Melinda Clayton's Blog - Posts Tagged "cedar-hollow-series"

The truth is, people often do judge a book by its cover. Psychologists have studied consumer behavior for decades, and one of the things they've learned is that we're more likely to gravitate towards objects that not only catch our attention, but make us feel something.

When the opportunity arose to have new covers created for my books, I was fortunate enough to come across a graphic artist who posed some very specific questions. Aside from the questions one would expect, such as plot/synopsis, etc., she asked:

What's the geographical setting of your book?
What's the mood of your book?
Is there a specific place in your book that has meaning? If so, what is it?
Is there a specific object in your book that has meaning? If so, what is it?

I answered her questions and awaited her first drafts, and immediately loved them. They capture not only the setting, but also the mood. In addition, the cabin featured on
Appalachian Justice is exactly what I pictured. I can easily see Billy May Platte hunkered down by the hunting cabin's old wood stove on a cold winter night.






And anyone familiar with the lush green mountains of Appalachia will see it in the new cover for Return to Crutcher Mountain.






But my favorite cover might be the one for Entangled Thorns. The bridge over Rugged Creek is central to the story, and the one chosen is absolutely perfect, with it's wooden rails and close proximity to the rushing water below.






When I first began to write a story set in the mountains of West Virginia, I didn't have thoughts of a sequel, and certainly not a trilogy. But as I came to know the residents of the tiny coal mining town of Cedar Hollow, I saw they had more stories to tell.

I appreciate the way the graphic artist carried the design/theme over into each cover. I don't know that there will be a fourth Cedar Hollow book, but if there is, I hope she's still around to continue it forward once again.

I'm woefully behind on blogging. Life does have a way of stepping in and demanding attention. And I hate marketing. I just do.

But here's the thing. I was nominated for one of BigAl's Books and Pals 2014 Readers' Choice Awards. I was nominated for one last year, too (I think for Entangled Thorns). But I didn't ask for votes, and as far as I know I didn't receive any.

I'm always hesitant to ask for votes on these things, and am only comfortable asking those who've actually read the book to vote. So here it is: If you've read Blessed Are the Wholly Broken and feel it's deserving of a vote, would you consider voting?

Blessed Are the Wholly Broken is in the Contemporary/General fiction category. If you haven't read it, please take a look at the other books (in that and all categories) to see if you'd like to vote on one.

Voting is here: http://booksandpals.blogspot.com/2014...

Thanks, and hope everyone is having a wonderful Sunday evening.

A year ago this month, I made the decision to leave my previous publisher and strike out on my own. Since that time, I've republished all three of my Cedar Hollow Series books, published a new novel separate from the Cedar Hollow Series, and put my thoughts and experiences together to publish Self-publishing Made Simple: A How-to Guide for the Non-tech-savvy Among Us, my attempt to help new authors who may be as clueless as I initially was.

More recently, I decided to pull out my old short stories, the ones originally published in the Cedar Hollow Anthology (now out of print) and get those back into circulation. They've been made available as titles under Snippets from Cedar Hollow.

While readying the short stories for publication I began to miss Cedar Hollow. For several months I'd been working on a novel set in Florida, but seeing the residents of Cedar Hollow triggered something for me. For that reason, I've set aside my Florida novel and returned to Cedar Hollow. I hope to have the fourth book in the series, tentatively entitled Shadow Days, ready for publication by mid-fall.

I hadn't expected the termination of my contracts to feel so personal and disruptive. I hadn't expected to feel so derailed by the whole experience, but I should have known. Grieving is always a natural part of the end of anything. It took a while for me to find my footing, and even longer for me to feel like writing something new. But it's a new year, and I have renewed energy. Onward and upward, as they say.

In what is purely a coincidence, two of my novels are only $0.99 (on Amazon) until Saturday morning (Sept. 13.).

Most advertising sites ask if there are specific dates preferred, and they do their best to accommodate those times. Most also ask if the author has any flexibility with dates, to which I always answer, “I’m completely flexible, and happy for any date you can give me.”

This is how Blessed Are the Wholly Broken and Entangled Thorns came to be on sale for $0.99 at the exact same time.

For curious readers, Kindle Books and Tips (where Blessed Are the Wholly Broken has an ad today) is a great place to find free and discounted books. Readers subscribe to a digest, which comes daily via email. The site is also giving away a free Kindle Fire (contest ends Sept. 15.) You can enter to win here.

Entangled Thorns is on ReadCheaply today, another great site highlighting free and discounted books.

To add to the mix, the short story, The Sheriff of Cedar Hollow, which went live on Amazon yesterday (and miraculously just showed up on Goodreads), is currently free. The Sheriff of Cedar Hollow, written by W. Michael Franklin, was originally published in the charity book Cedar Hollow Anthology which, having met its fundraising goal, was discontinued in the summer of 2013.

Each of the Cedar Hollow short stories, now published under the series title Snippets from Cedar Hollow, offers a glimpse into the lives of the residents of Cedar Hollow, West Virginia, the fictional mining town featured in my Cedar Hollow Series, which includes the novels Appalachian Justice, Return to Crutcher Mountain, and Entangled Thorns.

While Sheriff John Moore does an excellent job of keeping the tiny mining town of Cedar Hollow, West Virginia safe, when it comes to asking for personal help, his skills are sorely lacking, and his health is endangered.

The Sheriff of Cedar Hollow contains a bonus preview of Shadow Days, the fourth book in the Cedar Hollow Series, slated for publication in the fall of 2014.

There you have it: two cheap books, a free short, and a bonus preview of the next in the Cedar Hollow Series.

Hope everyone has a great weekend.

Just a quick update to say the fourth book in the Cedar Hollow Series, Shadow Days , is available for pre-order on Amazon.

A preview is available in the short story The Sheriff of Cedar Hollow, as well as on YouTube.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful, relaxing weekend.

August 13. 2015

Two fun pieces of news: first, the audio book for Shadow Days, the fourth in the Cedar Hollow Series, has been completed and is now live, meaning all of the (thus far) Cedar Hollow books are available on audio.

And second, my latest novel, Making Amends, will be available in just a few short weeks:

Making Amends

On a beautiful fall evening, in the middle of a game of hide-and-seek, five-year-old Bobby Clark is kidnapped by his estranged father, a shiftless man with a history of domestic violence and drug abuse.

Bobby’s twin brother Ricky watches, terrified, from his hiding place behind the bougainvillea, while mother Tabby, who also struggles with addiction, lies inebriated on the living room floor.

Bobby isn’t seen by his loved ones again until a fateful morning twenty-five years later, when video of his arrest dominates the morning news. Bobby has been charged with the murder of his father, but before the trial can begin, he manages to escape.

As Tabby and Ricky absorb the news of Bobby’s return and subsequent escape, Tabby is convinced he’ll come home to the quiet Florida street from which he was taken so long ago.

But when events begin to spiral out of control, she's left to wonder: is a child born to be evil, or shaped to be evil? And in the end, when it’s time to make amends, does it really matter?


I'd post a cover photo, except that Goodreads' photo-posting capabilities still confuse me!

It's been a long time since I've stopped by - too long. The end of 2015 found me with some medical issues (well, I say end, but it all started in February of 2015). A metal plate, a couple of screws, and a cadaver bone (neck fusion surgery), and I'm up and running again, almost back to 100% and with more energy all the time. I hadn't realized I was old enough for such problems (ha!), but the universe has a way of slapping us with a little reality from time to time if we get too uppity. :-) At any rate, I've been blessed with a quick and very nearly painless recovery. Isn't it amazing what our medical experts can do?

All of this to say, I've started 2016 with a bang. I'm working on a sequel to Blessed Are the Wholly Broken: Book 1 (and seeing that cover reminds me I need to ask Goodreads to update it - I've got a snazzy new one).

My Cedar Hollow Series (Appalachian Justice, Return to Crutcher Mountain, Entangled Thorns, and Shadow Days) is all available in audiobook format now. And Blessed Are the Wholly Broken: Book 1 and Making Amends should be available as audiobooks sometime in early spring.

A sneak peak (or listen, as it were), if I can remember how to insert a link:

Blessed Are the Wholly Broken

Making Amends

Here's to a happy, healthy, productive 2016 for all of us.