Dean P. Turnbloom's Blog, page 4

Booksigning at Newport News, Virginia…

March 26th book signing for Best Editorial Cartoons of the Year was less than a rousing success…the total number of books sold was zero…

 

The signing took place at the Barnes and Noble at 12170 Jefferson Ave, Newport News, VA 23602. The store was very nice and Diana, who was the manager on duty, was very nice and asked me to sign two copies for the store at the end of the night.  The only success of the night was that I was able to give away a ton of bookmarks to the patrons who walked by.
Being from San Diego (at least for the last few years), I was not used to the cold weather or the snow. I was actually snowed on for the first time in over thirty years.

 

The bright spot of the evening was that I gave away a ton of bookmarks for my novels.

 

On the return trip home, in the airports, I was able to place my bookmarks in the airport bookstores. Hopefully they will reach a wide audience.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tagged: book, fiction, Holmes, marketing, novel, Sherlock, Sherlock_Holmes, signing, Vampire, whitechapel

New Novel Giveaway on Goodreads…

This is a DOUBLE GIVEAWAY featuring two great books, SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE WHITECHAPEL VAMPIRE and its sequel, SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE BODY SNATCHERS

Goodreads Book Giveaway


Sherlock Holmes and the Body Snatchers
by Dean P. Turnbloom

Giveaway ends May 01, 2014.

See the giveaway details

at Goodreads.

 

Enter to win

Upcoming book signing…

26 March 2014 at the Barnes and Noble store in Newport News, Virginia, I will be signing books for Pelican Publishing Company. The book is BEST EDITORIAL CARTOONS of the YEAR: 2014 EDITION. This series of books has been published by Pelican for over forty years now. The Editor for the first forty years was Charles Brooks and Pelican asked me to succeed him as editor. Charles Brooks passed on in 2012.

I will be giving away bookmarks for my novels during the signing.

 

Reviewing Agatha Christie’s ‘Hallowe’en Party’…

Hallowe’en Party by Agatha Christie

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I think this book shows how to write a mystery. It’s more than figuring out who dunnit, it’s piecing the separate threads of the story until you can complete the pattern of the plot into whole cloth. There is much that can be learned from such Golden Era mystery authors. This was a thoroughly enjoyable read although I think may have violated one of the so-called rules of mystery writing in that at least one crucial piece of information was available to the reader. I’ll check and report back.

View all my reviews

Researching the mystery novel…

I’ve recently read a novel by one of the ‘golden age of mystery’ writers, John Dickson Carr, titled THE JUDAS WINDOW.

Having not before read any of Carr’s works, I was a little taken aback by the POV from the beginning, not knowing the relationship between the narrator and the detective/barrister. The novel was engaging but not overly so. I only discovered here that this is the eighth Sir Henry Merrivale story, so I think before making any absolute judgements I should read at least the first in the series.

I read the book primarily as it was introduced to me as the quintessential locked-room mystery. I appreciate from it the complications involved in writing a novel of this sort. It would seem you must almost write in reverse, starting with the ‘how’ and then coming up with ingenious ways in which to cover it up. From that perspective, I gained much in reading it and would recommend it to others.

Sequel and new short story available for Kindle…

My new novel, the sequel to SHERLOCK HOLMES and the WHITECHAPEL VAMPIRE, titled SHERLOCK HOLMES and the BODY SNATCHERS is now available on Amazon.com for the Kindle and on BarnesandNoble.com for the Nook. It’s also available in the ITunes store. In addition, my short story, SHERLOCK HOLMES and the RAVEN’S CALL is also available for the Kindle and Nook. In March, you should be able to get the novel in paperback from both outlets as well as others. Very exciting news!

Short story with MX Publishing…

I forgot to post that I have submitted a Sherlock Holmes short story to MX Publishing that they say they will publish as an ebook. The story is titled “SHERLOCK HOLMES and the RAVEN’S CALL” and is a pastiche in the true sense. It is set shortly after Holmes has retired to raise bees in Sussex. It is after he purchases his new digs that he discovers the deceased previous owner may not have died accidentally as reported. I think it’s a very good tale and perhaps reminiscent of Poe in some respects. I’ll post as soon as I know it’s available. It should be a $2.99 ebook when it comes out.

Tagged: Author, book, fiction, Holmes, mystery, Sherlock, Sherlock_Holmes, short story, thriller, Watson, writing

My mindmap…

I thought that since I mentioned using mindmapping in my last post, I should follow up with a picture of my mindmap for the third in my Whitechapel Vampire series, which is yet untitled by is “Sherlock Holmes and a Vampire’s Lament”…

Also, I’m trying to have a couple of my short stories published in a magazine (The Fog, and The Ninth Baron of Wexley). If anyone has tips for short story publication, please leave a comment.

 

Tagged: fiction, Holmes, horror, Mindmap, mindmapping, novel, Shelock_Holmes, Sherlock, Vampire, Watson

Writing with mind-mapping…

I’m starting the third book in my Whitechapel Vampire trilogy (as yet still unnamed) and am using a new technique to aid in putting it all together. The technique is called mind-mapping

and allows me to list in a graphical format relationships, characteristics, plot points, conflicts, etc.

You can find a good article here.

Tagged: Author, fiction, Holmes, horror, novel, Sherlock, Sherlock_Holmes, Vampire

Sherlock Holmes and the Body Snatchers…

My new novel, Sherlock Holmes and the Body Snatchers, is now with the publisher. It is the sequel to Sherlock Holmes and the Whitechapel Vampire. This novel was exhaustive to write and I completely changed directions with it no less than three times. Stylistically it bends some rules and I’m sure I will take a few criticisms with that, but the bending of rules fits the story and it could not be successfully told without doing so, so I’m unafraid of any criticisms it will receive as I believe the story is good enough to outshine any stylistic criticisms.