaze me how many talented authors we have in just our area alone. It is always interesting to meet the new ones and the familiar ones from previous events. If you have never attended one of these events, make it a priority to go at your next convenience. The authors have their books for sale, usually at a discount, and you can pick up information on how they got started, and how they got published, just to mention a few things.

Good news! Especially if you live in the Springfield area! There will be another author event in August of this year! I will post more info as the time draws nearer. This one should be even bigger and better.

Below I will post photos of the authors who attended this latest fair. On my Facebook page I posted contact info and names on each individual photo. Enjoy!

LOCAL AUTHOR FAIR 2018

The annual Local Author Fair held at the Clark County Public Library in Springfield, Ohio is to be held on Saturday, April 28, 2018 from 12-2 p.m.

It is a gathering of authors from only Clark County this year. There should be plenty of information to gather, authors to meet, books to buy and have signed and fun for all.

I will post some photos of the event as soon as I can. Stay tuned!

NEW BOOK RELEASE

It has been a long while since I found time to update this blog!! Sorry if you missed me. But I have finally released my newest book. I hope you will check it out on Amazon.com and please leave a comment when you have read it.

This one is another one that I started many years ago after reading a news article about an odd little ritual that happens in Baltimore, Maryland on the anniversary of Edgar Allan Poe's birthday. At that time there was a man who visited the original site of Poe's grave and at the hour when January 18th became the 19th he would drink a toast then leave the remains of the bottle of cognac and three roses by the marker. No one knew who he was or why he did this, but every year since the mid 1940s he had done it until he finally stopped coming in 2010.

The article fascinated me, and I began working on a story then. But life happens, and things get pushed back, and it was not until a young friend expressed interest in my book that I finally got it together and finished the book.

It is all a total creation of my imagination, but the facts about Poe contained within the story are true. I did a lot of research on Poe in the course of writing the book and learned a lot about him that I never knew even from all my literature courses over the years--and I liked his works even before I knew all that!

I hope you enjoy the book and will let me know what you think!

About the Book

For readers who like a little romance with a little mystery along the way, this is a good read with no objectionable language, subject matter or violence.

Lennie Allen works up courage to end her constricting engagement to a wealthy man in favor of pursuing her teaching career. While attending a Poe Festival in Baltimore, Maryland she meets two interesting locals.

Jason owns an old book store, is handsome and friendly, willing to share all he knows about local history and traditions. His friend Mac is quaint, and wants to be a writer using the style of Edgar Allan Poe. While there, Lennie witnesses firsthand the odd ritual that takes place in the Westminster Burying Ground on the anniversary of Poe’s birth every year.

What does this ritual have to do with her new friends, and can she help them set things straight when they go uncomfortably wrong?

Things finish with a satisfactory end after some twists that keep you guessing.

ONLY 9 DAYS LEFT to take advantage of the HUGE sale at Smashwords.com ! If you haven't snagged one or more of my books, now is the time. My books are offered at 75% off. There are many other books offered at 25%, 50% , 75% and Free. Have a look today at one of the following links: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/SueForeman. or this one for the full catalog of sale items: https://www.smashwords.com/books/category/1/newest/1

THERE IS STILL TIME TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE SALE

The July Sale of e-books is going well. If you haven't checked out the catalog or my books yet, you only have a short time left to go to this link: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/SueForeman. or this one for the full catalog of sale items: https://www.smashwords.com/books/category/1/newest/1
There are e-books from 25% off to Free.

I have also been working on my next book. I hope to have it ready for publication before the end of this year. Keep watching for further announcements of that.

HUGE E-BOOK SALE

Haven't read any of my books yet? Now is the time to check them out! Smashwords (an online book vendor) is having a huge sale. All three of my books are being offered at a 75% discount for the month of July.

Just go the this link (https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/SueForeman) to view my profile and purchase any or all of my books now. And don't forget to leave me a note telling me what you think of them when you have read them.

You can also see a catalog of other books offered for sale at the following link too. (https://www.smashwords.com/books/category/1/newest/1)

Share this news with your friends and happy reading!

Here is a notice about the upcoming author retreat/ It is a great opportunity if you can afford to go. There is a $75 discount for attendees registering before March 1. Then lesser discounts for later registration. You can't find a better faculty anywhere!

Linda W. shared that she just finished reading Life and Debt and really enjoyed it, and thinks it is really good.
Thanks, Linda. I hope everyone who reads it wll like t too. It is available on most on-line book retailers as an e-book or paperback.

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