Joyce Harmon's Blog, page 6

Dog Art

A few months ago, I started drawing. I’m not one of these people who’ve drawn all my life. I think the last time I drew anything must have been in high school, and that was mumblety years ago, and I was pretty bad at it.

But for some reason, I just got the bug. Got some sketch pads and sketching pencils and some how-to books. Some of my stuff is… not half bad. I draw the exercises in the books – you know, a cube and a cylinder with the light coming this way, a sphere and a cone with the light coming that way. I draw pictures out of magazines. And I draw things that are lying around the house.

Now, in this establishment, when you look for things ‘lying around the house’, one subject jumps out at you – the fluffy white dog. So I’ve been drawing Maggie.

It’s pretty tricky; I’m in the recliner and she’s on the floor, so there are some odd angles and getting eyes and ears the right size and right place in relation to one another takes practice. Some of my Maggie efforts have been laughably bad. But here are a few I think are kinda cute.

The first is what I’m learning to call a’gesture sketch’, and then there are just the basic lying about pictures. You’ll notice there are no back feet – I’m not wimping out on them, it’s just that from where I am and where she is, I can’t see her back feet.

 

 

 

 

Future art historians will call this my Dog On Floor Period.

 

And now for something completely different

I’ve started a new book! And, um… it’s not a mystery. Never fear, I’m not abandoning Cissy and the gang at Passatonnack Winery, I have at least two more adventures planned for them.

But my current project is a Regency romance. I’ve always loved Georgette Heyers’ books, so I’m going to give it a whirl. It’s a whole different writing style, but that’s what makes it fun.

 

A nice little launch!

Well, I’m rather pleased with the launch of Bidding On Death. I can’t say the book was an overnight best-seller (well, I could SAY it — but it wouldn’t be true), but it’s starting off selling faster than Died On The Vine did. June is already my best month on Amazon, and I’m seeing an increase in sales of Died On The Vine as well. Some people seem to be buying the two books as a set.

Over the past few months, I’ve found more venues for book marketing, and with the publication of Bidding On Death, I activated them all at once, so perhaps that’s what’s making the difference. Or perhaps it’s the chihuahua on the cover.

 

Bidding On Death now available for purchase

Here it is, folks, hot off the presses.

“1998 – On-line auctions are the new craze, and tech writer and vineyard co-owner Cissy Rayburn is joining the frenzy. New friend Amy is teaching Cissy and old friend Julia how to navigate the wonderful world of eBuy. But while the ladies were at Cissy’s house on the computer, someone broke into Amy’s and Julia’s houses.

Could it have something to do with the weekend estate sale they all went to? The other big buyer at the auction was Rose Jackson, retired county government employee and on-line auction shark. Cissy wonders if Rose’s house was broken into as well. But when she stops by Rose’s house, she finds that not only was the house broken into – so was Rose’s head.

Now Cissy is once again hip-deep in a murder investigation, but with the added aggravation of providing a temporary home for Rose’s untrained and obnoxious chihuahua Paco. Both identifying the killer and finding a permanent home for this awful little dog seem like impossible tasks.”

Buy Bidding On Death at Amazon . Or at Smashwords.

It will take a few weeks for it to be uploaded at Barnes and Noble. If you Nook people can’t wait, you can buy a Nook-compatible version at Smashwords.

 

Sneak peek! New book cover

Here you go, folks, coming soon to an e-reader near you…

Finished!

There. Done. Epilogue finished. I wrote The End.

This may call for pizza…

 

Bidding On Death, update

I’ve decided that Bidding On Death needs a prologue and epilogue set in the present, so I’m writing those now.  I still hope to be able to publish by the end of the month. Fingers crossed.

 

 

Distracting!

I’m trying to get Bidding On Death edited and formatted and ready to publish – but I have to keep going over to Barnes and Noble to reload the Died On The Vine page to check its sales ranking. (I don’t get sales figures from B&N in real time, so watching the ranking bounce up and down tells me the book is selling – I just don’t know how many.)

 

Oh Em Gee!

Died on the Vine is taking off over at Barnes and Noble, boys and girls! Just looking at the April sales report, and from almost nothing, it jumped to 1400 sales for the month!

How validating! (And motivating! – Back to the Bidding on Death edit stat!)

 

A glimpse of things to come

I’m buffing and honing Bidding On Death, and also working on my book blurbs.

Smashwords gives you places to post a short description and a longer description.  Here are the blurbs as they stand now.

“Short description: Cissy Rayburn finds a body again. Someone bashed in Rose Jackson’s head, and left her obnoxious chihuahua an orphan. Now Cissy is stuck with Paco the chihuhua and convinced that the murder is connected with the estate auction Rose just went to. Others at the auction include Cissy’s friend Julia, and Cissy herself. What was the killer looking for, and how ruthlessly will he continue the search?”

“Long description:

1998 – On-line auctions are the new craze, and tech writer and vineyard co-owner Cissy Rayburn is joining the frenzy. New friend Amy is teaching Cissy and old friend Julia how to navigate the wonderful world of eBuy. But while the ladies were at Cissy’s house on the computer, someone broke into Amy’s and Julia’s houses.

Could it have something to do with the weekend estate sale they all went to? The other big buyer at the auction was Rose Jackson, retired county government employee and on-line auction shark. Cissy wonders if Rose’s house was broken into as well. But when she stops by Rose’s house, she finds that not only was the house broken into – so was Rose’s head.

Now Cissy is once again hip-deep in a murder investigation, but with the added aggravation of providing a temporary home for Rose’s untrained and obnoxious chihuahua Paco. Both identifying the killer and finding a permanent home for this awful little dog seem like impossible tasks.”

And there you have it – coming soon, to an e-reader near you!