Wednesday, July 31, 2013

A nice review for my first Neanderthal mystery

DEATH IN THE TIME OF ICE doesn't have many reviews so far, but the ones it has are a boost to me as a writer. Here's an excerpt from this one:

"Death in the Time of Ice is a gripping mystery, and it’s the best example of prehistoric fiction I’ve ever read. I highly recommend it to anyone who loves either genre."




Could I ask for more? Definitely not!

I hadn't heard of this site before this review appeared, but they're very organized and on top of things, posting the review on Amazon as well. They've even given me a nifty little widget, below. I'll see if I can post it elsewhere, too.



If you're curious about a Neanderthal mystery, I'd love for you to check it out at the publisher's site (all e-formats available there), or the other places, Kindle, Nook, and others.





Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Giveaway Today! EINE KLEINE MURDER



 
 


    Goodreads Book Giveaway
 

   

        Eine Kleine Murder by Kaye George
   

   

     


          Eine Kleine Murder
     
     


          by Kaye George
     

     

         
            Giveaway ends July 25, 2013.
         
         
            See the giveaway details
            at Goodreads.
         
     
   
   


      Enter to win



Friday, July 19, 2013

Guest Blogger Cindy Carroll

I'm very pleased to have Cindy Carroll here today, reporting on her own travels. She's the author of REFLECTIONS, very newly released! We have a technical background, IT, in common. We programmers seem to like to bust out in fiction. Read on about her road trips.
(REFLECTIONS can be purchased at Amazon and Kobo.)

Road trip – destination unknown

I love road trips. There's something about being on the road on your way somewhere interesting. The journey is just as much part of the vacation as the destination. I had always planned road trips. I didn't like not having a plan. I needed to know where exactly I was going. What route I was going to use to get there. Where I would stop along the way, if I needed to stop at all.

Then I met a guy who was a little more spontaneous than I was. When we both had a few days off work he wanted to go on a road trip. I said, "Great! Where are we going?" And his answer, "Wherever. Let's just point the car east and drive." At first I was appalled. No plan? No idea where we were going? Then I thought why not? We were in no rush. Maybe it would be freeing just getting in the car and driving.

We weren't completely without a plan. We made sure we had our bathing suits in case we stopped somewhere with a pool. We had a GPS so at least we wouldn't get lost. I made sure I had my cell phone charger but this was before smart phones. So we couldn't search the internet while on the road looking for places to stay. When we got tired we got off the highway and found a hotel to stay in. Driving without a plan turned out great. We discovered Ganaqoue, Ontario. A picturesque town near The Thousand Islands.



A road trip didn't turn out quite as well for the characters in my short story Reflections. They went without a plan with the intention of stopping along the way whenever they needed a break. But they stop at a cursed inn and end up fighting for their lives.

What about you? Are you a planner when it comes to road trips? Do you like them? Hate them?

About Cindy:  Cindy Carroll is a member of Sisters in Crime and a graduate of Hal Croasmun’s screenwriting ProSeries. Her interviews with writers of CSI and Flashpoint appeared in The Rewrit, the Scriptscene newsletter, the screenwriting Chapter of RWA. She writes screenplays, thrillers, and paranormals, occasionally exploring an erotic twist. A background in banking and IT doesn’t allow much in the way of excitement so she turns to writing stories that are a little dark and usually have a dead body. When she’s not writing you can usually find her on Twitter.

Check out her website: http://www.cindycarroll.com
Follow her on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/CindyPCarroll

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Remodel and Rewrite

We’ve just completed a remodel of our master bath. It’s a small room, so it wasn’t too complicated, it seemed to take forever.




The harvest gold wasn’t the main problem (I still think it’s a pretty color), but the non-functioning faucet and obvious leakage behind the tiles was.






The whole thing was stripped down to the bare walls. Well, beyond the bare walls, actually. To the studs in places. Then, over the last 3 weeks, a brand new bathroom was created.









This reminds me of some stories I’ve written. It also reminds me of a novel I’m presently gutting and redoing. I’ve been fiddling around with the sequel to EINE KLEIN MURDER, which I’m calling REQUIEM FOR RED as a working title. The bones are there. I guess those are the bare studs. But things need to be moved around and rearranged. I’m looking forward to having a new novel out of this eventually

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Ideal Times To Do Things

I try to find a nifty calendar at the beginning of each year, in case I get stuck for blog topics. This is my favorite:

This one is pretty cool, too:

As you can see, it’s National Blueberry Month.



We’re celebrating Hot Dogs and Ice Cream this month, too. Since today is National Disobedience Day, that accounts for my failure to post my blog in a timely fashion. I’ll have no trouble with Stay Out of the Sun Day since we’re completely overcast with 80 percent chance of rain for most of the day. I’m looking forward to the 7th (Chocolate Day).



At the bottom of that first calendar, in fine print, are some helpful publicity tips, such as best days to release PR: Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. I sent press releases to the local newspapers yesterday, so maybe I did something right!

There is more fine print--critical lead times. For daily papers, 7-10 days, and for weekly ones, 4-6 weeks. I did one of each, so I won’t be expecting immediate responses. (Actually, I don’t expect any response, but it would be very nice!)


Now it’s time to eat ice cream and blueberries in the shade!