Libby Fischer Hellmann's Blog, page 2

Could Have Knocked Me Over With A Feather!

Every once in a while, something happens out of the blue that surprises me – in a good way. Before I started writing, I had another life. Some of you know I started out in broadcast news but joined a PR firm in Chicago when I moved here

Eight years later I started my own business doing what I’d done at Burson-Marsteller, which was training corporate executives to be better speakers. My programs included platform speaking, presentation skills, media training, and crisis communications. Here’s the front page of my brochure from 25 years ago, and yes, that’s me behind the table.

So last week, out of the blue, I got an email from a woman who asked, “May I interview you?”

I replied, we started talking, and it turns out Sue Begent is a Women’s Business Coach. She’s holding a Women’s Speaker Summit over the summer and was interested in what I might be able to contribute. It’s called The POWERFUL, CONFIDENT and VISIBLE Summit.

One thing led to another, and I agreed to do a podcast with her. Out went all the research material for the next book. In came all my files and materials from Speaker Training, which, happily, I’d kept.

In fact, did you know that the fear of public speaking is the Number 1 fear for Americans, according to the Book Of Facts? If you are a woman in business, or a woman entrepreneur, and public speaking is one of your fears, I invite you to check out the summit over the next few weeks. You will pick up some tips and techniques for you and your business, and you might want to explore further. If you do, let me know, and I’ll try to find the resources and/or people to help you.

Who knew my past would catch up to me thirty years after the fact? Not me. Then again, if you would have told me I’d have published seventeen novels over the past twenty years, I wouldn’t have believed that either.

Details for the summit will be here starting in June; I hope you’ll attend. It’s free. And bound to be useful no matter who you are or what you’re doing. And if your past catches up to you, be kind.

The post Could Have Knocked Me Over With A Feather! appeared first on Libby Fischer Hellmann.

Between Books

My latest Georgia Davis thriller, DoubleBlind, is out. The heavy lifting is over. The story has been told, and my emotional investment in the book has peaked. In fact, I’ve said many times that writing a novel is like a marriage (compared to short stories, which are like an affair).  This marriage is on a plateau, and I’m ready to move on.

But not immediately. Whether it’s taken me three years or three months to write a book, I usually take a breather between novels. I realize that in some quarters that’s anathema, and an author jumps right to the next novel, but I can’t.

I used to. When I had a contract with a Big Five publisher, I produced a book a year—no exceptions. Curiously, when I worked in TV news, I lived for deadlines. Didn’t mind them at all. But for writing fiction? Not so much. I think that’s probably because of the emotional investment we writers make in our stories. There wasn’t much in the world of TV news. You got the story. Got it fast. Put it on the air.  It was just news. Usually a cerebral event.

Not so with writing fiction. I fall in love (or sometimes hate) with my characters, laugh or cry with them, fight with them, watch them as they grow, seek justice, or sometimes die on me. Not to mention Imposter Syndrome, which plagues me every day. Did I use the most beautiful language I could? Could I set the scene with more accuracy? Is the action compelling? Will anyone care about the characters besides me? So for me, and probably other writers too, writing is an emotional roller-coaster.

What I do between books

Amazing Amalfi coast. Positano, Italy

Which is why I need a break between books. Not that I’ll fritter my time away, although I’ve been known to do that. I’ll be refueling, restocking my emotional closet. I’ll do research, catch up on my own reading, and watch tons of movies on Netflix and Amazon. I used to write a short story or two, especially to test out a character or scenario I’d been imagining. This time, though, I’ve got too much going on: a trip to Italy and London next month…my first since the pandemic, and a couple of workshops to improve the ads I run for my backlist..

Unfortunately the idyll between books doesn’t last long. After a few weeks, I start to get an itchy feeling, a restlessness, that can only be scratched by—yup—diving back into writing. I’ve been lucky for the past few years in that I’ve known the premise of the next book before I’ve finished the current one. I try to open myself up to possibilities and “what-ifs.” I make notes, think about the plot points, talk to people, and brainstorm. But there are times I don’t know what I’ll be writing next. If that’s the case I’ll try to open myself up to possibilities and “what-ifs.” I make notes, think about the plot points, talk to people and brainstorm.

So what’s next?

My next book will likely be historical fiction again. Not a mystery but thriller-esque, as I’m returning to World War Two. As soon as I have the first line nailed down, I’ll start.

Bear in mind, though, that the book I’m not working on is always the best thing since sliced bread, while the book I am working on is the blankety-blank manuscript. So there’s that paradox to look forward to.

What about you writers out there? How long a break—if at all—do you take between books?

The post Between Books appeared first on Libby Fischer Hellmann.

How To Keep A Series Fresh

Hi, everyone.

Now that the preorder hoopla is behind us, I’m delighted to tell you that DOUBLEBLIND (I’ve got to remember not to confuse it with Doubleback, which I’ve been doing…) is now launched. It’s widely available at Amazon, AppleBooks, B&N, Kobo, and Google Play.  The audio should be out by the end of March with a fantastic narrator whose voice I fell in love with. Her name is Daniela Acitelli and I know you’ll love her too.

The biggest challenge I faced when I decided to write Georgia Davis #6 was “How To Keep The Series Fresh.” We’ve all read series that after four or five books, somehow lose their piquancy and sharpness. Maybes the characters, including the protagonist are the same as they always were. Maybe the plot lines are a little too familiar. Maybe their conflicts are, too. I get that some readers take comfort in that. The series is just what they want and expect.

I’m not one of them. Well, mostly not. For example, Kinsey Milhone doesn’t really change over the 20-some books Sue Grafton wrote. And that’s okay. She’s the same in every book and Grafton is an icon we all respect and admire. By all rights Henry has got to be much older than an octogenarian by now. But even Kinsey has had some changes in her life: two marriages, several relationships, and family members popping up when she least expects.

I’ve done it myself. In my Ellie Foreman series, Jake Foreman, Ellie’s father, should be almost 100 now, but I just can’t bring myself to let him pass away. He writes himself when he’s on the page, and his scenes are much more vibrant and alive because of that. And Ellie’s friend Susan, who is based on my closest friend who passed away fifteen years ago, is still beautiful, a fashionista, and very much alive in the books.

Still, I have made major changes to my characters and stories over the years. The Ellie Foreman series started when Rachel was twelve. She’s in her early thirties now. And in Virtually Undetectable, she decided she wants to do exactly what her Mom does. So the entire series will now shift to Rachel. Ellie will be there to lend a hand, but essentially it’s a brand new series.

The Georgia Davis series has changed as well. When Easy Innocence came out, Georgia had just been dumped by Matt, she’d been suspended from the police force, and she was essentially alone. Now she has a mother, a fiancée, and she’s living with her sister and toddler nephew. There is a sad event at the end of DOUBLEBLIND. No spoilers, but I admit to crying when I wrote it. However, the book does end on a happy note.

So how do you keep a series fresh?

— Change the dynamics of the main characters; each character should have an ARC that
readers can relate to
— Kill Your Darlings if you have to
— Make sure your protagonist grows in an authentic, credible way
— Change settings if you want. I’ve set stories in the Republic of Georgia, Arizona, Minnesota, and Washington DC.
— Change the nature of the crimes. In the past couple of books, I’ve explored cybercrime, and find it fascinating, as long as I have people who can keep me accurate

I know I’ve just scratched the surface here. What else can a writer do to keep a series fresh? Have your way in the comments!

Oh… and here’s where to get DOUBLEBLIND.

And here’s what Publishers Weekly said in their review: “This escapist adventure will appeal to readers who secretly dream of kicking butt.”

See you soon!!

The post How To Keep A Series Fresh appeared first on Libby Fischer Hellmann.

Why I’m Writing My Way Around the Genre

TBT# I thought I’d reprint some of my more thoughtful blogposts from years past. There’s a brand new audience of writers and authors who’ve never seen them. And, by George or Georgia, they should! Hope you like this one.

 

Some readers read mainly one genre. Romance, for example. Or historicals. Or Sci-fi. The genres include many variations on a theme, but, generally, each novel is similar to the next. Which can be comforting. You know what you’re going to get.

I’d like to think the crime fiction genre is different. As a crime thriller author, it seems to be broader. Yes, a crime is central to the plot, and you can be sure you’re going to deal with the underbelly of human nature. But there are so many different ways in which the crime and the characters involved are revealed, treated, and resolved that it never seems tired. There are many sub-genres within crime fiction, and each has its own tropes and conventiona. Consider:

Thrillers (Crime, legal, political, medical)
Espionage
Historicals
PI novels
Cozies
Amateur Sleuths
Police Procedurals
Caper Stories
Noir

In fact, according to James Patterson, thrillers are constantly evolving:

“Thrillers provide such a rich literary feast. There are all kinds. The legal thriller, spy thriller, action-adventure thriller, medical thriller, police thriller, romantic thriller, historical thriller, political thriller, religious thriller, high-tech thriller, military thriller. The list goes on and on, with new variations constantly being invented. In fact, this openness to expansion is one of the genre’s most enduring characteristics.”

So, instead of churning out 15 novels in the same series, I’ve spent the last 15 years writing my way around the genre.

Why? Several reasons. I get bored easily, and I like a challenge. The chance to experiment with shades of suspense, characters, settings, plots, endings.I don’t want to run a series into the ground. I want my work to stay fresh.

Too many series use the same tropes year after year which dilutes their effect. Too often they disappear after five or six installments. I’d rather send Ellie Foreman, my amateur sleuth, on vacation for 10 years. Which I did. She only just emerged from “hiatus hell” to star in JUMP CUT, which came out in March, 2016.

Ellie on the precipice

Why did I stop writing Ellie? The first reason was her voice. I write Ellie in first person, which I believe is the most intimate voice a writer can use. You really KNOW Ellie inside and out by the time you’ve finished one of her novels. However, as my craft developed and matured, I wanted to explore other characters’ POVs as well, and I found I couldn’t do it as gracefully as I wanted. I did in AN IMAGE OF DEATH but it wasn’t perfect. I needed a third person POV so I could dip into other characters’ thoughts.

The second reason was that Ellie was an amateur sleuth, and by book four I found myself bending over backwards to find a credible reason for her to get involved in a murder investigation. There are only so many bodies a video producer can realistically run across. After that it gets a bit strained and harder to suspend belief. It’s probably due to my former life as a broadcast news person – I want to be as accurate and credible as possible, and Ellie wasn’t making it easy.

Georgia has more staying power

Georgia Davis, the protagonist of my six PI novels, solved the dilemma. She’s a powerful character and a popular one. Best of all, it’s her job to investigate murders, so I don’t have to turn backflips to find a reason for her to get involved. After four novels she’s gone through a development ARC, but she’s still fresh with lots of potential.

More crime thriller sub-genres

Besides the 12 novels in the two series, I’ve written three stand-alone historical thrillers. One is about the late Sixties in the US; another is about the Iranian Revolution; the third begins during the Cuban revolution (sense a theme here?) I’ve also written a cozy novella, and one of the Georgia Davis novels is actually a prequel and occurs when she was still a cop, so it’s a police procedural. I’ve also been sidetracked by World War Two. I’ve written one novella and several short stories that are set then, and am about to finish a second novella about German POWs in the US. My plan is to package them all together later this summer, and I’ve given it the tentative title Homefront.*

So, while it might make it more difficult to “brand” myself (whatever that really means) I like the freedom to explore and sink myself into new challenges. I think I’ll keep it up.

In the meantime, what tropes of crime fiction appeal to you?

 

*Since then I’ve published the WW2 stories as War, Spies, and Bobby Sox, and my first non-mystery, a historical fiction novel about the Vietnam War called A Bend In the River.

 

The post Why I’m Writing My Way Around the Genre appeared first on Libby Fischer Hellmann.

Doubleblind Giveaway on Goodreads

Just wanted to make sure you know that DOUBLEBLIND is now a Goodreads Giveaway. Enter to get 1 of 100 Review Copies through Feb. 10.

.goodreadsGiveawayWidget { color: #555; font-family: georgia, serif; font-weight: normal; text-align: left; font-size: 14px;<br /> font-style: normal; background: white; }<br /> .goodreadsGiveawayWidget p { margin: 0 0 .5em !important; padding: 0; }<br /> .goodreadsGiveawayWidgetEnterLink {<br /> display: inline-block;<br /> color: #181818;<br /> background-color: #F6F6EE;<br /> border: 1px solid #9D8A78;<br /> border-radius: 3px;<br /> font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;<br /> font-weight: bold;<br /> text-decoration: none;<br /> outline: none;<br /> font-size: 13px;<br /> padding: 8px 12px;<br /> }<br /> .goodreadsGiveawayWidgetEnterLink:hover {<br /> color: #181818;<br /> background-color: #F7F2ED;<br /> border: 1px solid #AFAFAF;<br /> text-decoration: none;<br /> }<br /> Goodreads Book Giveaway DoubleBlindby Libby Fischer Hellmann

Giveaway ends February 10, 2022.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

 

The post Doubleblind Giveaway on Goodreads appeared first on Libby Fischer Hellmann.

WHY AREN’T YOU VACCINATED?

I feel cheated. There we were — no masks, able to congregate beyond our “pods”, go to our favorite places to hang, all with long summer days ahead of us — and then. Bam! Smack! Do not pass Go. And, for sure, do not collect $200 dollars. The country missed its opportunity to wipe out Covid once and for all because of low vaccine rates. Which means we will be STUCK with Covid for the rest of our lives. The virus will continue to mutate inevitably into more dangerous strains, and we will probably need yearly boosters.Can you imagine this having happened with Polio? I remember polio shots and then the polio sugar cubes. Who resisted then? No one. Not one person I know shouted about their freedom. Freedom for what, by the way? To get sick and die? Well, guess what? Now you got it. Nice to have known you.Before you die, you should know how worse you’ve made it for everyone. Even though we are fully vaccinated, we can still give it to others unintentionally. How cool is that? If you’re a malevolent narcissist I suppose you’re laughing. Laugh away. Until you can’t breathe and are begging for the vaccine for yourself. Sorry. You’re too late.This was NEVER a political issue. It was and remains an issue of PUBLIC HEALTH. Get it through your sick thick heads. You have made Covid a permanent fixture in our society. Happy? Got your freedom on? Enjoy it now, because when Delta comes for you, you won’t be laughing or smiling.Or get a vaccine.PS Sorry for the rage, folks. I just can’t believe how stupid people are. America is killing itself.

The post WHY AREN’T YOU VACCINATED? appeared first on Libby Fischer Hellmann.

Something to Take the Chill Off

Hi, all. Yup, February has been awful so far. Thankfully there are only another two weeks, and then…dare we hope… spring will be around the corner? Let’s make it so.

Until that happens, though, I want to tell you about a couple of Valentine’s Day offers you might enjoy while you’re staying put. They’re both decidely historical.

War, Spies, and Bobby Sox: Stories About WW2 on the Homefront

Some of you know I’m an avid reader of WW2 books. I firmly believe that’s the last time we fought a war with such clarity. We knew who the bad guys were, and we were the good guys. It seems as if WW2 lit never goes out of style, so years ago when a friend asked me what I was going to contribute, I doubted I could possibly add anything to the incredible work that’s already been written.

Then one day I was in exercise class, and one of the women starting talking about a German POW camp that was only half a mile away. “What POW camp?” I asked, but my brain was already churning. That afternoon I visited the site – it’s part of the Forest Preserve now – but an idea came to me. After much research (there is a guy whose specialty is digging around the sites of POW camps in Illinois, which goes to show there’s always somebody doing research on something we writers need to know) I wrote “P.O.W.”

But that was a novella, not a novel. I’d written it to see if I could actually produce something worthwhile about the era. A week later another idea came to me about a German refugee forced to spy on the early years of the Manhattan Project in Chicago. That produced “The Incidental Spy,” another novella. Which also took a lot of research into splitting atoms and nuclear energy, but for me, that’s the fun part.

Since both stories were set on the “Homefront,” I decided to include “The Day Miriam Hirsch Disappeared” as well. Although it’s a prequel to the Ellie Foreman series, it’s really about WW2 in Chicago when the German Bund was popular.

I bundled them all together into a trio of stories called War, Spies, and Bobby Sox. Some of you might have read it; most of you probably haven’t. So the good news it’s that it’s reduced to 99¢ all week starting today through Friday, February 19. You can grab it on Amazon in the UK, Australia, India, or Canada. And the US, of course.

Wanna see the trailer? Here you go:

The Other Offering: Set The Night on Fire

Set the Night on Fire , originally published in 2010, turned out to be a much more personal thriller than I expected. The story takes us back, in part, to the late Sixties in Chicago. I was in DC but I know the times well. The premise is that a young woman is being stalked in the present. As she becomes more and more desperate to find out who’s wants her dead and why, she discovers information that her parents were not the people she thought they were. We then revisit 1968-1970 to find out who her parents were and why the secret was kept from her. It turned out to be part love story, part thriller, part historical novel.

A lot of my personal life at the time is woven through it. I was pretty happy with the result. Apparently, others loved it too. Lee Child blurbed it, and the reviews were excellent. You can see some of them in the book trailer.

It’s not discounted, BUT… I would love to have some honest reviews in the next few weeks, so if you’re interested in reviewing it, contact me at lfh@libbyhellmann.com

First come, first serve. I have a few audio codes also that work in the EU and the UK as well as the US. So let me know which format you want.

Finally, have a lovely chocolate-filled Valentine’s Day.

Libby

The post Something to Take the Chill Off appeared first on Libby Fischer Hellmann.

Something to Take the Chill Off

Hi, all. Yup, February has been awful so far. Thankfully there are only another two weeks, and then…dare we hope… spring will be around the corner? Let’s make it so.

Until that happens, though, I want to tell you about a couple of Valentine’s Day offers you might enjoy while you’re staying put. They’re both decidely historical.

War, Spies, and Bobby Sox: Stories About WW2 on the Homefront

Some of you know I’m an avid reader of WW2 books. I firmly believe that’s the last time we fought a war with such clarity. We knew who the bad guys were, and we were the good guys. It seems as if WW2 lit never goes out of style, so years ago when a friend asked me what I was going to contribute, I doubted I could possibly add anything to the incredible work that’s already been written.

Then one day I was in exercise class, and one of the women starting talking about a German POW camp that was only half a mile away. “What POW camp?” I asked, but my brain was already churning. That afternoon I visited the site – it’s part of the Forest Preserve now – but an idea came to me. After much research (there is a guy whose specialty is digging around the sites of POW camps in Illinois, which goes to show there’s always somebody doing research on something we writers need to know) I wrote “P.O.W.”

But that was a novella, not a novel. I’d written it to see if I could actually produce something worthwhile about the era. A week later another idea came to me about a German refugee forced to spy on the early years of the Manhattan Project in Chicago. That produced “The Incidental Spy,” another novella. Which also took a lot of research into splitting atoms and nuclear energy, but for me, that’s the fun part.

Since both stories were set on the “Homefront,” I decided to include “The Day Miriam Hirsch Disappeared” as well. Although it’s a prequel to the Ellie Foreman series, it’s really about WW2 in Chicago when the German Bund was popular.

I bundled them all together into a trio of stories called War, Spies, and Bobby Sox. Some of you might have read it; most of you probably haven’t. So the good news it’s that it’s reduced to 99¢ all week starting today through Friday, February 19. You can grab it on Amazon in the UK, Australia, India, or Canada. And the US, of course.

Wanna see the trailer? Here you go:

The Other Offering: Set The Night on Fire

Set the Night on Fire , originally published in 2010, turned out to be a much more personal thriller than I expected. The story takes us back, in part, to the late Sixties in Chicago. I was in DC but I know the times well. The premise is that a young woman is being stalked in the present. As she becomes more and more desperate to find out who’s wants her dead and why, she discovers information that her parents were not the people she thought they were. We then revisit 1968-1970 to find out who her parents were and why the secret was kept from her. It turned out to be part love story, part thriller, part historical novel.

A lot of my personal life at the time is woven through it. I was pretty happy with the result. Apparently, others loved it too. Lee Child blurbed it, and the reviews were excellent. You can see some of them in the book trailer.

It’s not discounted, BUT… I would love to have some honest reviews in the next few weeks, so if you’re interested in reviewing it, contact me at lfh@libbyhellmann.com

First come, first serve. I have a few audio codes also that work in the EU and the UK as well as the US. So let me know which format you want.

Finally, have a lovely chocolate-filled Valentine’s Day.

Libby

The post Something to Take the Chill Off appeared first on .

“Killer Siblings” — The SUH Case Is Back This Weekend

Every few years, a true crime case captures the interest and imagination of the people who follow true crime. Chicago’s Suh family seems to be one of those cases. For the second or third time in a decade, a true crime TV series, this time Oxygen TV’s series “Killer Siblings” is revisiting the gruesome case of a sister who convinced her brother to kill her boyfriend. Before that, she probably convinced the same boyfriend to kill her own mother.

Why this case? It’s impossible to know for sure. But behind every murder, beneath the scandal, horror, media coverage, and police procedure lies a human tragedy. The case of Catherine Suh and her brother Andrew is no exception.

Catherine was someone who loved luxury cars, big-spending boyfriends, and designer clothes. By all accounts she had always been hungry for money, and lots of it. She was rebellious and disobedient, with little respect for her parents who, because of their traditional Korean background, forbid her to behave as the “American teenager” she longed to be. But her long term boyfriend Robbie O’Dubaine adored her, despite his family’s reservations.

In 1985 Catherine’s father died of cancer, and for a while mother, sister, and brother co-existed. But things soon started to go wrong. Catherine was even more rebellious and difficult, and just two years later, their beloved mother was brutally stabbed 37 times in her Evanston dry-cleaning store. Police always suspected Catherine was behind the murder but couldn’t prove it, because O’Dubaine and Suh gave each other an alibi. Catherine and her brother Andrew subsequently inherited $800,000.

Now orphaned, Andrew clung to his sister, who became his legal guardian and surrogate mother. Andrew grew to idolize his big sister and did whatever she wanted. In the fall of 1993 Suh managed to convince her younger brother Andrew, a 21-year-old college student, to shoot O’Dubaine dead in the couple’s Bucktown apartment. Andrew was eventually found guilty and sentenced to a 100 year jail term.

Why did Andrew agree to murder his sister’s boyfriend? Unlike his sister, Andrew was an academic star, an athlete, and an obedient son. After the death of their father years before, Andrew had promised to help and protect his mother. But Catherine convinced her brother that her boyfriend, Robert O’Dubaine, with whom she shared a Bucktown home, was the man who murdered their mom (It may well have been true). She told Andrew that the only honorable way ahead was to kill O’Dubaine in revenge. Suh arranged for her brother to murder Robbie O’Dubaine . She then claimed his $250,000 life insurance policy,

Suh was charged in O’Dubaine’s murder, but she made bond and moved to Lake Point Tower in Chicago, living an easy life in a luxurious high-rise. She kept up her old habits of hunting down rich boyfriends and did her best to re-invent herself as real estate agent Kasia Kane. Two days before her trial began in 1995, however, Catherine fled to Hawaii where she continued the deception. She found a surfer boyfriend in record time and persuaded him to buy a more stylish condo.

However, even a murderer can be worn down by circumstances. After being featured on TV’s America’s Most Wanted show in January 1996, in March Suh handed herself in to the FBI in Honolulu. Cook County Criminal Court Judge John E. Morrissey ordered Suh, now 27, to begin her life sentence.

Typical of a sociopath, Suh refused to apologize to her former boyfriend’s family, or look in their direction at her sentencing. She stared straight ahead, stony-eyed and unrepentant. But as Robbie’s mother Margaret Nolan said afterwards, “I can start remembering Robbie and feel good that justice has prevailed.”

PS In addition to her murder sentence, Catherine also received a concurrent 30-year sentence for armed robbery. And after four months in prison, Suh received an additional two years for aggravated battery after lashing out at a prison staff member.

So what’s my connection to this sad case? As a writer, and a true crime observer, this would be an incredible novel, if it were fiction. The fact that it really happened is almost surreal. It triggered all sorts of questions: what was Catherine’s real motivation? Was it simply greed or was it the continuation of her rebellion against authority? What about Andrew, the true victim of the story? What made him so compliant? What is he like now? Will he ever be let out of prison? I was swept up by the characters, the horror, the chutzpah, and ultimately, the sadness of the entire case.

The new show about the Suh Family murders, with Catherine as the “Black Widow,” will launch on Oxygen THIS WEEKEND, either Friday, November 20, or Saturday, November 21 (check your local listings). You might see a few sound bites from this writer on the show. They did interview me about my thoughts, and, of course, I shared them liberally.

The post “Killer Siblings” — The SUH Case Is Back This Weekend appeared first on .

The Paperback Annex is Live!

 

Ebooks are great, but I still love paperbacks, and I bet a lot of you do, too. To pick up a book and thumb through it makes it more of an “event,” and good luck trying to quickly find a passage that you want to reread. And if it’s a SIGNED BOOK…

I’m delighted to announce that I can now provide personally SIGNED trade paperbacks to you at a discount from my website! I call it “The Paperback Annex” and all my books are available, including the upcoming A Bend In The River! (That’s the only one that is not discounted). Even with shipping included — I have to use Media Mail for the time being — the price is less than you’ll find in most stores. You can find it here. Here’s a short video on how it works:

I can take live orders at the Facebook parties next week, so be sure to save the date: Wednesday, October 7, at 2 PM and 7 PM EDT; 1 PM and 6 PM Central.

See you then!

The post The Paperback Annex is Live! appeared first on .