Colleen Collins's Blog, page 3

Christmas Giveaway: Enter to Win a $25 Amazon Gift Card and a Romantic-Mystery eBook!

Click on the "21 Days of Christmas" image or the below link to enter my Christmas giveaway (a $25 Amazon Gift Card & an ecopy of Mistletoe and Murder in Las Vegas).

Contest is hosted by Hello Chick Lit, and closes December 23, 2016 (winner to be announced the week after Christmas). Happy holidays!

Colleen's Christmas Giveaway

Paranormal Investigators, Ghost Tour, and Haunted Tales at The Brown Palace

A ghoulish delight at the Haunted Happy Hour.

Last night we attended a "Haunted Happy Hour" at the 124-year-old Brown Palace Hotel in Denver, Colorado. The evening kicked off with a buffet (with such ghoulish items as Bat Wings and Grim Reapers Rib), presentation by two paranormal investigators, and ended with a ghost tour.

Paranormal Investigators

The photo gallery below begins with a picture of the former men's club room (now a meeting room) on the 4th floor of the Brown Palace where custome...

FREE Oct 23: MISTLETOE and MURDER in LAS VEGAS #romanticmystery

Mistletoe & Murder in Las Vegas is free on Sunday, October 23! Click on book cover to go to Amazon page.

Book Blurb

All 31-year-old, Las Vegas criminal lawyer Joanne Galvin wants for Christmas is a client—or three—so she can make ends meet. Instead she’s roped into defending the notorious Timepiece Arsonist; tracked by a hunky special agent and his arson dog; and chased by a serial killer. Just when her life is starting to feel like the Nightmare Before Christmas, she receives an unexpected...

eBook Sale: Romantic-Mysteries $1.99 Oct 18-25!

All of my Harlequin ebook romantic-mysteries and other romance novels are on sale for $1.99 starting today, October 18, and ending October 25!

Romantic-Mysteries

If you like romantic-mysteries with private eye characters, check out this series set in Las Vegas. (Click on the book covers to go to their Amazon pages.)

Book #1 The Next Right Thing
(sensual content)

Book #2 Sleepless in Las Vegas: Virginia Romance Writers Holt Medallion Finalist
(some sensual content)

Book #3 Hearts in Veg...

Cookies, Browsers, and Keeping Them Separate

The following article is an excerpt from my recent nonfiction release How Do Private Eyes Do That?

Tips for Keeping the Cookie Monster Out of Your Browser

All rights reserved by Colleen Collins

Not all cookies are bad, be they edible or data dropped into your browser (Image copyrighted by Colleen Collins)

What's a Cookie?

Cookies are small amounts of data that websites drop into your browser so they can monitor your internet browsing activity. As they are text, they cannot install anything on y...

In Honor of National Book Lovers Day: Humphrey Bogart, Movie Star & Avid Reader

Humphrey Bogart in the 1934 film trailer for Petrified Forest (image is in public domain)

Bogie And Books

Did you know Humphrey Bogart loved to read? Although he was a poor student, and was eventually expelled from the prestigious Phillips Academy,he had a lifelong love of reading, and could quote Plato, Ralph Waldo Emerson,and Shakespeare.

Some of his best friends were screenwriters, such as Nunnally Johnson and John Huston. I've always admired Huston for his directing, even his acting, but d...

Book Giveaway! HOW DO PRIVATE EYES DO THAT?

Curious how real-life PIs dig for dirt, chase cheaters, roll on surveillance? Here's your chance to learn that and more!

I'm giving away 15 copies of HOW DO PRIVATE EYES DO THAT? To enter for a chance to win, click on the below link. Contest ends August 23, 2016.Good luck!

https://giveaway.amazon.com/p/f7362a34c546de01

A must-have for any writer serious about crafting authentic private eyes. Collins knows her stuff.

— Lori Wilde, New York Times & USA Today bestselling author

Self-Publishing: Tips, Resources, and Recommendations

Woman writing on laptop (image licensed by Colleen Collins)

By Colleen Collins, All Rights Reserved

Since 1996, I have sold over two dozen novels to traditional publishers who handled the editing, proofreading, formatting, packaging, distribution, and at times some promotion, too. Since 2011, I have also self-published seven books in the romantic-mystery and nonfiction genres, which means I handled, or retained services for,all those same tasks.

In this article I share lessons I learned (some...

Free: Fun, Funky Professional Images and Curated Color Palettes

Designer, artist, and photographer Ryan McGuire creates fun, free, and sometimes downright funky photographs, as well as an array of color palettes based on art masterpieces. I like to use his photos on my website, in articles, and on social media posts, and I'll dip into those color palettes, broken down into hex codes, for websites I manage. Cool stuff.

Below is a look at some of his photos and color palettes.

Gratisography: Photos by Ryan McGuire

From serious to funky, here's a sampling of Ry...

Real-Life Nicks & Noras: What It's Like to Be Married Sleuths

My article about being a real-world Nora Charles (the wife-sleuth in Nick & Nora)is live at mystery writer Marilyn Meredith's blog.

Below is an excerpt with a link to the full article at the end. At the end of the article, I offer additional resources about real-life married PI teams, as well as a link to Pursuit Magazine, a free online magazine for professional private investigators that is managed by a real-life husband-and-wife team—handy info for writers crafting sleuth tales and character...