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Book Trailers

By Saralyn Richard

 

I’m not sure when book trailers became “a thing,” but now the internet is flooded with video teasers that make prospective readers want to buy books in all genres. Some are professionally done; others are created with easy-to-use software, such as Canva, MovieMaker, and VistaCreate.

What I like about successful book trailers is that they crystallize the essence of the book into short, pithy artistic statements. The selected text, graphics, and video make the book description come alive with aesthetics, movement, action, sound, and emotional appeals.

The cover is hot, but the trailer is even hotter.

The advertising potential is vast, and, assuming the trailer is widely viewed, it becomes a valuable marketing tool for the book.

A lesser realized, but no less important outcome is what the trailer does for the author. In writing seven novels and one children’s book, I’ve found it easier to write a hundred-thousand-word work of fiction than to write a book description or blurb. Condensing the book into its essential parts and highlighting its purpose is extremely difficult and frustrating. What to include? What to leave out, because it’s a spoiler? What to emphasize?

Brevity may be the soul of wit, but for a novelist, brevity can suffocate. Figuring out what to put into a book trailer, both in images and words, simplifies the task. While writing is a left-brain activity, movie-making is right-brain.

Even if the trailer is “hired out,” the author must give the artist the basic information: characters, setting, and plot. If the book is a mystery, the trailer needs to capture the elements of suspense, suspects, clues, and mood, all provided by the author

. The trailer requires a script and storyboard, and a great hook at the beginning.

The video for my book, CRYSTAL BLUE MURDER, is an example of a trailer that helps the audience get a feel for the book. It also helps me clarify the important plot points and messages of the book. You can currently view the trailer here:

Crystal Blue Murder Book Trailer v2

Does it make you want to read the book? Do book trailers in general appeal to you when you are deciding what to read next? I love hearing from you!

Saralyn

Benefits of Contributing to an Anthology

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by Paula Gail Benson

Robin Hillyer-Miles and I, two blogging partners here at The Stiletto Gang, also are members of the Lowcountry Romance Writers (LRWA), a chapter of Romance Writers of America based in Charleston, South Carolina. Since 2019, LRWA has organized and published two anthologies, titled Love in the Lowcountry: A Winter Holiday Collection and Love in the Lowcountry, Volume Two: A Winter Holiday Collection Book 2. Both are available through Amazon.

LRWA is now in the process of creating its third anthology, which again requires that stories take place in South Carolina. For this anthology, they also must involve a vacation. Contributors must participate in two rounds of beta reading, work with a professional editor, and develop and circulate promotional materials. Learning and using these skills is invaluable experience for both debut and seasoned authors. We continue to have a lot of fun putting these anthologies together.

Robin and I have both written several messages about how these anthologies benefited us as writers: from Robin, “Musings on a Tuesday” and “No Regrets,” and from me “Love in the Air,” “A New Anthology,” and “The Meet Cute.”

These anthologies also provide some virtual vacations and insightful information for readers who visit in person and/or virtually. Bookstores in Charleston, South Carolina, often have customers seeking fiction about the city. Most of our anthologies’ romances describe historical or cultural backgrounds in a very engaging format, meeting the bookstores’ customers’ requests. Robin Hillyer-Miles, a certified tourism professional, has assisted all the participating writers in confirming the accuracy of the details in their work.

In addition to giving authors a writing credit, contributing to the anthology allows the opportunity for learning new writing skills, trying out new genres, and developing different characters. Not all writers enjoy crafting short stories, but the attempts demonstrate how to be more economical with word usage and narrative. Except for hints at relationships, I had not written romances prior to my stories in the anthologies. They also represent my first efforts at exploring time travel, which allow me to involve modern day characters with historical figures and events, something I find fascinating.

One author in the first anthology used her story as part of a trilogy. She offered the prequel in her newsletter to entice readers to try her work. That gave me the idea to consider how two characters I developed for my story in the first anthology (the two rejected by the main love interests) might appear subsequently. (Note: it continues to be a challenge to find those two less desirable characters’ more likable qualities.)

In the second anthology, my story had three potential romantic couples, one that became predominant. Determining how to resolve the characters’ interacting plotlines became a fascinating puzzle that led me to contemplate writing a more expansive account, featuring each couple independently.

Even if you don’t ordinarily read or write short stories, try dipping into an anthology or two. They offer some great examples of craft and compiling material by theme, not to mention some excellent reading.

Marketing for Authors

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Can an Author Really Do Marketing Too?

Example of a common marketing graphics.

For traditionally published authors the marketing happens without much input.  Whatever ads are placed are done by the publisher who can adjust the price point at their discretion. This can be frustrating or blissful for an author depending on their viewpoint.  I swing between the two. I love not doing the work, but I hate it when I don’t think enough marketing is being done.

However, for independent author things are a bit different. While can we run ads and control the price point (yay!) I must also keep track of ad vendors, types of ads, marketing copy, all the things that a traditional publisher pays another human being to do. It can be overwhelming and impossible if an author doesn’t have the skillset to do these tasks.

What’s New from Amazon Marketing?

So recently, when I got a message from Amazon saying they wouldn’t be showing several of my ads due to policy changes, I groaned. What did the ‘Zon want now?  Well, it turns out that they want custom graphics on series ads.  But–and here’s the challenge–there is no text allowed and the images can’t be too sexy or too violent.

The problem is that for most other marketing vehicles—social media, newsletters, BookBub—text is always paired with a graphic. So when looking at my collection of already created marketing images, finding one with no text is impossible.  So now we’re making compelling custom graphics that tell the story—without words—and oh, yeah, it has to also crop to a square.

What did I do?

I figured for a few hours of work I could create some images and see if the ads really did make an impact.

For my San Juan Islands Mystery series I tried to pull imagery to match my heading: Deceit, deception, death… and a dog. The series is about Tish Yearly, her grandfather Tobias Yearly, and his Chocolate Lab Coats solving mysteries in the San Juan Islands. So I tried to select images that support the premise.

Interested? Buy at any online book retailer: https://books2read.com/AnUnseenCurrent

For my Shark Santoyo Crime Series with the heading, “An anything but typical new adult thriller” I used imagery that had already been created for Facebook.  The series features an unusual mobster who is faced with finding the bosses money or ending up in cement. His solution is creative and relies on a mysterious teenager who is fast with her mouth and even faster with a knife.

Interested? Buy or read on Kindle Unlimited: https://amzn.to/3NgCX2h

What were the results?

Surprisingly, I’ve seen a sharp uptick in people reading the Shark Santoyo series.  This delights me because I love the series. It was written during a phase that I wasn’t particularly interested in writing “to market” (crafting a book to meet specific genre expectations).  I wanted to write something gritty, action-packed, violent, AND funny.  All of those vibes combine to make something that’s a little hard to place genre-wise, so I love that people are enjoying it.

While I’m fortunate in that I do have the skillset to create graphics I’m not sure how Amazon expects most indie authors to fulfill these requirements.  Or perhaps, as per usual with the Zon, they don’t care—they have selected the course that’s best for them.  However, it does make me wonder what the future of indie publishing looks like.  As more indie writers become outclassed by the marketing environment, what will we need to do to adapt?

**

Bethany Maines is the award-winning author of action-adventure and fantasy tales that focus on women who know when to apply lipstick and when to apply a foot to someone’s hind end. She can usually be found chasing after her daughter, or glued to the computer working on her next novel (or screenplay). You can also catch up with her on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and BookBub.

 

Bethany Maines drinks from an arsenic mug

Rejection

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Rejection is Knocking

Part of any creative endeavor that gets shared with the public is rejection.  I understand that not every person will love my creative projects.  And I even get that somewhere out there is someone who hates my books and art.  In fact, I kind of hope there is.  I would like to have a nemesis who howls with rage every time I put out another book.  After all, if I’m not sparking unnatural fury in the heart of someone, what am I even doing with my life? However, hatred would be welcome compared to the banal everyday “meh” of rejection.

Rejection Corgi with the caption... Dear Writer: It's not you. It's me. Sincerely, The editor.

Thanks, but no thanks…

I would not care to count up the number of rejection letters and emails I have received over my career, but I would guess that it’s in the hundreds. And by and large, most of them are a polite form of “it’s not for me.” There have been many that have been intentionally or unintentionally condescending. “You’re doing so well” is not the compliment some people think it is. Many people (particularly those under 30) seem compelled to offer tips and suggestions rather than stating why they personally did not accept something.  There’s a big difference between “you should work on your hook” and “I couldn’t see how I would sell this in the current marketplace. I needed a something to more strongly differentiate it.” One tells me why you rejected it, the other sounds like I suck as a writer. (You may say that is a slight misinterpretation, but my brain does not believe you.)

So why sign up for rejection?

Because the risk is worth the reward. And, of course, there are the corgi memes. And after the first fifty, the polite “no thank you” rejections don’t sting quite so much and you can move on to ice cream, alcohol, and burning the really crappy rejections. And as much as I hate to admit, the rejections have helped me become a better writer. Admittedly, they’re a bit like following street signs in a foreign language as I try to decipher what exactly they mean, but they still give some clues.  Right now, I have two projects out to various entities and I’m crossing my fingers that they don’t try to send me searching down the back alleyways to self-improvement. I’d much rather they went with a large flashing sign that says “I love it!” But just in case, I’ll keep the desserts, memes and cocktails at the ready.

***

Bethany Maines is the award-winning author of action-adventure and fantasy tales that focus on women who know when to apply lipstick and when to apply a foot to someone’s hind end. She participates in many activities including swearing, karate, art, and yelling at the news. She can usually be found chasing after her daughter, or glued to the computer working on her next novel (or screenplay). You can also catch up with her on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and BookBub.

FOUND OBJECTS: FODDER FOR YOUR IMAGINATION

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For over 35 years, I’ve been writing, attending conferences and workshops, and making appearances. Like other authors, I’ve often been asked, “Where do you get your ideas?” (Even this morning at a coffee!)

With my background as a probation officer, attorney, politician, and judge (plus having worked s**t jobs over the 9 ½ years it took me to get my B.S.), in addition to being a wife, mother, daughter, aunt, grandmother, and having traveled around the world and lived in several states and countries and being a voracious reader—reading even the backs of cereal boxes and graffiti in public restrooms, I have no shortage of ideas. However, I have an additional resource I’d like to share: Found Objects.

I own a former fruitcake tin in which I keep found objects (except money, which I spend) unless the item is too big to fit inside. When I stumble upon something, my imagination takes off as I scurry to my Found Objects’ Tin to enhance my collection.

Once in the stall of a casino ladies’ room, I spotted a money wrapper on top of the toilet paper container. As a ex-bank teller, I knew money wrappers should not be in the same location as toilet paper since they aren’t used for the same purpose. Why was the wrapper there? Who left it? Should I tell the casino manager? Was someone embezzling money and going to head off down the road like Janet Leigh in Psycho?

One time at a conference, I found a slip of paper on which someone had written “Joe Loves me” “Joe Loves me Not” “Joe Lo” For years I’ve been wondering whether or not Joe loved her (or him). Was she/he at the same conference? Was Joe there? Is she/he married? Is Joe? Are they going to run away together? Maybe she’d been in Las Vegas and embezzled money and was questioning whether or not to flee with Joe? (Maybe she’d seen Psycho).

When my backyard was being prepared for landscaping, I found an earring. My house once belonged to a “mafia” family. Could there be a body below ground? Should I dig?

What about the love letter where a man named Richard apologizes to Phyl for leaving her for a few days while he sorts out his problems. What are his problems? Who is Phyl? For that matter, who is Richard? Does she really occupy all his thoughts as he states in the letter? Or is he thinking about going surfing with his friends while she takes care of the puppy he brought her as a peace offering?

Who in my neighborhood played tennis and lost a tennis ball in my yard? Or was the ball evidence of something? What about the teaspoon I found half buried in the dirt? And a key that could be from a stolen jewelry box? Did the person who dropped the grocery list remember everything she needed to purchase in order to create the perfect meal for her new mother-in-law? Was the skeleton earring part of a costume someone was wearing to a Halloween Ball? Was the inmate letter dropped by the intended recipient, or was it supposed to be trash?

My sister-in-law recently found a drone in her front yard. If I’d found it, I would have wondered, “Why is a drone in my yard?” “Was the drone hovering over my house?” “Is someone stalking me?” She posted about it on Next Door and returned it to the claimant. I’m not sure I would have…though it wouldn’t have fit in my Found Objects Tin.

What creative ways do you use to find ideas?

Susan P. Baker is the author of fourteen books and three in the works. She fends off ideas every day.

 

 

 

Judy L. Murray’s award-winning Chesapeake Bay Mystery series

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It’s my day to blog, and as I’m all tied up, I would like to welcome my special guest Judy L. Murray this month. Judy writes the award-winning Chesapeake Bay Mystery series, and may I say, having met Judy and read her fabulous books, I think I detect an uncanny resemblance between this author and her heroine, Helen Morrisey! Her latest book in the series has just launched. Peril in the Pool House, welcome Judy…  Joyce Woollcott

Author Judy. L. Murray

Real Estate Rule #3: It’s the rare buyer who wants to buy a haunted house. – Peril in the Pool House

Hello and thank you for the warm welcome! I am excited to announce the release of my third book in the award-winning Chesapeake Bay Mystery series, Peril in the Pool House. If you are familiar with the series, you know my protagonist, Helen Morrisey, is a mid-fifties widow with a quick tongue and sharp brain; a long-time real estate agent with a get it done attitude toward life. She doesn’t like to cook, likes her wine, stashes Twizzlers everywhere, lives on a Chesapeake cliff and is willing to rehab anything she comes across, especially houses and clients’ lives. She consults her own Detection Club of famous amateur sleuths to help her seek justice. As Jane Marple would declare, “It’s important that wickedness shouldn’t triumph.”

Each mystery presents a new real estate rule. Rule #1 in Murder in the Master is “A dead body creates buzz. A dead body in a house for sale is never the buzz you want.” Killer in the Kitchen Rule #2 is “How to sell a house. Offer a drop-dead kitchen”.

Two much appreciated recent reviews give you a taste of Peril in the Pool House: “The grand opening of Captain’s Watch Bed and Breakfast in one of Chesapeake Bay’s historic mansions, is ruined when the body of Kerry Lightner, a high-powered political campaign manager, is found in the pool house with fishing shears in her back. Is the killer a rival politician, an ex-lover, a jealous co-worker, or the ghost of missing harbor pilot Isaac Hollowell? When state senate candidate and B&B owner Eliot Davies becomes the prime suspect, his friend real estate agent-turned-amateur-investigator Helen Morrisey and her Detection Club of fictional women sleuths vow to solve the case—even if it means the end of Helen’s romance with Detective Joe McAlister. Peril in the Pool House, the third in Judy L. Murray’s award-winning Chesapeake Bay Mystery Series is smart, fast-paced, beautifully written, and utterly charming. Five stars!”Connie Berry, USA Today Best-Selling Author of the Kate Hamilton Mysteries

 

“Cozy mystery fans will delight in following Maryland realtor Helen Morrisey as she solves a double murder with the assistance of the vintage detectives populating her imagination.” Lucy Burdette, USA Today Best-Selling Author Key West Food Critics Mysteries.

As colder weather starts to kick up white crusted waves across the bay, I’m setting in to writing my next book. But my mysteries must have a title before I’m sure of their direction. It’s the way my brain works. I’ve had a lot of interesting suggestions from readers. Since I use alliteration, I’m throwing down the gauntlet – if you have suggestions, I’d love to hear them. Some of them are very funny or very gruesome. Here’s just a few to help you meet the challenge – Slayed in the Study, Bludgeoned in the Basement (ew!), Evil in the Entry, Death on the Docks, Sunk in the Sauna, Poisoned in the Pantry. Hope you have fun with this and enjoy jumping into my title conversation!

If you would like to learn more, find me at www.judylmurraymysteries.com  All my mysteries are available in print, e-format, audible and audio.

Happy reading and writing, Judy.

There you have it, readers. Using alliteration, any suggestions for Judy for her upcoming book title? Thanks for joining us, Judy! ~ Joyce

 

HOAs: Miss Marple Would Fit Right In

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Dear Stiletto Gang Readers and Contributors: No surprise here, I’m traveling again and it’s my day to blog.  I do have an outstanding surprise for you. My dear friend Author Linda Lovely is here in my stead to promote her HOA Mystery series and upcoming release, A Killer App available on November 7th. Please welcome Linda Lovely to The Stiletto Gang! ~ Donnell Ann Bell

HOAs—Miss Marple Would Fit Right In

Author Linda Lovely

By Linda Lovely

Where might Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple hang her hat if she were teleported to the U.S. in 2023? Where could the snoop find the ambience of sleepy St Mary Mead? Where could the spinster sniff out villains among her neighbors?

Some 355,000 common-interest communities offer Miss Marple condo, coop, and homeowner association (HOA) choices aplenty. Societal heirs to yesteryear’s villages—HOAs are now home to 74 million people.

And they make ideal settings for mysteries. If neighbors don’t actually know each other, they’ve heard whispers about the folks they’ve yet to meet. When a murder occurs, the rumor mill makes it easy to churn out suspect lists.

Plus, the inevitable power struggles provide motives and subplots. Think the GOP House of Representatives’ current infighting on a more intimate scale. Who backs more rules and restrictions? Who wants to scale them back? Who favors special assessments to add pickleball courts? Who thinks annual dues are too high?

These power struggles take on real emotional weight if changes directly impact an owner’s home—his or her castle. For instance, how would you feel if a dog park was proposed for the vacant lot next to your house?

Once I decided to write an HOA Mystery series, I knew the crimes couldn’t be confined to a single HOA. After all, who’d want to live in a place like Cabot Cove with its sky-high homicide rate?

To solve that problem, my heroine, Kylee Kane, works for a friend’s HOA management firm. The company has a dozen HOA clients in the South Carolina Lowcountry. Kylee, a retired Coast Guard investigator, has the experience and skills to be a realistic sleuth when trouble surfaces in any of these tight-knit enclaves.

Are HOA management companies common? I was somewhat surprised that only 35 percent of HOAs are run by volunteers. The rest leave the nitty-gritty work to 8,500 firms that specialize in managing HOAs.

Guess it shouldn’t be a shock. Owners who hold full-time jobs aren’t eager to pile more responsibilities on their plates, while retirees may feel they’ve earned the right to relax and travel. By and large, owners in both categories don’t want to prepare budgets, collect fees, manage landscape vendors, assess fines, or force neighbors to tear down a fence that doesn’t meet specs or repaint shutters an approved shade of green.

Of course, a few people LOVE to file complaints against neighbors over nitpick infractions. Guess that’s one reason that 2021 saw 263 complaints filed against 180 different HOAs in South Carolina, where my HOA Mystery series is set.

Like almost any group with more than two people, HOAs can hatch conflict. There’s no guarantee the folks who elect to buy in seaside HOAs will have a shared vision of an ideal community. Some will want to specify which plants are permitted and how many can be planted in a yard. Others will want to install vegetable gardens and native plants.

Some folks will view all trees, especially Palmetto and pine trees, as view-blocking weeds to be cut down. Nature lovers will strive to protect the trees for erosion control and wildlife habitat. As a result, cliques form, gossip passes for gospel, and outcasts long for revenge.

I’ve asked readers to tell me about HOA rules they find unreasonable. I’ve been told the ones listed below appear in the bylaws of at least one HOA.

  • Multicolored outdoor holiday lights are banned. Is the Grinch the enforcer?
  • Owners are only allowed to keep garage doors open five-minutes. Who mans the egg timer?
  • All drapes and window coverings must have white linings facing the outside. What happens if Joe Blow takes down all window coverings in protest and parades in his birthday suit?
  • If an owner wants to sell a home, he must pay the HOA to display a For Sale sign. Said sign can only be appear in an interior window.

While few of us hang out with rock stars, hitmen, or bitcoin tycoons, we know our neighbors—from the quietly heroic to the bullies. Familiar characters and homeowner passions make it easy for readers to relate to HOA tales.

I do attempt to showcase well-run HOAs as well as those in constant upheaval. The difference? Usually it’s the individuals who serve on the board. Did they run to push personal agendas? Or do they want to listen to neighbors and search for consensus on important issues?

My main goal in writing My HOA Mystery series is to entertain. (Okay, there is the bonus of killing off stand-ins for the types of folks who annoy me.) But I also hope my mysteries spotlight strategies to promote peace and harmony within HOAs.

About the Book:

Deepfakes Can Be Murder

Kylee Kane, a security consultant for Welch HOA Management, finds the first victim, Andy Fyke, crumpled at the bottom of a flight of stairs. Kylee suspects his fall’s no accident and is tied to Andy’s campaign to prohibit rentals in his Hilton Head Island community. Yet, Andy’s obvious enemies have ironclad alibis.

When another Lowcountry HOA retiree dies in a hit-and-run boat tragedy, Kylee begins to think the incidents are linked—even though the victims and their assailants have little in common.

The link is the Chameleon, an Artificial Intelligence expert, who can create a deepfake of almost anyone—living or dead. Even more frightening is the Chameleon’s ability to seek out disturbed souls and laser-focus their rage. A talent employed to compel subjects to act as surrogate assassins.

When Kylee begins to pursue the Chameleon, the AI expert decides it’s time to groom an assassin to permanently sideline Kylee.

You can learn more about Linda Lovely and/or sign up for her newsletter at Welcome (lindalovely.com)

 

BOOK LAUNCH NUMBER TWO AND THE TERRIFYING SPECTRE OF SPEAKING ON A PANEL AT BOUCHERCON/23––and that’s not all…

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Bouchercon Update!

I missed the blog last month due to a technical error on my part … so here are two blogs in one! Might be fun actually, as I have now just returned from Bouchercon and can give a report. The expectation and the realization!

It was terrific—and my panel was fun, I made it through and enjoyed it.

The Debut authors’ breakfast was a blast. And may I say, the breakfast was delicious, although I was too nervous to eat much.

A Nice Place to Die was available at the bookstore and sold out. That was worth the trip right there.

But really, one of the most fun things is meeting and sometimes becoming friends with fellow authors. I met Ann Cleeves briefly and she was very gracious. I got a picture with her. That’s it, but I now consider her one of my very best friends.

I did spend some time with the  fabulous Iona Whishaw, Canadian readers  know her well…

And the charming S.M. Freedman, we enjoyed the Awards banquet together. And Caro Ramsey, a Scottish writer of mysteries and suspense, she was terrific and we plan to keep in touch. I was able to reconnect with good friends I’d met before; Judy L. Murray, Lane Stone, Sharon Lynn, just to name a few.

And Shawn Reilly Simmons, my editor, and award-winning author herself.

AUGUST BLOG IN SEPTEMBER

I leave for Bouchercon in a week or so and it’s an exciting prospect. I attended once before In Tampa. I was already in Florida at the time with my husband and decided it was worth the extra expense. As we climbed the steps to the host hotel to register, Ian Rankin walked by reading a guide book. And that about sums the experience up for me. You get to meet your author favourites, listen to wonderful educational sessions on writing, and oh yes, meet people at the bar!

That first time I knew no one. I had the name of an author through a friend and I contacted her, not expecting much. But Marcia Talley was astonishing and friendly and welcoming. I met Sujata Massey, Deborah Crombie and countless others over coffee and at events.

I sat one table over from Lee Child, and extricated the wonderful Lisa Scottoline from an ardent fan. It really was a fabulous experience.

This year I’m going again, this time to San Diego as a published author!

I’m a fairly new writer, compared with my terrific colleagues on the Stiletto Gang, who are all well known and have published many wonderful books across all genres. This time I applied to be on a panel. I don’t know the ins and outs of how to get chosen, but in my request I tried to be flexible to different panel ideas but clear that I needed to know something about the subject.

And so, what was that, my subject? What did I know something about? Murder? Well that might not set me apart and help me get a spot on a panel—what with it being a murder/mystery convention and all. I had to dig deeper.

What did I love writing about—apart from murder? What could I bring to a conversation that might make an interesting panel for readers and other writers?

One of the things I realized from talking to readers who bought and enjoyed my book was their interest in the setting, Belfast––and there you have it. Ireland, north and south.

I was surprised at the number of people who expressed a desire to visit Belfast. Once the death knell for a book or writer, famously and forever connected to ‘The Troubles,’ now miraculously rising from the ashes to become, dare I say it, a favourite tourist destination. We even have cruise ships stopping by with tourists dandering around a city they once watched on the news, with reports of explosions and gunfire all over the place.

But The Troubles are not the focus of my books, because that’s not what my stories are about. They’re about people who are caught in difficult circumstances. About love and hate and jealousy and finally, murder. All in that wonderful setting. Gloomy and sunbright in turn. Rain and wind, blue skies and gorgeous deserted beaches. And that’s what I asked for. I wanted to talk about writing a story set in a country I was born in and love, but no longer live in. How memory and longing play into shaping a book and the characters who populate it. And miraculously I got the word! Yes, a panel. Scary but exciting.

TRAVEL BY THE BOOK: MYSTERIES SET IN OTHER COUNTRIES. Saturday Sept 2 at 8:55am. Please come and listen if you’re at the convention. Should be fun.

Now let me tell you all about the Bouchercon Debut Authors’ Breakfast… Kidding, I’m kidding.

Blood Relations Cover

Blood Relations Cover

And a note about the launch of my second book. BLOOD RELATIONS. It’s due out in The US in August. Here’s a link to Amazon, but you can look for both books, #1: A NICE PLACE TO DIE and #2: BLOOD RELATIONS, at most fine on-line retailers too.

A Nice Place to Die and Blood Relations.

A Nice Place to Die and Blood Relations.

Blood Relations, A DS Ryan McBride Mystery Book #2
Twitter:  @JoyceWoollcott 

Buy the book.