Vicki Pettersson's Blog, page 12

New blub = authorial joy.

I've been sitting on a bit of good news for a while, but as I shared the cover treatment for THE TAKEN last week, there's no sense in playing coy now. I've a fantastic new cover quote from one of my auto-buy authors, and I'm a bit gobsmacked by it, not only for its praise, but because it's from an author who very much writes in the two genres I love, and have been playing in, most.

Can you spot it?

Hint #1: It's on the back.

Hint #2: I've never been blurbed by her before. (Blurbing… it's an action word!)

Enough with the hints. For those of you who don't know her, this is Sophie Littlefield:

I first encountered her via her award-winning mystery series. A BAD DAY FOR SORRY has one of the strongest, most unique and intriguing voices I think I've ever heard. It amazed me from beginning to end, and I instantly went in search of everything Littlefield had written.

Well, turns out she's written this dystopian series as well, one I think my UF readers will love. It had a ball-to-the-wall female-driven narrative, and an engaging, forceful world, starting with AFTERTIME.

Seriously, people. Everyone who reads her *raves.* And if you like Joanna Archer, I think you'll love Cass Dollar.

Anyhoo, when THE TAKEN was finished and I realized it wasn't strictly UF or noir mystery, but straddled the lines of both, I told my editor I somehow had to get this into Littlefield's hands.  I'd actually met Sophie by then at a conference, but only briefly. She was sitting in a bar with a couple of mystery writers with a bagful of potato chips spread out on a napkin between the three of them … and this was their *dinner.* So I left them to it because, writing talent aside, that's just fucking weird.

But long story short, I did finally get THE TAKEN into Sophie's hands, and she most generously took time to read it. Even more generously, she quoted it:

"A stylish, atmospheric mash-up of rockabilly and angelic affairs quickly reveals itself to be so much more: The Taken proves that Pettersson is not afraid to explore the darkest corners of the human heart – and that her gift for writing redemption is unsurpassed."

– Sophie Littlefield

Thank you so much, Sophie – you gastronomic weirdo who nonetheless writes with one of the most amazing, authentic and authoritative voice I've ever heard. I wanna be just like you when I grow up … but you'll have to grow up first so I can see exactly what that looks like.

Check out Sophie here, and if you don't believe me, here's Paul Goat Allen's recent rave review of her dystopian series – which, again, I believe every last one of my readers would enjoy. Happy reading!

THE TAKEN: Format = bigger. Price? Not so much.

I had a friend contact me on Facebook recently regarding THE TAKEN being released in trade rather than mass market paperback, as was the Zodiac series. His preference was for mass market, and for that I'm sorry. I can promise the format takes nothing away from the text – but I understand about personal preferences, and I certainly understand about the bump in pricing being a concern for readers. I don't want pricing to keep you from getting a good read, so here's what I know about the move, some of which is a bit of an open secret in the publishing industry:

1) Very bluntly: mass market paperbacks are struggling. Most book buyers are consuming books at that price range on e-readers. You might not be one of them, but they're plentiful enough that mass market is facing a collapse. What does this mean for authors? You either get a bump into trade, or you come out as an e-original. See the squeeze? I feel fortunate to be on the trade side of that equation.

2) Also bluntly: though the trade paperback version of THE TAKEN is listed at $13.99 – and that's because it's a bigger, costlier (and IMHO, more beautiful) format to produce, even the listed prices at e-retailers is only $9.32. That's only one dollar and pennies more than the last in my Zodiac series, which came out in the smaller mass market format. Not that great of a difference after all.

3) Another good thing about moving into trade paperback is that I'm now able to be sold more easily into libraries. Borrowing from a library is great for All: libraries with patrons retain funding and keep their doors open, I get to earn a living and keep writing because my books are being purchased rather than stolen via illegal downloads, and you get THE TAKEN for free. (Libraries, FTW!)

So you can imagine how chuffed I was to hear that Harper's library department is featuring THE TAKEN as their SF/F read for the summer. (Here's the early word via Harper, if you're interested.)

All in all, let me just say that if you like my books, the move into trade pb is, overall, a positive one. The format is gorgeous, and it shows that support for the new series is there and growing. I don't know if it'll ever be released in mass market – my gut says no – but you can pick your poison between trade, audio, or e-reading, and those are all good options.

Here, btw, is your one-dimensional view of the book – less than three months away from release now. Open it in another window, and you'll see the full description and treatment … and a fantastic new cover quote from an author I auto-buy and adore … but that's a post for another time.

On blogs, books — and burlesque!

Blog silence over the last couple of weeks due to a personal home move, the sixth or so in the last three years. I think I'm done now, though. I'd better be done. I find myself longing for a corner to curl up in and rock for a bit … or, at least, write.

So it's back to focusing on scribbling. I've a new project to dive into after I turn in my current WiP next week, something different from anything I've written before, so I'm aiming for some serious immersion from now until the summer tour for THE TAKEN.

Those dates have been finalized, btw, and the first appearance – a full-day event – will have THE TAKEN available for early reading, so if you're in the greater DFW area, you can get a head start on the rest of the country. Here are the dates, in brief:

JUNE 9 – BOAS&TIARAS – PLANO, TX

JUNE 12 – B&N – DALLAS, TX

JUNE 13 – DARK DELICACIES – LOS ANGELES, CA

JUNE 14 – MYSTERIOUS GALAXY – REDONDO BEACH, CA

JUNE 15 – MYSTERIOUS GALAXY – SAN DIEGO, CA

JUNE 16 – MURDER BY THE BOOK – HOUSTON, TX

JUNE 18 – HASTINGS – WAXAHACHIE, TX

JUNE 19 – A REAL BOOKSTORE – FAIRVIEW, TX

JUNE 20 – JOSEPH BETH BOOKSELLERS – CINCINATTI, OH

JUNE 21 – CLARK COUNTY LIBRARY – LAS VEGAS, NV

JULY 11-14 – THRILLERFEST – NY, NY

Meanwhile, I managed to get some research for the Celestial Blues series in before my move … and when you're researching the rockabilly subculture, that isn't exactly a hardship. West coast rockabilly boasts an element that I'm told the east coast billies are lacking … and one that makes me happy to hang my hat on this side of the country.

Burlesque.

Once I realized that my main female character in THE TAKEN was a rockabilly babe, I searched out source materials, and found an amazing one in the smart and beautiful ChaCha Velour. She's the first person mentioned in my Acknowledgements in the book, and for good reason. She shared her knowledge, passion, and devotion to the rockabilly lifestyle with me, and it was infectious. It was also just what I needed to round out my protag, Katherine 'Kit' Craig, and her eclectic group of girlfriends. They give the book fire and spice, and I wish they really existed so I could hang with them sometime.

But I have ChaCha, and not only was she forthcoming about her world, she is one of the premiere neo-burlesque stars working today. You can find her here: ChaCha Velour – Burlesque Beauty, Tattooed Cutie — and if you're going to be in Vegas, do see when and where she's performing. She was elegant, graceful, flirtatious and gorgeous. There's something so affirming about seeing a woman embracing and celebrating her womanhood, especially at a time when extremists in our society seem to be attacking that very thing. (Sequined tassels make an easy target, I guess.)

Moving away from the PSA, burlesque can also be bawdy and over-the-top, and a total escape from inhibitions, so when I wasn't scribbling notes on a cocktail napkin (yes, my "research" requires at least two vodka tonics … how great is this job?) I was clapping and cheering and hooting with laughter. It was wonderful to spend a night with people who didn't want to TAKE: anything seriously, anything from me, any shit.

How ironic that I need the research for a book called The Taken.

Anyway, here's a stage-light saturated photo (my hair really isn't purple) of me with the gorgeous ChaCha. I love her even more after seeing her perform, and I can't wait to attend another show again. I'm hooked.

 

THE TAKEN – June tour (& one stop in July!)

The times and dates have been finalized and double-checked, so I'll keep this brief, but I hope to see you at one of the following stops to celebrate the beginning of my new Celestial Blues series with THE TAKEN:

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR VICKI PETTERSSON ON TOUR THIS JUNE

 

PLANO, TX

Saturday, June 9th, 7pm

DFW Tea Readers/Boas & Tiaras – Chocolate Angel

4709 West Parker Road

*Note: this event is 3 days prior to THE TAKEN release day, but B&N will have copies of THE TAKEN for sale, so those who attend will get an early start on the series!

*

DALLAS, TX

Tuesday, June 12th, 7pm

Barnes & Noble

7700 West Northwest Hwy.

 *

LOS ANGELES, CA

Wednesday, June 13th,7pm

Dark Delicacies 

3512 W Magnolia Blvd.

Burbank, CA

 *

REDONDO BEACH, CA

Thursday, June 14th, 7:30pm

Mysterious Galaxy   

2810 Artesia Blvd.

*

SAN DIEGO, CA

Friday, June 15th, 7pm

Mysterious Galaxy  

7051 Clairemont Mesa Blvd.

 *

HOUSTON, TX

Saturday, June 16th,4:30pm

Murder by the Book

2342 Bissonnet St.

 *

FAIRVIEW, TX

Tuesday, June 19th,7pm

A Real Bookstore

 113 Prairie Rd.

 *

CINCINATTI, OH

Wednesday, June 20th,7pm

Joseph-Beth Booksellers

2785 Dixie Hwy.

Crestview Hills, KY

*note: my only stop in the midwest!

 

LAS VEGAS, NV

Thursday, June 21st, 7pm

Las Vegas Clark County Public Library

1401 East Flamingo Rd.

*note: Home, sweet, home!

 

NEW YORK, NY

July 11-14th, THRILLERFEST

Grand Hyatt

109 East 42nd Street at Grand Central St.

*note: It's in July, but it's my only conference of the year, and last appearance of the year as well.

I apologize in advance if I'm not able able to visit your city (Sorry, Patrick in Austin!). I go where Harper points me, but I'll be updating this blog daily during the tour with photos and video and tweets of all stops. So if you can't make it in person, you can pull up to my virtual tour bus in your jammies. Sound good?

 

A PERFECT … reason to post

I usually update my weekly blog on Thursdays, but Tuesdays – as decreed by the publishing gods – happen to be the day new books are released each week. In last week's post I told you about the germination of my new Celestial Blues series, and how Kelley Armstrong was (unwittingly) involved in that.

This week, I want to tell you about the other amazing author who blurbed me for this series, as well as my first — and who was the first to reach out to me with total generosity and kindness when I entered this career as a professional. She also has a release today: A PERFECT BLOOD, the tenth book in her fantastic, popular Hollows series, so it's a "perfect" time to speak about her, too.

Of course, I'm talking about Kim Harrison. I'm a bit shy to do so too because I do admire and like her so much that it feels a bit like telling people to go buy a book because "my sister wrote it." She's clearly not my blood sister (note: I could have said 'perfect blood' sister there, but refrained from such extreme cheesiness) but she has been a constant, quiet support for me over the past few years – kinda like a guiding hand at a child's back. The kid still has to take the steps, make mistakes, and learn on their own, but if they wobble, there's a steadying force there. That's the Kim I know.

She also has these strangely dynamic personal characteristics that I find interesting:

She's kind, yet fiercely driven.

She's fiercely driven, yet uncompetitive.

She's uncompetitive, and pays it forward.

She pays it forward, therefore so do you.

I can't tell you how many authors she's quietly mentored and helped, how many readers she's touched and responds to – daily – and how amazing I find it that she does all these things while balancing a happy, healthy emotional life and family. (BTW, I was one of those readers way back when – before I was published and when DEAD WITCH WALKING first came out. I'll never forget, she visited The CompuServe Writer's Forum, of which I was a member – that was where I honed my chops – and she answered this newbie writer's questions about her, writing, and her new Hollows series in depth. I've never forgotten that.)

The point is, I have taken the majority of my cues from her on how to navigate this biz, from never calling my readers "fans" (They're readers, it's an equal partnership. I'm not Madonna) to taking weekends off, guilt-free (best thing I ever did – now I write better and smarter, instead of just faster) to working far, far ahead of deadline so as to maximize time and talent and potential ideas.

Pause.

Okay, so that last one is a total lie. She works in advance. I claw at my downhill slide toward every deadline. I'd hate her a little for that if I didn't like her so damned much.

Anyway, I always like to know that the books I'm buying, and the authors I'm supporting, are Good Peeps. Kim is one of the best. I thought you should know, too.

Here's the link to A PERFECT BLOOD, and if you haven't yet started the Rachel Morgan/Hollows series – and I think you can tell that I also love her work – you really need to do so. Start with DEAD WITCH WALKING.

Have a great week!

Celestial Blues – the beginning that never was.

It's been a week of good news. I received word of not one, but two amazing blurbs coming back from authors whose work I admire and respect. I'll talk about the second one soon – I want to talk about that author a bit, and this isn't the post for that – but it's Kelley Armstrong's blurb that made me jump for joy this weekend, and I want to share the story behind that. It's a doozy.

But first the blurb:

"A delectably dark paranormal thriller. I've always been a fan of Pettersson's work, but she knocks it out of the park with this one."

– Kelley Armstrong

To understand how much this means to me, you need to know how anxious I was to get THE TAKEN into Kelley Armstrong's hands. Not only have I been a long time reader of her work, but she kinda, sorta, inadvertently started the whole thing. And by that I mean THE TAKEN.

During the time that my then-agent was shopping Zodiac, and I was waiting to see if it would sell or if I should write something else entirely, Kelley had a contest on her site to win an ARC of her latest in the Women of the Otherworld series (I'm a diehard Elena/Clay fan, btw). She had a great writer's forum going, and I lurked there for years. (Along with the CompuServe Writer's Forum, where Diana Gabaldon held court. That was my writing boot camp. But I digress.) In order to win the ARC, you had to enter a writing contest: a 1,500 word short story that had only to be supernatural in nature.

I was determined to win this ARC.

So I slaved over a story about an angel, formerly mortal, who was charged with ferrying the newly murdered into the afterlife. It took me a whole week to craft those 1,500 words, both imagining the world and condensing it, but I submitted the story, it got an amazing critique, and a much-trusted friend also told me that he liked it even more than Zodiac. There were over eighty entrants in the contest, but I was sure I was going to win.

I made the top thirteen.

The short story was not published on her site.

No ARC.

G*ddammit, Kelley!

So I bought Kelley's book when it went on sale, my story remained a bunch of unshared potential, and…

It was the best failure I ever had.

Because the idea never let me go, and this is how I learned that stories with legs haunt you. It's become my personal tenet: I won't write anything that doesn't haunt me.

So as I sold Zodiac, and wrote six contracted books in nearly as many years, this humble little loser short story sat in the back of my mind like a weight, taking up space, and beckoning me over now and again. I'd revisit it, laugh over my fabulous wit, and reread the sole critic's accolades, and hear the voice of my friend say, "This is the best story you've ever written."

That 1,500 word scene morphed into the first chapter of THE TAKEN. The main character, a smart-mouthed kid who'd been offed in the 80's, wasn't strong enough to carry an entire book, but I liked him, so he became a secondary character.

Heaven morphed into the Everlast.

A chance encounter, and utter fascination, with a rockabilly hairdresser melded with a recent obsession with the onscreen romance of Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy, and that brought me Katherine (yep, for her namesake) "Kit" Craig .

And just like that, click, not only did I now know who my new male lead needed to be – her particular form of kryptonite, a hard-nosed P.I. from the 50's – but I finally had a real fucking story.

I'm of the mind, you see, that the best ideas need to germinate for a bit – as I said before, to see if they have legs, and so that you can poke at them and find the best fusion of characters and ideas. I also don't believe one good idea is enough.  A mash-up of two or three is best. So a retro P.I./crime/mystery with an angel/supernatural elements and a modern-day reporter involved with the rockabilly subculture? Yeah. Fuck, yeah.

So, anyway, that's my long-winded explanation of why this Kelley Armstrong blurb means so very much to me. I owe her a debt of gratitude not only for her generosity with her readers, of which I am still one, but because she didn't choose me. (Top thirteen isn't bad, though!) The story didn't go out into the world, thus it retained its energy until the time that it was ready.

And in four months, on June 12th, seven years after the story germ was initially conceived, it will be in my readers hands.

I think that's a pretty good story, too.

Work, tour, & say "webmistress" with me.

I'm working hard this week on the rewrite of the second book in the Celestial Blues series. I found a plot hole yesterday that I could drive a mac truck through, but I think I've figured out a surprisingly easy fix. I also head-hopped from Kit to Grif's POV in another scene, which was a surprise. I know better, but I didn't have to worry about that a whole lot while writing the Zodiac series from Joanna's sole first-person POV.

These hiccups, though, are a product of the way I work, which is in layers. First comes a bones draft, where I lay the story out in words and see what form it's going to take. (Actually, that's not entirely true. I impose form on the story – that bastard is going to bend where I damned well say bend. We have elbows because we need those hinges. We have the black moment in a story because they feel good (in an oh-so-bad way) rubbing up against the reader's gray matter. Anyway, I digress.)

Second draft, what I'm doing now, is filling in all the holes I left behind by not abandoning the text and scurrying down rabbit trails, chasing facts from either the previous text (for continuity) or research materials (for verisimilitude*). And sometimes I simply can't think of a word, so I say fuck it, and leave a hole. Inevitably, one glance at it upon return in the second draft, and I have it – easy peasy lemon squeezy, so why stress about it? Keep writing. Everything is a slave to the forward motion of the story at this point.

This second go-round is also the draft where I work to condense the text. Replace five words with two. Make sure the voice is active. Backload the sentences – and this is the stuff that gets easier with practice. I still need to push and prompt myself mentally (ie. don't be lazy) but once I do that, I can easily see what needs to be done.

Am I rambling?

Anyway, another draft will come after this one, a spit-and-shine before I give it to my editor for what she'll consider – get this – a first draft.

I know! That ain't right!

So that's my blather about craft for the week. Take from it what you will, or nothing at all. I don't care. I still have to do the work.

#

I have a new tour date to announce. Check my sidebar to see the cities I'm visiting in June, but for those of you in Texas I'm also adding a June 19th stop at A Real Bookstore in Dallas. So this is a good choice for those of you in that great big swath of America, especially if you can't make the Barnes&Noble signing a week before, or the awesome Boas&Tiaras event on the 9th (Note: Harper is working hard to have THE TAKEN available for Boas, so if you're going to that – and you should – then you can get your copy a full three days before the actual drop date. Yee-haw … as they say in upstate New York.)

#

Finally, I'd be utterly remiss if I didn't reiterate how happy I am with my website, and with my awesome webmistress** at AustinDesignWorks. Click on the link to see some of their other work, but I've been with this company for years, and they are incredibly fast (they switched this over in 2 days; ditto my previous conversion from Blogger to WordPress) extremely professional (and they can spell; kinda important for an author's site) with the best prices I've ever seen (worth every penny). Seriously, don't be afraid to contact them. You'll see.

So if you're an author, another professional, or you just want a custom design for your personal blog, I can't recommend AustinDesignWorks enough. They're good, honest, and kind to boot — and I don't know about you, but when I meet people like that, I wanna keep them in my life.

I'm off. I'll blog again next week, but follow me on twitter or facebook if you want to hear how the drafting is going. I tend to drop crumbs in those places throughout the week.

#

*Yes! Anytime you can use verisimilitude in a sentence, you know it's going to be a good day!

** But I just like saying "webmistress." Makes me giggle.

Metrics: they're only meaningful if they mean something to you.

Like anyone who juggles a job with family, I struggle to get everything done. I try to do it well, and I take fun breaks now and then because, as we all know, nothing is guaranteed. What this means, and what I've come to accept, is that I fail on a daily basis. I make lists every morning (which is already a failure because I'm supposed to make them the night before) and load them so high there's no way I can get everything done. My writing goals alone are always overestimated by at least half. You think I'd learn, but noooo….

One thing I have learned, however, is self-forgiveness. I won't expound on that any further because Elizabeth Gilbert does so here, and all I need add is 'ditto.'

But I've also learned — and this is a dirty little secret – that every writer fails every day. The word count isn't where you wanted it to be. You didn't read what you intended to in order to 'fill the well.' You're behind on admin stuff. That chapter or page or sentence didn't come out just right.

But you keep going and all those failed days add up, and suddenly you have a book. I've failed forward in this way seven times now, and I'm about to fail for an eighth time. (Um. Go, me?)

Anyway, the point is, you set your metrics (because it's proven that those who set goals/resolutions still get farther than those who set none), you do your level best every day, and the passion and personal reasons behind your chosen goals gets you through it day after day. I thought I'd start sharing my metrics with you so you could see how badly I continually fail, and yet how I seem to get there anyway. Here's what I tracked in January:

Goal: get from 64K to 90K on project

Achieved: 81K before beginning rewrite (failed by 9K)

Goal: 40K words rewritten

Achieved: 25K rewritten (failed by 15K)

Goal: write 22 of 31 days (I take weekends off)

Achieved: 21 of 22 (failed by 1 day)

Goal: workout 5-6 days a week

Achieved: 21 of 31 days (failed by 2 days)

I failed in everything.

Mind if I recast this in the positive, instead of looking at failures, I wrote 17K new words, rewrote 25K, I'm still on schedule to meet my deadline, and I worked out more days than not. What you can't see in black-and-white are all the real life intangibles, and that's what really makes life a juggling act, no? For me, that was:

Start packing for a move at the end of this month, visits to my grandmother in rehab (she just had a stroke), a memorial for a dear friend, birthday party for my child, unexpected but necessary business meetings, and travel.

None of those things translate very well to a spreadsheet, nonetheless they're all deeply emotional, and this is where the self-forgiveness comes back in. My child may never know how desperately I tried to dye a tablecloth in order to make a gorgeous ombre hue on which to place an amazing birthday setting. And that's mostly because it didn't turn out ombre. It was one dark, flat color and it looked like a fucking bedsheet. (The carpet now has some nice polka dots on it, though, so I guess that's something.). But I know. And my life was enriched by the trying.

It was enriched by visiting a woman I love who is doing her best to face her end years gracefully.

It was enriched by crying uncontrollably over the loss of a friend who died too damned soon.

It was enriched by taking positive, if uncomfortable, career steps.

It was enriched by working hard to travel to those I love.

So those are my metrics, and failures, for January. But you know what? They all mean something to me, and living a life of meaning? Well … at least I'm succeeding there.

I'll see ya next week. Meanwhile, don't forget to celebrate your failures.

New: year, look, series.

So I've a shiny new look to my website. Likie? (Don't tell me if you don't. I've already paid for it.) It's cleaner, simpler, brighter. It also signals a new direction in my writing, so I figured I should talk about that a bit.

First, you can see that The Taken really exists. (Toldja.) The biggest proof is the Kim Harrison quote, which blew me away. She's so generous, and she genuinely loved it — and as she was the first of my peers to see it, that really gave me hope that it would find a place in your hearts as well.

Other proof that The Taken is real: Well, you all saw the stunning cover art, right? It additionally has its own dedicated page, along with proper cover copy and series description. So now you can see what's been occupying my brain for the last year+. I have to say I'm extremely happy to introduce you to my new obsessions: Griffin Shaw and Katherine 'Kit' Craig. Go make their acquaintance. I'll wait here.

You can preorder now, but if you click-through you'll see the price has gone up a bit. I mentioned this before, but for those who missed it, The Taken is being released in a beautiful trade paperback format. I have ARCs (advanced copies meant to go out for publicity purposes) but the real deal is going to have a proper spit-and-shine to it, and I couldn't be more excited. My first time in trade, and Harper's going all out. But don't worry, it's not that great a price difference — especially for those of you who enjoy e-reading. For those of you who prefer audio, it will be coming out in that format as well.

I also have tour dates for you. Minor details still need to be finalized, but you can see if and when I'm going to be in your city. It's mostly west coast appearances, and I'll remind you as the dates get closer, but I'd love to see you if I'm visiting your fair city. (Ready for summer yet, peeps? Can I get a 'Hell, yeah'?)

Moving forward, I'll be updating the blog on a weekly rather than daily basis – what I'm doing, reading, writing, some metrics – at least until things start heating up for The Taken's release. I'll release news as it happens then, and I'm aiming to do a tour blog as that unfolds, with pics and all, but that all depends on me learning to work my camera. (Surely I can tap a random grade schooler in each city to help me.)

A final reminder: the first book in my Signs of the Zodiac series, The Scent of Shadows, is being offered as an e-book for only $.99 for about another week. So if you love the series and want to pass it on, this is a great way to do so. Tell your cheap-o friends that the price goes back up to $6.99 on February 6th, k?

Later, gators.

Change is a-comin'.

Just a quick note to let you all know that I haven't forgotten about you. I've been on blog sabbatical since the beginning of the year, I know, but there are a lot of irons in the fire and they're all heating up (at once). One of those irons is a new look for the website and blog, which should be along in the next week or so. I'll wait until then to tell you all of my other newsworthy stuff – lots going on with the new Celestial Blues series, and loads of change in the air in every area of my life, it seems – but that way you can kill multiple birds with one click of your mouse.

Meanwhile, I have a Feb deadline I'm working hard to meet, along with children, friends, and family to care for. Gotta put energy into the ones you love, right? It ain't the words that are gonna keep you warm at night.

Just a reminder, THE SCENT OF SHADOWS is still being offered as a .99 e-book special via Amazon and B&N through the end of the month, so load it up or tell a friend before the price reverts back to $6.99. I just received a fantastic message on my Facebook page from a young reader who just discovered it, and it still amazes and humbles me that the series, and Joanna Archer, are still touching people. That connection is why I write, and it makes the long hours alone at my desk worth it. Thank you all for reading and recommending the series.

Talk soon!