James’s Comments (group member since Apr 24, 2022)

James’s comments from the Self-Published Only Club group.

May is Pacific Islander and Asian Heritage Month. If you’ve written or want to suggest such themed self-published books to read, post them here.

While the main recurring character of my Nightcrow Casefiles mysteries, independent insurance investigator Luna Nightcrow, is Native American, in The Diamond Head Deception she hurries to the Hawaiian Islands in frantic search of a missing, world renown red diamond called “Pacific Splendor” (insured for $15 million). Indian, Native Hawaiian, Philippine, and other Pacific Islander and Asian characters populate this action-packed offbeat mystery-thriller.

A 2016 Next Generation Indie Awards Top 5 Finalist Winner for Multicultural Fiction.

ABC, or Alphabetical Sentences.

This writing game is supposed to exercise the right brain-- as if most of us need to jog that side's memory more -- and involves creating sentences with the first letter of each word starts with the next letter of the alphabet.

Here's mine (which sounds a bit like a news headline I might have written in my cub journalist days):

Abe battled Confederate defenders effectively from Gettysburg hills in July.

While not historically accurate (as The North defended Gettysburg from advancing Southern forces), you get how this works, right?

…FALL IN LOVE WITH YOUR CHARACTERS?

What a strange question, you might say. Maybe not, as I got the idea from an old Forbes Magazine article ( https://www.forbes.com/sites/booked/2... ).

So, as another attempt to freshen up the banal buy my book plea, why not list whether you fell for your protagonist, antagonist, or minor characters and if so why.

When creating the Native American lead heroine Luna Nightcrow of The K-Frost Caper and The Diamond Head Deception it was perhaps similar to the sculptor Pygmalion of Greek myth. While I’m not the misogynist Pygmalion was (as his hatred of women led him to create an ivory statue of his ideal woman that he ultimately fell in love with), reading many mysteries or seeing them in movies and TV depicted usually with largely white and black characters but almost no Native Americans was a little disheartening.

So similar to Pygmalion’s decision, I decided not to wait on Hollywood, Fleet Street, or any other media outlet to create a compelling detective of another color; I created one myself and endowed her with all the traits that many of the great sleuths posses: Confidence, charisma, uncanny intuition, wanderlust, a degree of world weariness, and a hang up for being a hopeless romantic in a business bent on presenting the unvarnished truth. When I finally bestowed Luna with the charms of “Charlie’s Angels,” what’s not to love?! I even went so far as to interview Luna in another Games thread called https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/... .

Title of series: The Nightcrow Casefiles: The Diamond Head Deception

On the bookshelf currently

Name of book you reviewed from the bookshelf: The Gap

Joanie wrote: "This is the home for placing the book cover of your reading choice and the link to your reviews.

Thanks!

Joanie"



https://www.amazon.com/Gap-Joanie-Lun...
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-...

… FRAUD. And if you spot it, call Luna Nightcrow. Up with the sun and into the night, Luna Nightcrow is all yours, but only if the price is right. She isn't your typical private eye! Wanna give her mysteries a try?

From the award-winning and critically-acclaimed mystery series The Nightcrow Casefiles come The K-Frost Caper and The Diamond Head Deception. BOTH IN KINDLE AND PAPERBACK ON AMAZON.COM!

Forty-something Cherokee Luna Nightcrow is a freelance insurance investigator who's at the top of her game. She shoots more than the breeze with her smartphone, occasionally dispensing a 60,000-volt shock to assailants from its Yellow Jacket stun gun case. And armed with beauty and brains that are even more devastating, she flies from sea to shining sea -- from Honolulu to Miami and in between--to tackle the toughest insurance scams anyone's seen.


A 2016 Next Generation Indie Awards Finalist for Multicultural Fiction for
Luna's off to Hawaii to track down "Pacific Splendor": A missing, world renown red diamond insured for $15 million. Among the suspects: Secessionists, sexy ex-sportsmen ..., and Luna?!

And featured #15 on Mystery Tribune https://www.mysterytribune.com/24-bes... Luna's back in action, this time on an assignment that will snag her a nifty $50,000, if she can find "Frost," Kelvin Frost (one of 3 same-named criminals who may be have committed identity theft and murder or have been murdered themselves) in Miami. Paired with one of The Magic City's best cops, the debonair Detective Sgt. Tiago Toussaint, action, mystery, and a little romance about, as Luna dares to look around.

Joanie wrote: "Short Stories and Poetry:

Please enter the following information:


Title

On bookshelf or request made to add

Name of book reviewed from bookshelf if applicable"

Greetings, Ms. Lunsford.

I forgot to ask. If we enter our TBRs under "Series," do you want each book or just one? So far, I only added The Diamond Head Deception from "The Nightcrow Casefiles."

All the best.

James

Joanie wrote: "Series:

Please enter the following information:

Title

On bookshelf or request made to add.

Name a book you reviewed on bookshelf if applicable."

The Nightcrow Casefiles: The Diamond Head Deception

Request made to add

Name of book you reviewed from the bookshelf: The Gap

Ross wrote: "Uhm...Hi again.

I'm not sure here is going to pay attention to me enough to answer the questions I have, but here goes.

1: I am a self-published Indie author. Can someone like me become notable e..."

Greetings, Ross.

Suffice it to say that if formerly self-published authors like Mark Twain, Amanda Hocking, and Andy Weir are any indication, then yes: Obviously"someone like [you] can become a notable author." To find out the paths it took for the aforementioned scribes to become household names, simply Google their biographies and take note of what it took for them to achieve "success" as world famous authors. It wasn't easy. Andy Weir, for example, was originally a computer programmer who'd been writing since the 80's before "The Martian" only became a hit this century. That's over 20 years of writing and holding down a day job before anyone knew who he was or took his writing seriously.

The thing I learned from Mark Twain, Amanda Hocking, and Andy Weir is that if you enjoy writing, keep doing it. But also realize that it's likely that you may have to lower your sights a bit from achieving a guaranteed five or six figure salary or silver screen adaptation immortality. Because fiction writing is basically done for entertainment purposes. And if the pandemic taught nothing else, more important things like health and safety take priority over entertainment (as even many professional writers' incomes took hits or put them out of business for a while).

So yeah, Ross, you can become a successful, notable author. For some, that can mean being "notable" on the college scene or some smaller stage, not necessarily in terms of "California Dreamin' " (Hollywood) or having a "New York State of Mind" (Madison Avenue). But for most, it's practical to have a day job, so to speak, with the realistic expectation that writing fiction alone probably won't make you rich or famous overnight. For most "rich and famous" authors, reaching that level was years, decades even, in the making.

And once you're "on top," it takes an even greater amount of work and worry to remain Number One or in the Top 10 or so, as new obligations emerge (like fending off competitors, bowing to the pressures of agents or publishers to write "what will sell" instead of what you may like, etc.). Here's an interesting article about what it's like even when you become "notable" and Hollywood calls with the offer for fame or infamy: https://www.theguardian.com/books/201... .

Gary wrote: "10 months in and nobody has recommended a single indie author? That's a shame. I was hoping this thread might lead me to more fantastic indie novels. Since that's not going to happen, I'll recommen..."

I accidentally added several indie favorite authors' books to an earlier thread, for book-shelving consideration, not here. But here they are again, officially in the correct spot.

The Reality of Independent Writing
The Guy's a Loser Detective Agency
Medusa Defence
Red QueenRed Queen
Three from TOMORROW: a Tales from TOMORROW 3-fer!

Lincoln Confidential: The Goddess of Strife

Dead Links
Requisite Variety: Collected Short Fiction
Cape Heights Volume 1: A Day Time Tv Styled Soap Opera

And of these, the self-published author who would make an interesting feature is Roger Cave of Manchester, England. His Alec Fincham novels are extremely well-written military intelligence adventures. Though somewhat derivative of the cinematic James Bond, in certain episodes, they are overall more in line with Dale Brown or other military authors' works rather than Ian Fleming.

Abby wrote: "I'm working on getting some of my favor self-published works added to our bookshelf. What are some of your favorites?"

Greetings, Abby,

Here are some of my all-time favorite self-published books (from other authors) that you may want to consider adding to the bookshelf piecemeal:

The Reality of Independent Writing
The Guy's a Loser Detective Agency
Medusa Defence
Red QueenRed Queen
Three from TOMORROW: a Tales from TOMORROW 3-fer!

Dead Links
Requisite Variety: Collected Short Fiction
Cape Heights Volume 1: A Day Time Tv Styled Soap Opera

Greetings.

I have 3 novels for your shelving consideration.

The Diamond Head Deception
The K-Frost Caper
The Steel Deal

They can be found on both my Amazon author page and on Barnes and Noble's page:

https://www.amazon.com/James-Blakley/...

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/%22J...

I also uploaded covershots of each in the club "Photos."

All the best.

James

I'll go with The Knot at the End of the Rope and Other Short Stories.