RECYCLING & FREE BOOKS

Yesterday, the first book of my trilogy was free.

Is it a good marketing strategy or not? 

I know it's been successful for some but I've also read and experienced the negatives.

Have you tried it?

What was your experience?

Watching the stats was exciting, as each hour they changed. For Murder, Madness & Love the book went to the top, and surprisingly the other two books followed - not all the way to the top but they did climb the charts.

I was hoping that offering the first book free would entice readers to buy the trilogy and it did. I just wish I had real numbers to share with you, only my publisher knows those.

But all in all, I'd say this was a success, a few books were sold!

Since the giveaway is over I thought I'd do a bit of recycling by posting the information on all three books and that the trilogy is available, in case some one's not heard. :) 

Here, for your information is my tour this year, from the A to Z challenge, where I posted a topic and an excerpt for Murder & Obsession, to the individual guest posts, reviews and interviews. 

The A to Z Challenge

Why Alaska Speaks to Me on Denise Covey's Blog

Steven and Sarah on the Couch with Stuart R West

Michael Di Gesu introduces Murder & Obsession

A Discussion of Unrequited Love with C. Lee McKenzie

Talking Snark with Alex J. Cavanaugh

All About Writing A Trilogy with Patricia Stotley

A TRILOGY SET IN ALASKA

MURDER, MADNESS & LOVE

MEMORIES OF MURDER

MURDER & OBSESSION

Light is a fleeting moment in the frozen north that is Alaska. Although the sun shines brightly during the Summer Solstice, Detective Steven Quaid struggles to hold on to what he holds dear during life's darkest moments, his love for family, and professional achievement. Will a murderous stalker, a self-proclaimed Lucifer resurrected, or insidious obsession prove more powerful than this dedicated detective? Three separate life-threatening situations. One determined man.

MURDER, MADNESS & LOVE

Detective Steven Quaid is the Anchorage Police Department's top investigator. When he's called in to protect a beautiful widow from a stalker, he's not entirely sure she isn't behind the scheme herself. Before long, Sarah has him wound up tighter than barbed wire.

But one of the police department's best and brightest detectives may just be in over his head, especially when the facts start pointing to a conclusion he isn't willing to face. With a killer on the loose and a climbing body count, Steven can't afford to hedge his bets—or his life.

Is Sarah a victim or a very skilled manipulator?

MEMORIES OF MURDER

Catching Alaska’s most notorious serial killer as a rookie made Detective Steven Quaid a hero, but falling in love with a victim from his last case tarnishes that status.

 While attempting to repair both his personal and professional life, he stumbles upon an unusual case–and an even more extraordinary foe: a man who believes he is Lucifer. An insidious man who delivers Quaid the ultimate choice: save his fiancée from an assassin’s bullet or stop the sacrifice of a young girl.

MURDER & OBSESSION

Love is never easy, but for Detective Steve Quaid and his fiancée,  their road to happiness is laden with minefields.

After spending countless hours reconverting his grandfather’s cabin into the perfect honeymoon retreat for his bride, the cabin becomes a bloody crime scene detailing her death. Accused, Steven escapes into the Alaskan mountains, biding his time to find the truth.

Who killed his beloved?

A seasoned woodsman, he outsmarts even the cleverest of trackers. All but one.

Mauled by a grizzly, a half-dead Steven barely escapes.

But will he live to bring the rightful murderer to Justice?

*****

How is marketing going for you?

Ever offer your books for free? What was your experience and would you do it again?

Please help me spread the word!

A suspenseful romantic trilogy set in Alaska - The Detective Quaid Mysteries! https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01IF8UYDQ/ref=series_rw_dp_sw

Thank you for your support!

FREE! MURDER, MADNESS & LOVE

An opportunity for all readers!

FREE!

HOW COOL IS THAT?!

A TRILOGY SET IN ALASKA

MURDER, MADNESS & LOVE

MEMORIES OF MURDER

MURDER & OBSESSION

Light is a fleeting moment in the frozen north that is Alaska. Although the sun shines brightly during the Summer Solstice, Detective Steven Quaid struggles to hold on to what he holds dear during life's darkest moments, his love for family, and professional achievement. Will a murderous stalker, a self-proclaimed Lucifer resurrected, or insidious obsession prove more powerful than this dedicated detective? Three separate life-threatening situations. One determined man.

MURDER, MADNESS & LOVE

Detective Steven Quaid is the Anchorage Police Department's top investigator. When he's called in to protect a beautiful widow from a stalker, he's not entirely sure she isn't behind the scheme herself. Before long, Sarah has him wound up tighter than barbed wire.

But one of the police department's best and brightest detectives may just be in over his head, especially when the facts start pointing to a conclusion he isn't willing to face. With a killer on the loose and a climbing body count, Steven can't afford to hedge his bets—or his life.

Is Sarah a victim or a very skilled manipulator?

MEMORIES OF MURDER

Catching Alaska’s most notorious serial killer as a rookie made Detective Steven Quaid a hero, but falling in love with a victim from his last case tarnishes that status.

 While attempting to repair both his personal and professional life, he stumbles upon an unusual case–and an even more extraordinary foe: a man who believes he is Lucifer. An insidious man who delivers Quaid the ultimate choice: save his fiancée from an assassin’s bullet or stop the sacrifice of a young girl.

MURDER & OBSESSION

Love is never easy, but for Detective Steve Quaid and his fiancée,  their road to happiness is laden with minefields.

After spending countless hours reconverting his grandfather’s cabin into the perfect honeymoon retreat for his bride, the cabin becomes a bloody crime scene detailing her death. Accused, Steven escapes into the Alaskan mountains, biding his time to find the truth.

Who killed his beloved?

A seasoned woodsman, he outsmarts even the cleverest of trackers. All but one.

Mauled by a grizzly, a half-dead Steven barely escapes.

But will he live to bring the rightful murderer to Justice?

*****

Will you take advantage of the sale?

Will you help me spread the word?

Here's a Tweet for your convenience.

1st book in the Alaskan trilogy Murder, Madness & Love is free Aug. 12 & 13th! The Detective Quaid Mysteries https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EN77770/ref=cm_sw_su_dp#navbar

PIRATES, EXPLORERS, AND GHOSTS!

It is a real pleasure to help Bish Denham debut the cover of her latest novel.

Due out October 3rd.

You can now pre-order!

The Bowl and the Stone

Book Blurb

Pirates. Explorers. And spooky ghost hunters.

It’s 1962. Sam and her best friend, Nick, have the whole island of St. John, in the U. S. Virgin Islands, as their playground. They’ve got 240 year-old sugar plantation ruins to explore, beaches to swim, and trails to hike.

But when a man disappears like a vapor right in front of them, they must confront a scary new reality. They’re being haunted. By whom? And why? He’s even creeping into Nick’s dreams.

They need help, but the one who might be able to give it is Trumps, a reclusive hunchback who doesn’t like people, especially kids. Are Sam and Nick brave enough to face him? And if they do, will he listen to them? 

Their carefree summer games turn into eerie hauntings, and Sam and Nick learn more about themselves and life than they could ever have imagined.

Pre-order today and enter the ghostly tale as soon as it releases.

Bish Denham, whose mother’s side of the family has been in the Caribbean for over one hundred years, was raised in the U. S. Virgin Islands. She still has lots of family living there whom she visits regularly.

She says, “Growing up in the islands was like living inside a history book. Columbus named the islands, Sir Francis Drake sailed through the area, and Alexander Hamilton was raised on St. Croix. The ruins of hundreds of sugar plantations, built with the sweat and blood of slave labor, litter the islands. Then there were the pirates who plied the waters. It is within this atmosphere of wonder and mystery, that I grew up. Life for me was magical, and through my writing I hope to pass on some of that magic.”

The Bowl and the Stone: A Haunting Tale from the Virgin Islands, is her third book and second novel. You can find Anansi and Company: Retold Jamaican Tales and A Lizard’s Tail, at Amazon.com.

To learn more about Bish, you can visit her blog, Random Thoughts

Facebook

Twitter @BishDenham

Goodreads

Amazon:

Congratulations, Bish!

I hope you break all the records for pre-orders!

What about you readers, any ghost tales from your childhood that would make a great book?

IWSG - WRITING

The Insecure Writer's Support Group

Alex J. Cavanaugh

The awesome co-hosts are Tamara Narayan, Tonja Drecker, Ellen @ The Cynical Sailor, Lauren @ Pensuasion, Stephen Tremp, and Julie Flanders! 

Be sure to thank them!

August’s IWSG question is - What was your very first piece of writing as an aspiring writer? Where is it now? Collecting dust or has it been published? 

I wrote the third place-winning essay for the American Legion Young Citizens Contest when I was in the 10^th grade, but my first published piece was a poem for rape victims.

Although I do have a file cabinet that collects dust, and it does have several hand written projects sitting in a file, so yes, a few are collecting dust. So many ideas, so little time! J

I hope you all have a great writing month!

Don't forget to sign up for the latest WEP Flash Fiction Challenge – it's all about Gardens!

Here are a few words about gardens, to inspire you!

In my garden I spend my days; in my library I spend my nights. My interests are divided between my geraniums and my books. With the flower I am in the present; with the book I am in the past.

~Alexander Smith, "Books and Gardens," Dreamthorp: A Book of Essays Written in the Country, 1863


If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.

~Cicero


A garden was the primitive prison, till man with Promethean felicity and boldness, luckily sinned himself out of it.

~Charles Lamb, 1830

A NEW CHALLENGE

It's time to sign up for the WEP - Write...Edit...Publish Gardens Flash Fiction Challenge for August 2016.

It's easy. It's simple and it's fun!

Prizes are awarded!

In the garden I tend to drop my thoughts here and there. To the flowers I whisper the secrets I keep and the hopes I breathe. I know they are there to eavesdrop for the angels. ~Dodinsky 

DRAGONS AND GOLD

     Today I'm honored to have C. Lee McKenzie.

Author of Sign of the Green Dragon

her third Middle Grade novel.

You can read my review HERE!

Welcome Lee!

     1.   How long does it take to research a topic before you write? And for this book? Did you learn something unusual during your research that you can share here?

ANSWER: Each book takes a different length of time. For Sign of the Green Dragon, I’d already done a lot of research into Chinese Dragon lore, and I had a fair background in the early history of the Gold Rush era. I happen to love that period in California history, so I read a lot about it.

I think the tenacity of the Chinese miners is the most unusual thing I stumbled on and used in this story. When white men abandoned a mine because it didn’t have the gold they wanted, the Chinese were “allowed” to take over. They mined what’s called the “tailings” and with long hours of  back-breaking work they pulled out a lot of gold. They suffered a lot of injustice from our system, and were so heavily taxed that many left mining and went to live in San Francisco.

     2.   What resources do you use? In general and for this book? Do you use professionals to verify your facts, such as the police? Is there a good way to approach them? How valuable is their input? Or do you just wing it?

ANSWER: With Dragon, I used my background knowledge of the era and what I’d read about dragon mythology. For other stories, I’ve gone to the police to ask for verification of what I think is true. I’m just wrapping up a young adult story and I wanted to use a lucky charm to save a shooting victim’s life. I needed to be sure 1) a small charm could deflect a bullet sufficiently and 2) I could write that it was a 22 calibre bullet used in the shooting. Two police people have said yes, so I’m going with it.

My first book was about cutting, and I had never known a cutter, so I read a lot, but I was very lucky to sit next to a suicide counselor at a conference. We talked and she offered to read the scenes I wasn’t sure about. She was a great help and my scenes about the cutting and the counseling sessions are as accurate as I can hope to make them. BTY since that book, I’ve met cutters. They’ve read my book, and they say I got it right.

     3.   Did you self-publish or have a publisher? Would you recommend self-publishing and building an audience before approaching a publisher? What's the best way to build an audience before publication?

ANSWER: I’ve done both. I’ve had two publishers. One bought two of my young adult books, and I received $5,000 for my debut novel and $6,000 for the second one. (I’m telling you this because the story of my publishing journey is weird, yet probably not unique) Then I “sold” two more young adult stories to a different publisher, but this time out I didn’t see any up-front cash. They only pay me in royalties.

I self-published my three middle grade novels. Frankly, I never expected to make any money from these books. I wrote them because I needed a break from YA angst and I love to write adventure/fantasy for this age group.

I  have no idea if self-publishing is a route to take and build an audience. In fact, it probably isn’t. A lot of agents don’t like to take on self-published people unless they’ve sold mega books and created a stir. That’s hard to do, but when it happens it’s wonderful. One thing I know for sure, there is no formula for building an audience except: a darned good book and lots of promo. Even if the promo’s good, if the books isn’t, there’s not a ghost of a chance for an audience.

     4.   Does writing provide you a sufficient income to live on? If so, how long did it take before this happened? Is it your goal to be financially successful, or do you write and publish solely for the 'satisfaction of sharing your stories’?

 

ANSWER: No. Pure and simple. I’d have to move to the middle of the Mojave and eat insects if I had to live on what I make writing. I’ve had one career and that has made me financially secure and very happy in many ways. I write stories because I love to do it, and I so appreciate that money isn’t a motivation.

     5.   What's the funniest thing that happened to you on a book tour?

ANSWER: I had to evacuate a hotel in my coat with nothing else on. The fire alarm sounded just as I stepped out of the shower, so I threw on my coat and headed to the fire escape along with hundreds of others. I was in New York on the 20th floor of the Hilton. Do you have any idea how far twenty floors is when you can smell smoke and you’re wearing nothing but your coat?  Oh yes, and my hair was wet. It was February. I remember thinking how much I loved California because having wet hair there in February wouldn't have been such a big deal. It didn’t seem funny at the time, but time has revealed the humor to me.

     6.   What's the next step for you? Television, movies, a new genre? Tell us what the future holds - what can your fans expect?

ANSWER: No new genre yet. I’m always open to TV and movie contracts, but they don’t seem headed my way. However, my next book should be on the way to my lovely agent soon. It’s a young adult and it’s one of the hardest books I’ve ever tackled. I’ll have to write three middle grade stories to recover from this one. 

Blurb:

Three plucky sleuths. A crumbling skeleton. A buried treasure.

After six months in a new school, Sam’s finally fitting in. He’s the one kid with enough talent to hit the winning home run and bring the baseball trophy back to Haggarty Elementary. But Sam’s guardian is shipping him off to boarding school before that can happen.

When his teammates, Joey and Roger, hear his bad news, they plot to hide him until the big game. Their secret cave is a perfect place until an earthquake shatters a wall and reveals a wooden chest with a red-eyed dragon carved into its top. Inside, a crumbling skeleton clutches a map with a cryptic note, promising treasure if the finder reveals the truth about an old murder and returns the remains of the victim to China.

Is the note a hoax? Maybe. But what does Sam have to lose? With Joey and Roger, he sets off to track down the clues and hopefully discover treasure. When finally some puzzle pieces start to make sense, they become lost in a labyrinth of underground tunnels, trapped by dangerous thieves and sealed inside an airless tomb.

Sign of the Green Dragon gets a high five for fantasy, fun and some fearsome adventure. If you like intrepid would-be knights on impossible and dangerous quests, you’ll love this story. As one reader says, this book, “has more twists than a dragon’s tail.”

Buy now and jump into the adventure.

*****

C. Lee McKenzie's Amazon Page – Learn about her other books HERE!

Get your copy of Signof the Green Dragon – Amazon!
Smashwords
Kobo
B&N

C. Lee McKenzie's Blog – The Write Game!

C. Lee McKenzie has a background in Linguistics and Inter-Cultural Communication. Her greatest passion is writing for young readers. Sign of the Green Dragon is her third Middle Grade novel. Alligators Overhead and the sequel, The Great Time Lock Disaster were her first two. She has traditionally published four young adult novels: Sliding on the Edge, The Princess of Las Pulgas, Double Negative and Sudden Secrets.

As a native Californian, and after living a lot of different places in the world, Lee landed back in her native state on the edge of a redwood forest. When not writing or blogging Lee is hiking or practicing yoga.

Read more about the talented C Lee McKenzie, HERE!

***

Thank you, Lee!

How about you readers?

Have you experienced your worst nightmare during a book tour?

BLOGS AND VACATIONS

Hi, folks!

Today, I'm visiting with Patricia Stoltey and discussing
Writing A Trilogy. 

Please stop by and say hello!

Thanks for stopping by this week to support Tara, while I played at the beach. 

The vacation came up suddenly, and we took advantage but blog obligations had already been made too. 
So, here's to trying to do both!

VACATION!

Our first night we were amazed by

a storm that blew in from the northwest.

Notice the waves, they weren't the least bit impressed,

but we were! The lightening was amazing. 

Sorry, I couldn't capture that!

Immediately after the storm a double rainbow!

The moon was amazing, as always!

The night life bright!

And the beach, well, it's a beach!

We'll be home soon.

Too soon!

LOL