Tag Archive for: Author Bethany Maines

How to Craft a Mystery

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by Bethany Maines
Step One:  Read the paper and/or listen to your weird uncle
to learn about strange ways people have died recently.  This usually involves blurting out something
like “ooh, another dead body!” while snatching up the paper in the middle of
the busy hour at a coffee shop. 
Bonus Points: If
someone shuffles away from you at the coffee shop, collect an additional 20 Murderer Alert points!
Step Two: Having
decided on your method of death it’s time for research! Start googling all
sorts of things that will help you cover up your crime.  Also, go on a vacation to the place that you
plan on putting your dead body. 
Bonus Points: If
you can say “This is a good place to kill someone!” in an aggressively cheerful
manner to the person at the tourist bureau who just wants to help, collect an
additional 20 Walking Sociopath points!
Step Three: Sit
down and write the book.  This is the
boring bit, but it does come with fun voices in your head to talk to.
Bonus Points: If
you finish the manuscript, collect an additional 20 I Have No Life points!
Step Four:  Realize that there is a plot-hole in your
book and go back to step three.
Bonus Points: If
you don’t become an alcoholic, collect an additional 20 At Least I’m Not an Asshole Like Hemingway points!
Step Five: Get
your book back from the editor and give back your Hemingway points while you
try to get over the stupid, stupid, stupid edits.
Bonus Points: Look,
you’ve got a complete book at this points, you shouldn’t need stupid bonus
points, but hey, if that’s what keeps you going, then take 5 I Need a Cookie points.
Step Six: Release
the book into the wild and realize that you are a winner!
An Unfamiliar Sea will be available on 1.21.20
Tish Yearly just opened a wedding venue on Orcas Island in
Washington State and one of her employees just drowned in four inches of water.
Now it’s up to Tish and her grandfather Tobias Yearly, the 79-year-old ex-CIA
agent and current private investigator, to find out who could have wanted the
sweet waitress dead. 

AN UNFAMILIAR SEA:
PRE-ORDER NOW! 










**

Bethany Maines is the award-winning author of the Carrie Mae Mysteries, San Juan Islands Mysteries, Shark Santoyo Crime Series, and numerous
short stories. When she’s not traveling to exotic lands, or kicking some
serious butt with her black belt in karate, she can be found chasing her
daughter or glued to the computer working on her next novel. You can also catch up with her on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and BookBub.

Merry Christmas!

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by Bethany Maines

Some years I’m more into the Christmas spirit than others.  This year I started listening to Christmas music before Thanksgiving. I’ve squeezed in my favorite Christmas movies – White Christmas and Die Hard. I have decorated the mantle with every single Christmas card, including the one from the distant family friends that came with a two page letter (who has the time for that??).  And I have wrapped all the presents and bought all the stuffs. Christmas is happening at my place. 

But not all years are filled with the Yuletide joy.  And I do remember a few seasons in which I wanted to stab the eye out of the next bell ringer and I deeply resonated with Hans Gruber.  Well, I mean to be honest, I still resonate with Hans Gruber.  Who doesn’t want 600 million in bearer bonds and who wouldn’t get mad about some stupid NYC cop ruining a perfectly good heist?  I mean, really.

But whether you’re feeling like curling up away from everyone with a good book (ahem, here’s a few you might like – Bethany Maines on Amazon) or you’re going to be rocking it with family and friends – I wish you a Merry Christmas and a restful vacation.  And as Hans once said, “It’s Christmas, Theo — it’s the time of miracles.” So maybe this year we’ll all get our Christmas wishes (and 600 million in bearer bonds).

**

Bethany Maines is the award-winning author of the Carrie Mae Mysteries, San Juan Islands Mysteries, Shark Santoyo Crime Series, and numerous
short stories. When she’s not traveling to exotic lands, or kicking some
serious butt with her black belt in karate, she can be found chasing her
daughter or glued to the computer working on her next novel. You can also catch up with her on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and BookBub.

Time to Get Serial

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by Bethany Maines

This week (12/9 – 12/13) one of my short stories, Oh, Holy Night, is being serialized on
Frolic – the site for all things romance. 
Oh, Holy Night is a Christmas
romance involving bank robbery, coffee, and best friends. And while I’m always
ecstatic to sell and share one of my stories, I have to say that I’m a little
more over the moon about this story because of the significance of serialized
stories in the history of writing.
Most people think of Charles Dickens when they think of
serialized stories.  And although A Christmas Carol was not serialized,
his Pickwick Papers (1836) was
written and shared in nineteen installments, each costing a shilling.  Partially, the success was due to the format
of bite-size, cliff-hanger segments sold in a time when people couldn’t dash
off and find entertainment on their phones. 
But, let’s think about that for just a moment.  Now that we can dash off and find entertainment
at any moment of the day, wouldn’t now be the perfect time for bite-size,
cliff-hanger segments of a story?  The
old adventure movies captured this idea in the early days of film with short
movies that were meant to keep you coming back next Saturday or at the least for the next reel. Have you ever
wondered why some movies (ex: James Bond) will give you a 15 minute opening
adventure before cutting to the credits? Thank the early days of film when complete reels were 15 minutes long
and the projectionist needed to hustle to change reels. Current television has captured this format
with long story lines and cliff-hanger episodes and then broken the mold by
allowing everyone to binge watch all the episodes at once. The idea of writing
extended stories that leave the reader wanting more with each chapter is a
unique skill that is hard to master. One that I’m sure I haven’t mastered it
yet, but one that I’m excited to work on. 
If you Pop over to Frolic to read Oh, Holy Night for free
and check out my effort at a serialized story!

**
Bethany Maines is the award-winning author of the Carrie Mae Mysteries, San Juan Islands Mysteries, Shark Santoyo Crime Series, and numerous
short stories. When she’s not traveling to exotic lands, or kicking some
serious butt with her black belt in karate, she can be found chasing her
daughter or glued to the computer working on her next novel. You can also catch up
with her on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and BookBub.

Dead Zone

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by Bethany Maines

Welcome to the day where no one is on-line, but everyone is at the grocery store. Hopefully, you are successfully home from such an excursion and have yet to launch into the holiday madness of bake, travel, eat, travel, flop face first onto the pile of laundry on your bed because you didn’t have time to put it away before you left. My hope for you, dear reader, is that your home with your feet up reading a good book and sipping hot cocoa, cider, or the nog of your choice. That is also my dream for myself, so let’s dream the impossible dream together.

The dream starts with good books. Check this space on Friday for a Stiletto Gang book guide featuring some awesome giveaways, sales and just a general list of good things to read. But here are some of mine that you can snag for a quick, easy and cheap!

Blue Christmas – Want a hilarious romantic holiday thriller? Simply join my newsletter and get this one for free. It’s as easy as that.
Link: bethanymaines.com/free-e-book/

An Unseen Current – Murder, mystery, a hunky Sheriff’s Deputy, a granddaughter / granddad detective duo, oh, and there’s a dog.  The third in the series, An Unfamiliar Sea, comes out in January.  Grab book one for $.99!
Link: Amazon

Shark’s Instinct – Crime, humor, and a heroine and hero that are more than they seem, the Shark Santoyo Series follows a duo that have the odds stacked against them.  Buy book one for $.99 or check it out on Kindle Unlimited.
Link: Amazon

  

Now let’s talk Nog.  I personally do not believe in egg nog.  Too much egg.  Not enough nog.  But I do believe in cocktails.  So with that in mind I suggest the Moscow Mule.  Served in a festive copper cup (but really can be drunk out of anything) try this drink with a slice of lime as a garnish.

Main alcohol: Vodka
Ingredients: 4 oz Ginger beer, 1 1/2 oz Vodka, 1/6 oz Lime juice
Preparation: Combine vodka and ginger beer in a copper mug or highball glass filled with ice. Add lime juice. Stir gently and garnish with a lime slice.
Served: On the rocks; poured over ice.
Drinkware: Copper mug or highball glass

Good luck out there my friends. Don’t let the holidays be anything less than jolly!

***

Bethany Maines is the award-winning author of the Carrie Mae Mysteries, San Juan Islands Mysteries, Shark Santoyo Crime Series, and numerous
short stories. When she’s not traveling to exotic lands, or kicking some
serious butt with her black belt in karate, she can be found chasing her
daughter or glued to the computer working on her next novel. You can also catch up with her on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and BookBub.

Reviews

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by Bethany Maines

Ahhhhhh… The soothing feeling of not being in a mad
marketing scramble.  
Being in a post-book release time frame is both relaxing and a little bit of a
let-down.  The majority of sales happen
around the book release week and after that, there’s just general marketing and
gulp, waiting for reviews to come in. Reviews, believe it or not, are quite
hard to come by.  In a world where
literally every service seems to ask for you to thumbs up, rate, review, rave
about, the good old fashioned recommendation of a book has become both more
important and yet, even harder to get.
Readers get intimidated by the process – do I need to write a book report?
Ahhhhhh!!!!  The answer to that one
is no.  Short reviews are frequently the
best.  For example, here’s the latest
review for The Second Shot…
“A drunken mistake in college cost U.S. Marshal Maxwell Ames
the love of Dominique Deveraux and six years later, he’s determined to fix the
slip-up. But there’s just one tiny problem. When I started reading I couldn’t
put it down. Bethany Maines is magnificent and amazing writer. I cannot wait to
read more of her books. Keep up the great work. You should definitely read this
book. Can’t wait for the next book.”
Now obviously any review that calls me an amazing writer is
going to be tops with me, but beyond that, the reviewer did the one thing
that is required in a review – said what she liked. Then she gave it a rating
and moved on with life. No synopsis, spoilers, no over thinking or hard work.  Read the book, reacted, bam, done.
Then readers think –
does it really matter if I leave a review? 
Short answer, yes, it really, really does.  Even on
older books?  YES!!  There are some marketing options that I can
only get if I have enough reviews or a high enough rating.  Your kind words really matter.  And of course, saying I’m an awesome writer
is the kind of thing that keeps me going when some meanie leaves me a two star
review. (It happens to everyone, we are breathing, we are breathing, and
letting it go…)
So to anyone who has left a book review, even if it wasn’t
for one of my books, I say thank you. 
And if you’d like to give a writer a gift… may I suggest leaving a
review on Amazon, BookBub, or Goodreads.
***

Bethany Maines is the award-winning author of the Carrie Mae Mysteries, San Juan Islands Mysteries, Shark Santoyo Crime Series, and numerous
short stories. When she’s not traveling to exotic lands, or kicking some
serious butt with her black belt in karate, she can be found chasing her
daughter or glued to the computer working on her next novel. You can also catch up with her on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and BookBub.

The Second Shot Release Day!

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by Bethany Maines
Have you ever seen one of those Looney Tunes characters just
runs around screaming?  That feels like
me today.  I mean, I’m trying to keep it
contained, but… inside I look like this.

My latest novel, The
Second Shot, is now available to the public and that means that people will
(hopefully) buy it and then (ack!) read it. 
Today is the day that we see if all of my writing, marketing, and
general daydreaming has paid off. I’ll be celebrating the release with on-line
“take-over” parties and giveaways.
GIVEAWAYS:
Enter to win 1 of 10 print copies on Goodreads – giveaway
ends 10/26 – CLICK HERE TO ENTER

Enter to win a $40 Amazon card and a signed copy on Facebook – CLICK HERE TO ENTER
Meet me online and maybe get more free stuff!
October 25: Take-Over of Next Steps PR Facebook Page
October 30: BestStellars BestSellers Release Party (stay
tuned for who’s partying!) 
TRY BEFORE YOU BUY:
The Second Shot is
a thriller/mystery dished up with a heavy side of romance. Think that sounds
like you’re cup of tea, but aren’t quite ready to commit?  Read the first chapter at: bethanymaines.com/the-second-shot-chapter-1 
WHAT ITS ABOUT:
A drunken mistake in college cost US Marshal Maxwell Ames
the affection of Dominique Deveraux and six years later, he’s determined to fix
the slip-up. But there’s just one tiny problem—someone wants the Deveraux
family dead. Dominique Deveraux never expected Max to reappear in her life, let
alone apologize, but as Dominique investigates the mysterious attacks on her
wealthy family Max quickly becomes far more than her one time college
classmate. Now, Max and Dominique must dodge mercenaries and bullets as they try
to make sure that they’re the only ones who get a second shot.

Buy on all platforms: https://books2read.com/The-Second-Shot

The Marketing Paradox

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by Bethany Maines

A funny thing happens when you begin marketing book. Suddenly
a project that has been intensely personal becomes public property. And even
worse, once it’s public, the public begin to have opinions about it. (The
nerve!) And as much as an author wants everyone to universally love our
precious baby novel, not everyone is going to. From reading while in a bad
mood, to just not being someone’s cup of tea, not everyone is going to like a
book.

But even if everything does go as smoothly as possible and
someone does love the book, suddenly ownership becomes shared with everyone who
loves it. The story takes up residence in someone else’s head which, for an
author who has had those characters living in her head for months or years, is
intensely strange and disconcerting. With each book I write I start out wanting
to share about it immediately.  It’s like
falling in love.  You’ve met these
wonderful, hilarious, romantic, daring people and you want to tell everyone
about them. But as I move into the marketing stage I find that in some ways I
become more protective of my characters and story. Please love that one even
though I’ve made him annoying.  And don’t
make fun of her – she has hidden depths! Although, yes, go ahead and hate
him.  We all should hate him.

Except that a book needs to be shared to be successful. I
want strangers to talk about it, readers to review it, and friends to share it.
Those things are literally what make a book a success. It is a very strange dichotomy
of wanting to shout as loud as possible while at the same time hoping nobody
looks at me while I’m doing it. So nobody look at me while I say this next
bit…

The Second Shot is coming out in two weeks!!! Please share the news with others.
A drunken mistake in college cost US Marshall Maxwell Ames the love of Dominique Deveraux. Six years later, he’s determined to fix the slip-up, but there’s just one tiny problem: someone wants the Deveraux family dead. Now Max must make sure that the only one getting a second shot at Dominique is him.

Pre-order on all epub platforms (Kindle coming soon!): CLICK HERE

Want a chance to win a free print edition of The Second
Shot? Enter to win at Goodreads!   CLICK HERE to Enter!

Bethany Maines is the award-winning author of the Carrie Mae Mysteries, San Juan Islands Mysteries, Shark Santoyo Crime Series, and numerous
short stories. When she’s not traveling to exotic lands, or kicking some
serious butt with her black belt in karate, she can be found chasing her
daughter or glued to the computer working on her next novel. You can also catch up with her on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and BookBub.

All the News!

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by Bethany Maines

The last few years have been extremely busy for me in terms of writing and that means that in 2020 all of you will be seeing the results. So I thought we should do a little re-cap of everything that’s happening.  Here is an update on all things Bethany.

THE SECOND SHOT- Release Date: 10.24.19

My romantic suspense novel was named a Pacific Northwest Writer’s Association 2019 Finalist in the Romance category! Although, I have to admit, my love story shares it’s DNA with a mystery-thriller I’m extremely excited and proud of this award.  It was also featured in Frolic – the online magazine for people who love love-stories.  And it has made it onto the Goodreads “Most Anticipated Release for October” List.  This list is voted on by Goodreads readers, so if you’re on Goodreads, please go vote The Second Shot!  AND, last but not least, there’s a Rafflecopter Giveaway for a $25 Amazon Giftcard.  Entering is easy, just go click a few things and follow me on social media and you’re entered!

COMING 2020!

An Unfamiliar Sea – Book 3 of the San Juan Islands Mysteries will be released in January.  
Tish and Tobias Yearly are back to business finding bodies, solving mysteries and delivering death pie to the bereaved.
Shark’s Fin & Peregrine’s Flight – Book 4 of the Shark Santoyo Series, along with a Peregrine Hays centered novella, will be released in late April of 2020. 
Shark and Peri are finally facing down mob-boss Geier and no one is safe.
The Cinderella Secret – Book 2 of The Deveraux Legacy will be released in October.
Aiden Deveraux has a secret – he’s not the Prince Charming he pretends to be and the Deveraux enemies are about to find that out.

PENDING

Short Stories – I have two out on submission – stay tuned for whether or not they get accepted into their respective publications!
Galactic Dreams Volume 3 – After taking a hiatus for 2020, Galactic Dreams, the Blue Zephyr Press Sci-Fairy Tale anthology, will be back in 2021!

Bethany Maines is the award-winning author of the Carrie Mae Mysteries, San Juan Islands Mysteries, Shark Santoyo Crime Series, and numerous
short stories. When she’s not traveling to exotic lands, or kicking some
serious butt with her black belt in karate, she can be found chasing her
daughter or glued to the computer working on her next novel. You can also catch up with her on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and BookBub.

New Things

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by Bethany Maines

Yesterday was the first day of Kindergarten for my
daughter.  She looked a little bit
nervous, but mostly seemed to be taking it in stride. Many of the other parents
weren’t.  Someone kindly went around and
passed out tissues.  My husband and I
made it through without tears, but we did feel a bit glum about our baby not
being a baby anymore.  And like many
events that are symbolic markers of something new, even when we poo-poo it as
“just another day,” there is still the sense that it is the time to begin a
project and shake up the routine.
Toward that end, I took a stab at cleaning my office.  It was a very small stab.  Sort of a paring knife kind of stab rather
than a meat cleaver, but efforts were made.  Then I started a new short story because,
let’s face it, I’ll do anything to avoid cleaning my office.  This one I think will be a reverse Miss
Marple (the old lady is the killer). 
We’ll have to see how it turns out.  I also started a Facebook Group called the Reader B’s.  Facebook groups add greater interaction and flexibility than pages, making them more equivalent to conversations.  If you would like to belong to a group
dedicated to readers and authors, please do join.  I’ll have posts about books, book reviews, posts
from other authors and discussions about all of my books and short stories.
UPDATE:
My next novel, The Second Shot, is releasing October 24 and is now a finalist in the Pacific Northwest Literary Contest.  If you have a netgalley account and want to read a great new book for #free, check out this blogger/reader sign-up!  Don’t want to be officially a part of the excitement, but want to keep tabs on all the news? Add The Second Shot to your Goodreads list or pre-order for iBooks today.
💌 Sign up today:
http://bit.ly/ReleasePromotionTheSecondShot
📚 Add to Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/46837067-the-second-shot
➡️ Pre-Order: Apple Books: https://apple.co/32sL3vV
***
Bethany Maines
is the
award-winning author of the Carrie Mae
Mystery Series, San Juan Islands
Mysteries, Shark Santoyo Crime Series,
and numerous short stories. When she’s not traveling to exotic lands, or
kicking some serious butt with her black belt in karate, she can be found chasing
her daughter or glued to the computer working on her next novel. You can also catch up with her on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and BookBub.

Statistics

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by Bethany Maines

Recently, I’ve been experimenting with some partnered
writing.  This goal of this partnership
is to write a novella and turn it into a screenplay.  As this will only be the second screenplay
I’ve written, I’m guessing at some of the mile-markers that let me know if the
project is meeting our goals or if we’ve wandered completely off-track.  As a result, I’ve become slightly obsessed
with the statistics of the work.  I’m
tracking how long chapters are, the character’s vital information (age,
occupation, relationships, descriptions), how often each character appears in
scenes and how long the screenplay is in comparison to the novella.
Some interesting statistics have emerged.  From a forty-thousand-word manuscript it
looks like we need to achieve a twenty-thousand-word screenplay.  For those familiar with basic math that’s
HALF!  That has forced some necessary contractions
in the story.  Some characters have
merged, some scenes got trimmed, and an entire sub-plot got deleted.
But as the process has progressed, keeping a sharp eye on
the length has given me insight into where the story is running long and where
it was going to need to be cut. 
This has been an interesting tactic for writing because knowing that
you’re writing something that’s going to be cut later makes motivation a bit
hard.  However, it does free me to write
more elaborately and descriptively then perhaps I might ordinarily for the
novella since I know that scenery description is not generally included in a
screenplay.
In all, writing for a specific goal has streamlined the
process in many ways, but also created some interesting  constraints. 
Hopefully, with information gleaned from this project my next attempts
at screenplay writing will be easier still.
***

Have a Netgalley account?  Interested in reviewing Bethany’s upcoming book?  Sign up to be part of the review team!  All readers & bloggers welcome!  Or  add it to your TBR list on Goodreads! Pre-Order on Apple iBooks also available.

➡️ Pre-Order: Apple Books: https://apple.co/32sL3vV

***
Bethany Maines is the award-winning author of the Carrie Mae Mystery Series, San Juan Islands Mysteries, Shark Santoyo Crime Series, and numerous
short stories. When she’s not traveling to exotic lands, or kicking some
serious butt with her black belt in karate, she can be found chasing her
daughter or glued to the computer working on her next novel. You can also catch up with her on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and BookBub.