Elizabeth Eagan-Cox's Blog: Musings on Mystery and the Paranormal, page 2

COMING SOON, it would not be Halloween without VOODOO GHOST!

For Autumn 2015: VOODOO GHOST.

COMING SOON...

VOODOO GHOST Autumn 2015... It would not be Halloween without it!

WINTER'S GHOST 99 Cents SALE with COUPON CODE.

WINTER'S GHOST on Sale for 99 Cents until June 

30th at Smashwords. Must use COUPON CODE VU72B



Regular price of $1.45 is displayed on the Smashwords page.

You must use the COUPON CODE: VU72B at checkout to 

receive the .99 Cents price. Copy and paste the URL below 

to go directly to Smashwords:

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view...  

Synopsis:

Libby Prater moves to Tyler, Texas to find the perfect residence to suit her needs as a home office for her interior design business. At her aunt's urging, Libby purchases the historic 1920's era, Winter's House, a showcase of Colonial Revival architecture located in the Charnwood district. But, before Libby can call the house a home, she must unravel a hidden mystery in order to bring peace to the spirit that haunts the house:

I remember the first time I saw the ghost. I went to inspect the Winter's House on an icy January afternoon. The home was vacant, without heat, but not without electricity and water. I was on the first floor in the dining room, examining the building plans.

As I moved to step back into the living room, I felt a tug at the back of my jacket. I turned around in time to see a young boy standing in the kitchen doorway. With his right arm raised, he pointed to the kitchen. 

Stifling a gasp, I said to him, "Hello. May I help you?"

The child remained frozen in place. I took a few steps closer. 

"Hello?" I repeated. I felt my voice quiver, my heart race, and my hands tremble. Who was this young boy? How did he get in? What is he pointing at in the kitchen? Dare I step closer? Three more steps and I would be standing right over him. I took one step closer.

"Who are you?" I whispered

He turned and faced me, and in a forlorn and barely audible voice he begged, "Please Miss, let me out. I can't locate the door."

I looked down at a hideous face that had little resemblance to anything human. How had this child been disfigured? With my hands stuffed into my pockets, I clenched my fists to steady my nerves, and answered, "The door is to the right of the sink. You can exit there." 

"No, Miss. It's stuck," he whimpered.

I stepped around him and walked over to the kitchen door, determined to let this young child out of the home I wanted to purchase. I grabbed the door's handle and opened it. I turned around to show him. 

"The door is open. You can leave." 

The boy stayed in place. He gazed up at me with lifeless, unseeing eyes. And, before I could utter another sound, he vanished right before my eyes.

Then, I screamed.

###

HAUNTED MYSTERIES... Exclusive to Amazon KINDLE

Haunted Mysteries is now atAmazon Kindle! Click HERE to go directly to Amazon

HUNGRY GHOST now in USA and UK at Barnes and Noble NOOK!

HUNGRY GHOST is now at these major ebook retailers: Smashwords, KOBO Books and Barnes & Noble NOOK in USA/UK!

Link to NOOK:
USA: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/hungry-ghost-elizabeth-eagan-cox/1121490516?ean=2940046642902

Link to NOOK:
UK: http://www.nook.com/gb/ebooks/hungry-ghost-paranormal-mystery-novelette-by-elizabeth-eagan-cox/2940046642902

Link to KOBO Books in US, Canada & Europe:
https://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/hungry-ghost-paranormal-mystery-novelette

Link to Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/528737

Read more about HUNGRY GHOST on this blog, select tab at menu bar at top. 
The above sites have free read of the first chapters.

Amazon KINDLE users: Smashwords has HUNGRY GHOST in KINDLE "mobi" format.

HUNGRY GHOST is now at KOBO Books, Canada & Europe

March 22, 2015. KOBO BOOKS, major book and ebook distributor to Canada and Europe now has HUNGRY GHOST. Use the link below to see the listing at KOBO.

https://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/hungry-ghost-paranormal-mystery-novelette
  

Read more about HUNGRY GHOST here on this blog. Choose HUNGRY GHOST from the tab on the menu above. 

Hungry Ghost is now at Smashwords, KOBO and their affiliates. In the next few days it will be at Barnes and Noble NOOK.

HUNGRY GHOST now at SMASHWORDS.

HUNGRY GHOST, Paranormal Mystery Novelette was released to Smashwords as an ebook on March 18th. Look for it at Barnes and Noble NOOK and KOBO Books in the days to come. Read additional information, including a teaser and photos, from the page menu at http:ElizabethEaganCox.blogspot.com

And, read the first few chapters for free at Smashwords. (http://cheaplit.com/_/_/528737/hungry...)

Get Ready For a HUNGRY GHOST!

Spring 2015... HUNGRY GHOSTComing soon... A New Orleans-based paranormal mystery novelette. 
(check back for details).

Just in time for Winter... WINTER'S GHOST is at Barnes and Noble NOOK!

There's nothing quite like a cozy mystery for winter reading!  My newest paranormal mystery novelette: WINTER'S GHOST is now available on the Barnes and Noble NOOK, here in the USA and in the UK. Only $1.45. 

B&N / Nook in USA: (copy & paste to your browser)
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/winte...


B&N / Nook in UK:(copy and paste to your browser)
http://www.nook.com/gb/ebooks/winters...

Read more about it here on my blog (see menu above) or go to Barnes and Noble and read the first chapters for free. Get ready for the chilly winter  weather... stay  inside and read a mystery!

Bullies on Amazon and GoodReads

(by popular request, I'm sharing/re-posting this editorial that I wrote last year.)
Stop the Bullies on GoodReads and Amazon.
 (copyright by Elizabeth Eagan-Cox)

Recently, a author friend told me he rarely participates in GoodReads ("GR"), especially now that Amazon owns GR.


I’m not a huge fan of GR, and I am rarely on it simply because of a time issue… I do not have much of it these days and if I had more time, I would be more involved with social networks. Anyway… my friend once sang GR’s praises on how it was an excellent venue for an author to help get the word out about his novels (hmm, should point out that my friend is a professional author, not self-published).

Lately, though, he has become frustrated with GR, saying that the ‘hive mentality’ of GR’s bullies and commentators has gotten out of hand. He pointed to a bio of an official and self-chosen anonymous identity of a GR Librarian as an example of poor behavior by a GR staff member (verbatim): "I will never ever buy a book from an author who self-promotes, un-solicited, on GoodReads. This is a book lovers site, not a used car lot" – Jennifer, member since July 2008. Note: "Jennifer" is the only identity listed for this GR Librarian.

Amazon and GR encourages authors to purchase ad space, and it is not cheap. GR has specific do’s and don’ts about where, on GR, an author can post (for free) a comment that might be interpreted (or misinterpreted) as promotion… including an announcement about a free giveaway/contest of book(s) for GR readers. 
This being the case, the opposite is true in regard to a paid-for advertisement… a purchased ‘solicited’ promotion is okay with GR, regardless of the fact that the ad will be displayed in the sidebar of GR sections/pages/groups that the book subject is not necessarily pertinent to… yet, is permissible… because, well…it was paid for and therefore is not un-solicited? Okay, I get it. GR is a retail site and they need revenue to operate… and so do authors.

My thoughts… I was once a librarian, a real-life librarian at a school district for 21 years. I would never discourage an author, whose books are read by my patrons, by issuing insults referencing their work as a "used car lot."  Authors and readers co-exist in an equal exchange of needs and desires, one does not exist without the other. I would hope that the guardians of writing, such as booksellers and librarians, would act in fairness and appreciate the two sides to this coin... allowing for equal representation. Alas, I know this not to be true.

Amazon and GR are guilty of allowing hate-spewing puppet reviews, what I call "slamming." And the reviews I’ve read aren’t true reviews, in the journalistic and librarian tradition. The so-called reviews are opinions that are, all too often,  driven by ego, envy, hive mentality and/or the covert ‘make-money-at-home’ schemes of a person being paid to leave a rave review and/or a bad review. Fair play is rarely, (if ever, according to my friend) a requirement.

Equally unreliable is a reader’s awareness of the quirky nature and business of publishing technology. Hence, the uninformed reviewers that rant about typos and mechanics in a world of word processing and manuscript formatting technology that is never in agreement with all the various ebook and hardprint distributors or retailers. Recently, I re-read Fried Green Tomatoes and came across the same kind of typos/spelling/punctuation glitches that readers have complained about in books (including my own books).

However, I know that the various retail editions of formatting (ebook and hardprint) all too often change homonyms (are/our) substitute punctuation and divide compound words, to name a few of the glitches that are common. I know it will be a cold day in Hell before publishing will ever change because it involves brand-name technology. Brand names do not share their technology, and because of this, there is not a practical sure-fire format in which a publisher can assure that the error-free manuscript they have turned over to the brand name retailer will be the same manuscript that is prepared for retail. I know these facts to be true, not because I work in the industry, but because I am a reader and I make a point of staying informed about a pastime I love and respect.

Getting back to my friend… At his urging I visited Amazon and GR and I read random reviews from different genres of fiction. I am agreement with my friend that at Amazon and GR, good manners and common decency have been replaced by the arrogant power of an anonymous person being given the very broad audience of an international soap-box to carelessly rant about another person’s work...  and this is done in a manner that exhibits no conscience for the fact that many of the authors are trying really hard to earn a living, just pay the bills and put food on the table. 
I cannot but wonder how many of the Amazon and GR reviews/opinions are posted by anonymous people who would never face a neighbor and say the same words, speak the very same ugly thoughts… IF they had to owe up to their personal identity and do so face to face?

Do all the reviewers, posters and commentators on Amazon and GR staff behave so badly? NO. Thankfully, no.

But beware… the bullies are growing in numbers.
Elizabeth Eagan-Cox… my real name.
　http://ElizabethEaganCox.blogspot.com