Tag Archive for: Double Down

Judge a Cover

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Don’t judge a book by the cover. 


How many times have you heard that bit of advice? 

Of course, it’s usually a reference to a person, but sometimes it actually refers to a book. I know I’ve scrolled through online retailers, glancing at covers to see if it might be a story I’d enjoy. 

I’m having new covers created for the novellas in my Holly Price series, partly to set them apart from the “main” story line, but also because it’s fun. And with the way 2020 is going, we need all the fun we can find. 

Step one in the process was reading all about current ideas and trends in cover design until my head spun. Then it was a matter of researching cover artists and wearing out my fingers and eyeballs perusing their websites and galleries. (Note to self, this is supposed to be fun.)

But I found several I liked! Score! 

The difficult part is deciding which cover to use. I asked my newsletter peeps – and of course, it was a tie. 

Head. Desk. 

So all you lovely website followers and Facebook gurus, weigh in! 

Double Down cover

Green cover for Double Down Fancy cover for Double Down



Cover 1 – Keep it the same as the rest of the series 

Cover 2 – Is Maddie the gold-digger the Kaufman clan claims? 

Cover 3 – Is Maddie an ice queen like Malbec Mayhem’s Sofia appears to be? (This one is going to need a frame…)

Leave me a comment about your favorite! 

Thanks! 

An award-winning author of financial mysteries, Cathy Perkins writes twisting dark suspense and light amateur sleuth stories.  When not writing, she battles with the beavers over the pond height or heads out on another travel adventure. She lives in Washington with her husband, children, several dogs and the resident deer herd.  Visit her at http://cperkinswrites.com or on Facebook 

Sign up for her new release announcement newsletter in either place.

She’s hard at work on the sequel to The Body in the Beaver Pond, which was recently presented with the Claymore Award. 

Copy Cut Paste

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By Cathy Perkins




Have you heard about the latest scandal rocking RomanceLandia?
A woman has been caught lifting sentences, paragraphs, pages from multiple (up
to 20 and counting) authors and stringing them together into a new book.

Copy. Cut. Paste. 


Plagiarism. 


I thought about this while I walked the dogs and see the following spectrum from the benign to the terrible.



The Same, But Different



How many times have we seen that phrase as to what an
agent/publisher wants? It’s why tropes are so popular in RomanceLandia: friends
to lovers; secret baby. The mystery world has its own familiar plots. The
protagonist who races to save the world before the villain takes over/destroys it.
The serial killer; can the hero stop him before he kills again? The small-town
heroine who a body and must investigate to remove herself from the prime
suspect position.
Shoot, I’m part of a Common Elements Project where we’re all
given the same five required elements, and then told Go!
What makes all of these “work” is each author will tell the
story in a different way, with their unique voice. 
So, the same…but different.



The Inadvertent



This may be every author’s secret fear. Or maybe it’s just
mine.
I read. A lot.
There’s always the concern a story’s clever phrase has
tucked away in a memory cell and will reappear in a similar fashion on my page.
I can’t point to a particular phrase—if I recognized it, I’d change it—but I fear
it could happen. I remember reading—somewhere—that this is more common than
expected. Or maybe the point of the article was it happens a lot more than we
realize. 
But, again, I stress it’s inadvertent.



And the Ugly



Stealing. Deliberately.
Plagiarism hurts authors at a deeper level than the whack-a-mole,
steal-a-book in a “free” download sites. Those sites and the people who use
them are stealing from authors financially. 
Plagiarism takes an author’s soul.
Words we’ve sweated over, melded into scenes to convey action, character and
theme are casually stolen with no thought to the crafting that underlies them.
And worse, it’s done with full knowledge of the theft.
One of the authors impacted by Serruya is a friend—Courtney
Milan. She’s written a post about her experience and her reaction. Because the
hurt is so personal, I won’t presume to tell you about it. Instead, I urge you
to read her words.

Authors – Have you worried about the inadvertent? Found your
work ripped off?
Readers – Have you read something you felt was a little too close
to something else you’ve read?




On a completely different note, I put DOUBLE DOWN on sale this
week because it’s my birthday and I like to share (legally). 


DOUBLE DOWN is the
second book in the Holly Price series, written because readers wanted to see
events from Detective JC Dimitrak’s perspective.Murder
isn’t supposed to be in the cards for blackjack dealer Maddie Larsson. Busted takes on a new meaning when her favorite customer, a
former Poker World Tour champion, is murdered. His family claims—loudly and
often—Maddie is the gold-digging murderer. She better prove she’s on the level
before the real killer cashes in her chips. 


If the victim’s body had been dumped five hundred yards up
the road, Franklin County Sheriff’s Detective JC Dimitrak wouldn’t have been
assigned to the Tom Tom Casino murder case. Instead, he’s hunting for suspects
and evidence while dealing with a nemesis from the past and trying to preserve
his own future. He better play his hand correctly and find the killer before an
innocent woman takes the ultimate hit.

Find it here from your favorite store. books2read.com/DoubleDown 


And because I forgot to put it on my calendar, HONOR CODE is
also on sale this weekend, with a group promo.



In a small southern town
where everyone normally knows each other’s business, veteran detective Larry
Robbins must solve the disappearance of eighty-year-old widower,
African-American George Beason.


When evidence arises that Beason may have left town on his
own, it would be easy for Robbins to close the case, but his gut instinct tells
him more’s at stake. As he uncovers clues about Beason’s deceased wife and his
estranged daughter, Robbins must untangle conflicting motives and hidden
agendas to bring Beason home alive.

HONOR CODE hit #1 in its category at release and the most
recent fraud alert says another 5000 people downloaded it off a steal-a-book site
this month. You can pick up a copy here or here. 



Happy Reading! 

Ready to Double Down?

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“Double Down” used to
mean a calculated gamble – and maybe it still does. The technique certainly can
increase the odds of winning. These days the term can mean anything from a bold
decision to an increased resolve to stick to a position. Of course, it can also
be a media euphemism with huge political overtones about certain
statements, but that’s a different discussion.

What do the words have to do with books?

Lots!  DOUBLE DOWN, a story set in the Holly Price mystery series world, is my newest release.


While this story was fun to write, I have a couple of confessions to make:  
People always ask authors where we get our story ideas. Confession #1 – The premise for this story was a given. A group of us challenged
each other to write a story where luck changed the protagonist’s life.  Of course, for a mystery writer this means someone is likely to die. That isn’t the life changing event. 

Really. 
Characters are as
important as the plot in my stories. My heroine, Maddie Larsson, leapt onto the page. The
inspiration for Maddie came from a friend’s daughter—a single parent who works
in a casino as a blackjack dealer. Maddie’s determination to forge a stable
life for herself and her son draws the admiration of one of the casino’s gamblers, attention that
changes her life for the better but also threatens to ruin—or end—it.
I wrestled a bit with the male lead character. So many readers
wanted to see JC Dimitrak’s side of events (JC is the hero in So About the
Money, book 1 in the series) I decided to put him in charge of the
investigation. Maybe he was a little too charming since my beta readers …well, telling you would be a spoiler.


Confession #2 – I
didn’t know anything about gambling. Honestly, I don’t understand the
attraction but clearly it’s a popular pastime. Fortunately I had a willing
“resource” (aka my friend’s daughter) to teach me the basics and give me
insight into the dealers’ world.

Take all that and place your bets – DOUBLE DOWN releases
October 23rd
Murder isn’t supposed
to be in the cards for blackjack dealer Maddie Larsson. Busted takes on a new
meaning when her favorite customer, a former Poker World Tour champion, is
murdered. His family claims—loudly and often—Maddie is the gold-digging
murderer. She better prove she’s on the level before the real killer cashes in
her chips. 
If the victim’s body
had been dumped five hundred yards up the road, Franklin County Sheriff’s
Detective JC Dimitrak wouldn’t have been assigned to the Tom Tom Casino murder
case. Instead, he’s hunting for suspects and evidence while dealing with a
nemesis from the past and trying to preserve his own future. He better play his
cards correctly and find the killer before an innocent woman takes the ultimate
hit.
Special release week pricing! 
Amazon       B&N      Kobo      iBooks  
An award-winning author of financial
mysteries, Cathy Perkins writes twisting dark suspense and light amateur sleuth
stories.  When not writing, she battles with the beavers over the pond
height or heads out on another travel adventure. She lives in Washington with
her husband, children, several dogs and the resident deer herd.

Find out more or sign up for her newsletter at http://cperkinswrites.com 

Series and Standalones

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Series or Standalone? 
By Cathy Perkins

Hitting
today’s Frustration Meter – getting to the end of what you thought was a really
great standalone novel and stumbling onto the words “END OF BOOK
ONE.”  

(Yes, First World Problem.)


Worse yet – ugh – a serial novel.

Or the flip side – you reach the end of a story, and the ending is so
perfect… 


…or
you’re like a food addict and someone just took away your cake. 

“How am I
supposed to live without these characters? What
happens next? How could the author be so cruel?“



Which begs the questions: Series or Standalone?



Probably the single biggest advantage to a series is if you like the characters, you can get more of their
story. After a while it becomes comfortable, like hanging out with friends.  I know
these people! I like them – what’s happening?
Over
the course of the series, the characters can change, hopefully improving for
the better, over a more realistic, longer period. As a reader, it’s easier to commit
time and money if the book in a series. If you like the first one, you figure
you’ll like the next one in the series, rather than chancing another random book, even
another book by the same author.
The down side is, if each book in the series doesn’t have a
complete and satisfying story arc of its own, you may feel you’re left hanging
while waiting for the next book. Books aren’t like TV shows. You
don’t get the next episode a week later. Also, depending
on the overall story arc of the series, there may be significant threads left
unresolved. This can bother a reader who has to wait for the next book.
Writing a series means every installment has
to be as good as or better than the last. No rehashing of a theme. No cookie
cutter plots. No formulas. Readers deserve to feel their appetite for the adventure was satisfied, and they can’t wait for the next in the series.
Another challenge is
backstory. Can the reader pick up a book in the middle of the series and get
enough backstory for it to make sense? Or do they have to start with book one?
How much backstory does the author include in subsequent books without boring
the dedicated series fan or confusing the mid-series pick-up reader?
Finally, what if a series goes too long?
What if the protagonist keeps falling into the same old danger time after time?
This can result in the B word: boring. You don’t want to go there.
The advantage of writing a standalone is
trying new ideas or themes without the confines of your established setting and
characters. Your readers can discover a new side of your talent. A standalone
for a series author is like an experimental science lab. Just don’t blow up the
place and go so far over the line that your fans don’t recognize you.
What do you think? 
Do you prefer reading
or writing a series or standalones?

Cathy Perkins
After
publishing three standalone novels, I’m easing into the series idea. DOUBLE
DOWN (presale available here) features several of the characters from So About the Money (JC speaks! He
finally gets a point of view!) with events right after “book one”
ends. 
I’m working away on Book Two, so hopefully readers will jump on board
with this new story and series.

Keep in touch at my website or sign up for my newsletter.