SISTER, WEATHER AND CRASHED COMPUTERS.

Well, it’s been awhile, but I finally got around to doing a blog.  Sister’s computer crashed and she is about to pull her hair out.  I’m sure she is dying to know what I’m doing on all our sites.

A couple of things the world needs  to know.  I say the world because I like to think big.  #1 is that we have changed the name of the detective in THE STONE KILLER.  Doesn’t JONAS BLACK sound better than JOHN T. HUNTINGTON?  JTH sounds like one of those pot bellied men who sit on the board of corporations.

#2 is that we are going to have a sale of our books.  A CIRCLE OF MURDERS will be on sale from March 14 thru 18 for $.99, then reverts back to the regular price of $2.99.

CREATING KATHRYN CROWN will we on sale from March 15-18 for $.99, as well.  Then reverts back to the regular price of $3.99.

Got up to snow this morning.  Another vortex coming.  High today of 22 deg.  I think I’ll just crawl into a hole, but I’m sure there would be snow in it.

Gotta go now.  You all stay safe and warm and be good to yourselves.

1/2 DHL

WRITING SEX, MURDER AND MAYHEM

English: View of Pikes Peak from the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, sometime before 2008. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Well, here we go again.  Now that Kathryn Crown is finished, back to work on THE STONE KILLER.  2014 is not that far away, and I have set a goal for myself to get the first draft done, hopefully, by Feb. Of course there is the proverbial rewrite, rewrite again and again until you have it as good as you can get it without over working the story.

Our first novel,  A CIRCLE OF MURDERS, did not have any love scenes, only one rape scene.  CREATING KATHRYN CROWN has one love scene.  Now comes another question, in THE STONE KILLER, there are more sex scenes, how many and how explicit?  I can write as raunchy as the next person, but choose not too.  I have read novels that have sex scenes just to have them in the book.  When my characters John T Huntington and Morgan Jansen make love for the first time, it will be because the storyline calls for it.  They are already attracted to each other.  I guess I’ll have to wait and see how intense their emotions are at the time.  Everyone knows, SEX sells.

God knows, JT and Morgan each have enough baggage from their past that they needs to let go of.  Each one carries guilt around like a cloak.  They both have to learn that yesterday can’t be changed.  All we can do is attempt to make tomorrow better.  But we have to remember our past mistakes so we don’t repeat them.  Sounds good, right?   But we’re human and will screw up.  That is the nature of life.  It ain’t perfect and if it was, I’d be bored out of my mind; and I’m already nuts, thank God.

I’ve posted that CREATING KATHRYN CROWN is available on Kindle and now as a paperback.   Give it a read and tell us what you think.  We do appreciate your reviews.  We received a really great review for A CIRCLE OF MURDERS from William Campbell on our Facebook page.   Check out our Facebook page as well.

Today is bright, sunny and going to be a gorgeous warm day here In Colorado Springs.  Everyone have a great day and stay safe.

UPLOADING. CORRECTIONS, UPLOADING AGAIN, AGAIN AND AGAIN!!!!

Print-on-demand Books Hochroth Verlag HP Printer (Photo credit: innovate360)

CREATING KATHRYN CROWN finally has been corrected for the last time (I hope) and uploaded to CreateSpace for the print on demand version of the book.  Now I have to finish A CIRCLE OF MURDERS for uploading to Smashword.  Then on to the next book, THE STONE KILLER.

If you like ghost stories, murder and mayhem, you’ll love THE STONE KILLER.    Here is the blurb I have written for it:

You don’t know what you’ve got until you lose it, as Morgan Jansen finds out too late.

The bond between identical twins sometimes transcends death. So when Homicide Detective Sergeant John T. Huntington appears on Morgan’s doorstep, with his partner Esperanza Ortiz, she already knows her twin sister, Marilyn Heddrix, is in trouble and seriously injured. But, she is not prepared to hear that her sister has been violently murdered.

But Marilyn wants justice and refuses to stay dead.  She returns, as a ghost, to offer snippets of information about another victim, but nothing about her killer.

How can Morgan pass on the information to the detective without having to explain that it came from her dead sister’s ghost, especially to a man she finds so sexually attractive.

Detective Huntington and Morgan begin a journey into the world of paranormal to hunt for a serial killer bent on executing his own form of justice, while each comes to term with the demons from their past.

 

 

UPLOADED, UPLOADED, UPLOADED, CREATING KATHRYN CROWN, NOVEL TEASER

Amazon vs iCal (Photo credit: Zach “Pie” Inglis)

We uploaded CREATING KATHRYN CROWN to Amazon KDP this morning.   After weeks and weeks of editing and corrections, a total of six edit jobs to be precise, would you believe there was a misspelled word.  We corrected the original copy and uploaded the novel again.  Now we are waiting for the process to complete and proof the book.  Once that is done, CreateSpace formatting is next.  We are also formatting A CIRCLE OF MURDERS to upload to Smashword.  That should be fun.  None of this formatting is difficult, just time-consuming.

So, folks, I am going to give you a teaser of the novel.  Included in this blog is the Prologue of CREATING KATHRYN CROWN.  Enjoy, and let us know what you think.

Have a great day and stay safe.

Prologue

The odor of death, hot and coppery, melded with the humidity and swept through the room, carried on the dense sea breeze.  A last ray of sunlight breached the open French doors and cut a swathe across the beige carpet to illuminate an area in the deep shadows.  In the fading light, the woman could see a body on the floor next to the brown sofa, abundant silver curls haloed in a pool of blood, the battered face half hidden by the shadows.  Bile rose in her throat causing her to almost gag.

Car keys clutched tightly in her hand, she hid outside the room’s entrance and gripped her purse to her chest hugging the door frame praying to remain unseen.  Just when she thought escape was within her grasp, a dark form catapulted out of the gloom and charged across the room toward her.  She screamed, turned and bolted.  Each footstep echoed as she raced down the hall past a wall mirror.  The glass briefly captured the image of a shocked white face with a mane of long dark auburn hair.

She fought the front door’s brass knob, twisting it violently, and succeeded in jerking the door open to tear down the flagstone steps to the car parked in the curved driveway.  Thank God she had forgotten to lock the driver’s door.  Once behind the wheel, she hit the lock button, rammed the key into the ignition and turned it.  The engine roared to life.  Rubber tires screamed as she barreled down the quiet street to the highway and toward the bridge.

Eyes wide with fear, she kept glancing in the rearview mirror to see twin globes of bright light rapidly gaining on her.  She rammed her foot down on the accelerator.  The Mustang shot forward at eighty, then ninety miles per hour.  The speedometer continued to climb.  One last time she took her eyes off the road to check the rear view mirror.  That was the last act she committed before the scream of metal against metal and her world was devoured by the night.

STILL UNPACKING, HANGING PAINTINGS, COOLER WEATHER

English: Pikes Peak seen from Garden of the Gods park (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The cats woke me at 6 a.m. all eager for their breakfast.  The weather report says it is 63 degrees here in Colo Spgs.  Thank God for the cooler weather.  When you don’t have A/C, 87 degrees can seem really hot in the house even if you don’t have humidity.  Fall is on its way and soon I will see snow for the first time in a long time.  This year, Christmas will seem like Christmas with cold weather, and maybe it will be a white Christmas.   And my sister is wrong about the Peak being just a big rock.  Pikes Peak is a mountain with a timberline.  She is only used to rolling HILLs.

I am in the process of unpacking my paintings and getting ready to hang them on the walls out of the way.  I didn’t realize how many I have, but at least now they will be displayed instead of being stacked on the floor against the wall.

I have more research to do on the Stone Killer and hope to have it completed and uploaded by the end of the year.  Our plans are to have Creating Kathryn Crown uploaded by the end of Sept.  Cross your fingers for us.

Never give up on your writing and keep applying words to paper.  Keep your stories flowing.  Everyone have a wonderful day.  Stay well and safe.

 

DOG TRAINING, EDITING AND MORE EDITING

My new dog, Bella, is a big fraidey cat.  It’s crazy.  During the daylight hours she absolutely will not go outside, but as soon as darkness falls, we cannot keep her in the house.  We have pushed and pulled her, my husband has even picked her up and carried her outside.  Before we can get the sliding glass door closed, she is right back in.  Does anyone know a good dog psychic?

I have started all over on the editing of CREATING KATHRYN CROWN.  Several people, who should know, have said we used too many had, was and as.  This keeps the story from flowing as well as it should on A CIRCLE OF MURDERS.  So KC is getting a total redo.

Sister is sitting out in CO staring at that rock.  I don’t think she is getting a lot done, but she did just move and has a lot of boxes to unpack.  I guess I can cut her some slack this once.  Mean while, I’m sitting here in good ole KY waiting for the leaves to change.  I have so much more energy when the weather is cool.

Well, Bella goes to the vet at 3:00pm.  She is not yet fully leash trained.

You all take it easy and stay on this side of the law.  You’ll be happier that way.  Make sure you take time to write.

See y’all later.

HEAT, DOGS AND EDITING

Well my sister is settled in Colorado. She seems very happy and that makes me very happy. In her last blog, she said she can see Pikes Peak from any window in her house. Well I can see green trees and, usually, horses. Now for those of you who have not been to CO., People, Pikes Peak is a rock. Just a big rock. No trees. No horses. Just a big ole grey rock. But my poor sister loves that thing with all her heart. Poor soul, I worry about her.
I am almost through with the editing of Kathryn Crown. Finally, after months of delays we will get this book up on Amazon. We think it is pretty good and sure hope it sells well.
Hopefully this is the last day of our heat wave. I am so ready for cool weather. I left FL to get away from the heat now here it is again. But at least, I know that in a couple of months, the heat will be over until about next June.
Our new dog is doing great, however, she is afraid of daylight. As soon as the sun goes down, we can’t keep her in the house. As soon as it is daylight, can’t get her to go outside. What is up with that?
Well, I hope you all have a wonderful holiday week-end. Spend at least part of it on your writing. I am determined to finish Kathryn before Monday.
Stay safe and for all you football fans, GO NOLES!

WISHES, BACK TO MURDER & MAYHEM, WRITING, EDITING & NOVEL IDEAS

New ideas (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

CREATING KATHRYN CROWN  is in the final stages of editing and will be uploaded soon.

I’ve always said, be careful what you wish for.  When your life is filled with regret and sorrow and you long to escape by wishing to be someone else, be careful.  It could happen to you as it did to our character Kathryn.   She is on her way to celebrate her birthday by having dinner with her grandmother.  The next thing she knows, she wakes up two-thousand miles from home with someone else’s face and a husband she has never seen before.   So be careful, wishes do come true.

My detective JT Huntington has his team desperately searching for their missing team member, Caroline Jones.  They will find her, but too late.  THE STONE KILLER  has done his work well. And now he is on the hunt for his next victim. Too soon, he will begin stalking the main character, Morgan Jansen, the identical twin of his victim, Marilyn Heddrix.

My sister and I hope to have this novel finished and uploaded by the end of the year.  That would be a great way to start the New Year.

Since we have several novels in various stage of completion, we should be able to finish three next year.  But as the old saying goes, the best laid plans sometime don’t happen.  We will certainly give it a try.

What a surprise.  While writing this blog, the idea for another novel popped into my head complete with a title.  Sometimes that’s the way it happens with me.  A title will jump into my mind and I will even have the characters names and how they are involved in the story.  Needless to say, I quickly jotted all these thoughts down so I don’t lose them.  This way the story is not lost.   I love creating the loves and lives of people, running the gauntlet of emotions mixed with the conflicts they must overcome.

Being a writer is the greatest job and the toughest.  Writing isn’t easy.

Well, I have to get back to work and help find Caroline’s body.  Alfons, her ex-lover and coworker, is going to be devastated.

I hope everyone has a great day.   Stay safe.

 

SORTING STUFF, HOT & WONDERING WHY THE RUSH?

The Salvation Army logo (Anglophone Version) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Colorado Sky (Photo credit: Let Ideas Compete)

My friend, Robin, and I finished sorting the rest of the boxes of stuff that have been in the garage packed away since 2006.  I found my heat collar.  You know the type you can put in the microwave, zap then wrap around your neck and shoulder to ease the ache after lifting and tugging for over two hours.  I don’t know how good it is anymore, but I’m going to give it a try.   I was surprised to find I didn’t have as much Christmas ‘stuff’ as I thought.  But, over half of the boxes in the garage hold items for sale.   I’m taking only a few pieces of furniture with me to Colorado and selling the rest.   I hope most of it sells otherwise, it goes in the trash or to the Salvation Army.

By the time Robin and I finished, it was after two.  I took a quick shower and went to meet a couple of friends for dinner at Pei Wei’s.  The Orange Peel Chicken is always good.  Since my auto accident, I am no longer in a rush to get anywhere when driving my car.  On the way to the restaurant, I did the speed limit, maybe a few miles over,  which was 40 miles per hour.  I couldn’t believe the number of people who passed me in a rush to get God knows where.  Some dodged in and out of lanes, missing cars, sometime barely having room to squeeze in behind another vehicle.  People, people, people, there is no place you have to be that is worth risking your life or the life or injury of yourself or someone else.  Believe me, I know from experience.    Do you know how important you are to those who love you?  Besides, your place in the universe can’t be filled by anyone else.  You are unique and no one can take your place.  So take care of yourselves and watch out for the other guy.  So, folks, slow down and stay alive.  Now if all the other drivers on the road would do the same.

Came home to find that my new cat had shredded the roll of paper towels I keep in my art studio.  She had a good time with that roll of paper towels.  Oh well, as long as she had fun, a roll of paper towels is worth it.  Tomorrow, Robin and I start on the art studio and boy do I have a lot of art equipment.   I am leaving my office for last as my sister and I want to finish editing CREATING KATHRYN CROWN and upload it to Amazon & CreateSpace.   Watch for it.  Kathryn’s story is another unusual novel with surprising twist.

I hope everyone had a great day and evening.  Take care of yourselves and stay safe.

Good night