Ghost Story from a Friend

This afternoon Kelly's friend from the Trolley Museum, Mike Brenner, who has moved back to Minnesota, emailed me a copy of his newly written ghost story- The Final Ride. He has been dropping us story ideas on facebook for awhile now, lots and lots of them-and they've all been great ideas we hope to develop in the near future. However,  I recently suggested that he really should be writing his own stories now that he's retired- it would be a terrific hobby to add to everything else he does from babysitting his grandchildren to singing in a choir.

I was surprised when I sat down after dinner to read the story he'd sent. It is a tale woven through with interesting trolley era facts. It has an interesting plot that gets more interesting fairly quickly. There is humor and pathos in the story, it tugs the heartstrings and gives them a twang before delving deeper into the mysterious happenings at the trolley museum the previous night.

And then it transforms into a true ghost story that gave me goose bumps!

Finally, at the end, I was in tears.(Kelly will vouch for that!)

Now, that is a demonstration of powerful writing to be able to drag the reader through so many emotions in a crisp, well-written 5608 word story!

P.S. There are dogs AND cats in this story (for Shawn Flynn, and my cat lover author friends, and their dog lovers friends who seemed miffed that he only mentioned cats in his posts- he satisfied dog and cat lovers alike in this story!) I may ask his permission to publish it here on my blog- see what he says!

Mark Your Calendar!

     A goodreads giveaway begins May 3rd for Miss Peculiar's Ghost Stories, Volume I. Be one of the first to own this collection of 16 ghost stories, half of them written exclusively for Ghost Stories LIVE!, a performance/reading recurrent event that takes place in a local indie bookshop here in town (based on an event of the same name by one of the same people who organized and put on the event in NYC!)
      Ghost Stories LIVE!  revives the tradition of telling ghost stories for entertainment purposes, back before radio and TV drew families apart to separate rooms to each watch their own favorite program on various pieces of technological marvels from the big screens of home theater sized flat screen TVs to the tiny screens of wrist watches. We strive to bring people back together to share a spine tingling hour huddled together listening to chilling tales, and then offer people a chance to talk about and discuss their own encounters with spirits..
       I will be giving away 6 signed first edition copies of the book to the lucky winners of this giveaway. Watch for it to begin next week! The giveaway ends May 19th, the day before the next scheduled Ghost Stories LIVE! event. If I've written a new story for the event, I may tuck a printout copy of it between the pages as a bonus for the winners!

BKTWQ Moving on to Next Contest

I was thrilled when Black King Takes White Queen made the finalist list from which the short listers were chosen. I was ecstatic when my novel was short listed. I didn't get any further in the OZMA Awards, but for someone who's only been self publishing her work for less than 2 years, had written the book in less than a month and on the spur of the moment entered the less than perfect manuscript copy to the contest...I got further than I thought I would.

So- I recently revised all the interiors of my novels and most of my story collections-cleaning up punctuation and grammar issues, a few misspelled words, justifying the text so the pages looked cleaner down both sides, lower the chapter headings and making them larger and bold font (the same with individual story titles in the story collections), and revising some of the covers to make them more enticing to the reader's critical eye- I thought I had the ultimate version of Black King Takes white Queen...until I sat down and read the first chapter and found random hyphenated words in the middle of sentences (due to the justifying of the text, these hyphenated words had been at the end of sentences....UGH! and ARRRGGGHHHH!)

So, I had to pull the book again from Amazon and reload the file onto my laptop and FIX the UGLY hyphenated words once and for all- somehow the majority of them cropped up in the first half of the book only with fewer still lurking in the rear half.

And then, when done with that tedious chore for what I hope will be the final time...I gave the cover a critical looking over and decided too much green, the black back cover copy was too difficult to read...so cover colors revision time. I changed the title band and back cover to earthy saddle brown, changed the formerly black cover text from black to bright spring green. Now the brown and the greens blend in better with the cover photo, the back cover text is easier to read.

Got the book back up and ordered two copies, one for me, one for the contest on April 20th. They arrived TODAY! Yea! Went online, completed my entry form, paid my entry fee, printed out the paperwork, then packaged up the novel with its papers and stuff it all into a Priority Mailer box. The postmark deadline in May 1st so hubby has been BEGGED to deliver said parcel to the USPS TOMORROW to be shipped!

Whew!

Nothing is ever easy around here...but my motto is that if I am going to put myself out there in front of judges, then I want my book to look the best that it can be before I send it. (OCD- maybe...but that's just the way I am.)

On Kindle

I spent two months revising the interiors of all except the three volumes of Christmas stories to make them more professional looking with new chapter headings, now lowered on the page to make chapters easier to locate. I also did the same for the individual stories in each anthology. Many of the books got new cover designs on Amazon, and now all but the Christmas anthologies are available on Kindle now. It was a massive project but I'm really satisfied with the improvements.

I have been having giveaways on goodreads and have felt bad that I can only afford to offer the giveaways in the USA. International shipping is outrageous. I just can't afford the shipping and handling for that, so decided to make my books available everywhere on Kindle (in English) at reasonable cost.

While doing this project I was editing another novel, while also preparing for Articulture2017, which was an amazing event! I really enjoyed the afternoon, sold some copies of the brand new released Miss Peculiar's Ghost Stories, Volume I, several copies of 13 that quietly came out in January, plus a couple copies of Black King Takes White Queen. Plus, I sold four copies of Kelly Buffum's first novel, Parapsychology. She was volunteering at the Connecticut Trolley Museum but managed to join me at 6:20PM for the last hour that I was there.

I've also had another collection of stories assembled, so for the past three days I've been putting the finishing touches on this book. Tonight I ordered a proof copy of butterscotch-a collection of stories. This is the first book that I've used one of my own photographs for the cover. Kelly and I took a drive up to Old Deerfield, MA to Richardson's Candy Kitchen on route 5 & 10 to purchase a few packages of butterscotch buttons so I could dump them all on the kitchen table and shoot some pictures. I selected one for the cover image. Butterscotch buttons are my favorite candy since childhood.

Next project is a second proof reading/editing/revision of the next novel. I need to check continuity because there are two similar sequences and I need to be sure they are distinctly separate, which I don't think I've quite accomplished yet.

Keeping busy and productive through another big RA flare-up and, tonight, a silent migraine. Some days are just more of a challenge than others! Just have to keep moving forward, is all.

The Long Blue Line

I'm putting together a new story collection and pulled The Long Blue Line out of the file cabinet.

From 1982-1988 I worked at Western New England College (now University) first as a campus police officer, then as a campus police supervisor on the night shift. I was one of the three sergeants. During that time working in Springfield, MA there were two police officers shot and killed in the line of duty during a traffic stop. The Springfield Police would always stop and hang out at the station during the night shift, having coffee and letting us know what was going on in the area. They were usually around when the bar across the street closed and the college kids were rowdily staggering back to their off campus apartments.

During that time I was writing.

During that time we marched in the funeral procession for the two slain officers. There were contingents from many police departments that parked on campus that day in the fall. It was a chilly day with periods of sun and clouds. I marched with the officers from the college. Our Chief rode in the cruiser with the two lieutenants. I was still a foot patrol officer at the time.

It was a long march to the church but I barely remember the distance. I remember the long, long...long line of officers ahead and behind us. I remember the citizens lining both sides of the street, silent, some with heads bowed or hands over their hearts as we passed by. I remember the little children with flags, equally silent. I remember a black man beating out a somber tattoo on a drum on one street corner.

The church wasn't nearly large enough to hold everyone. Our large contingent that had marched from the college met up with a mile of police department representatives that had marched up State Street. The church hall was open to us, so a lot of us ducked in there out of the cold and grabbed a hot cup of coffee while the church service was broadcast on a TV. There were no big flat screen TVs then- it was like a set-up you'd find in a high school on a rolling cart, but we all crowded around that TV to watch the ceremony taking place in the church.

Normally when a bunch of cops get together it's rowdy and noisy. I remember how quiet we were, just low murmuring voices.

There were some school buses employed to move people to the funeral home. We managed to get n one of the busses to go about a mile and a half up the road where they let us out some distance from the funeral home. We lined the street and stood at attention as the hearses arrived. It was dead silent. It was cold. Many of us had tears streaming down our faces as we saluted our fallen comrades.

We marched from the funeral home to the cemetery and formed up amid the gravestones. There were so many police present none of us could really see anything. In my early twenties I really hadn't been to any funerals except my uncle's. It wasn't a military funeral. I had heard Taps on TV, of course. But let me tell you, when you're standing in a hushed cemetery amid a sea of blue uniforms and the distant first notes of Taps come wavering from a nearby hill it changes your whole perspective on life.

I was one of three female officers at the college at that time. I got a ride back from the chief in the back seat of the cruiser, in the cage. I was crammed in with a lieutenant and three other officers, still teary-eyed. We just talked all the way back to the campus...passing busses and cruisers, SUVs and vans full of police officers and fire fighters who had attended. I saw police from different countries including Bermuda and I thought they must have been freezing their butts off in their lightweight dress uniforms on that November morning, but I never heard a word of complaint from any of them in that church hall, or the cemetery, or on the bus.

From that real life experience of marching in that long blue line came the story of the same title.

I reread it last night as I was editing- read it with tears streaming down my face. You just don't forget something like that, marching in that long blue line in solidarity with your fallen brethren, cherishing the lives of those you still have with you in the line of duty. It was the most profound and powerful experience in my life.

And it also reminded me of another tragedy from that time- the suicide of one of my fellow officers, one of my closest friends in the department. But that's another story, one I'm not emotionally prepared to write about yet because that was too close to my heart and is still a raw wound today nearly 30 years later.

Just When You Thought...

So, I grab a copy of Black King Takes White Queen off the dining room table, totally psyched and ready to fill out a contest entry form and ship the book out to be judged, and I pause to read through the first chapter...9and this is after it's recent big interior update/revamp with the justified text, the bold chapter headers lowered on the pages to make them stand out more, etc) and I'm ready along and find not one but TWO randomly hyphenated words (that had previously been at the end of sentences that landed in the middle of sentences when justified, that I didn't catch when reviewing the book and looking for them.)

So, this morning, back on the laptop the file goes and here we go again making yet more text fixes by getting rid of those nasty hyphens!

Hopefully I can take the book down, upload the cleaned up, yet again, interior file, and get it back up, and a brand spanking new copy shipped ASAP so I can make the contest deadline! I would cringe at sending them a less then perfect copy!

The Work Involved in Self Publishing a Novel/Story Collection

When I get a book nearly ready for publication, whether it be a collection of stories or a novel, I always order two proof copies- one for me and one for Kelly (and she is following suite with her novels). I am her editor/proofreader and she has been mine for much longer since she hasn't been writing nearly as long as I have.

I read my new novel and caught a lot of punctuation oversights because I type fast and often forget to put them in until later anyway. I caught several continuity errors and she pointed out several weak spots that needed to be amped up. I had tons of stuff to edit that I wanted to address while she finished reading her proof copy. She finished last night and left it for me.

I spent about an hour and a quarter starting from page one and ending around page 164 last night. This morning at breakfast I tackled more of her edits, zipping through to page 225 before having to go to work. Tonight I'll finish with her edits, and then do all the tweaks that make it look polished and professionally published.

And then I am going to disassemble it, putting it back into manuscript form and I'm sending it to a real publisher who only deals in this one genre.

It's a lot of work to get this ready, after it's been sitting idle for nearly two years. Kelly suggested a glossary of characters because there are so many, and each one is rather unique. They all have unusual names for this country, but not in their own region. She got a little confused here and there. I had written out guidelines for my own reference, so they can be easily converted to a simple glossary.

If people think self publishing is easy- I'm proof positive that it's not you write a book, you put it in a pretty cover and you're done. I am a serious author with a vision of what I want for my work when it meets the public eye. I repeatedly comb through the text fixing errors that slip past me in initial proofreadings and edits. I use Microsoft Words' review feature. I control-F spaces and hyphens to make sure I don't have odd spaces between words. I now justify the text so it lines up neatly down the pages. I  study other authors self published works and view them with a critical eye. I look at professionally published books and adapt what I like for my books. I am learning from my daughter how to use my own photographs for my covers.

When I put out a book and it has my name on it, I want it to be the best product I can create using my skills, the knowledge I've acquired over the past two years, and the new things I'm learning every day. And yes, when I get the finished product copies and read through one and find yet another error I cringe inside because that is a reflection on me and means I was not as careful as I hoped I was through the last edit. At least I have the luxury of being able to pull the book again, fit the error and get it back out there within a few days time.

Maybe I'm a little OCD, but I work hard writing my books and stories. I don't want them leaving my hands and landing in a reader's hands who will be too annoyed by the errors that I've made to thoroughly enjoy the story for itself. It's too distracting. I want a smooth, enjoyable read for those who care enough to buy my books. I am a literary entertainer- not a hack slacker putting out a shoddy product to make a quick buck. I'm the kind of person that is going to give you double the value for the price- at least that's what I am diligently trying to do with each book.

A lot of love and attention goes into each one because I care about my work, and I care about the experience the reader will have reading my work.

And that is the difference between a publishing house that just wants to make money off an author who places their trust in a company that may or may not produce the best quality book (it drives me crazy when I buy a big publishing house novel by a favorite author and there are errors that should have been caught by a professional proofreader throughout! Come on! There is NO excuse for that)

But, maybe that's just me...

Marmalade Cat & Marmalade Puppy

This evening before Kelly and I left the house to take our after dinner walk around the neighborhood I was walking past the door and noticed both of our cats were by the screen in tense poses. I glanced out, expecting to see a raccoon, or even possibly the fox, on the deck, drawn by the aroma of grilled chicken. John had grilled the chicken breasts for dinner tonight out on the deck.

It wasn't any wild beast on the deck, it was Cooper, the huge marmalade cat from across the street and through the backyard to another house on the other side of the loop. He's been here hunting mice and birds before, but has not been particularly friendly. he must have been hungry because he was super friendly this evening, allowing us to pet him. We gave him some tuna Temptation treats to tide him over until his owner got home to feed him. He was very grateful and walked with us to the driveway where he decided to stay for awhile as we continued our walk.

I was surprised by how protective of their home Revere and the more scaredy cat Riley Beans are Revere was really growling and hissing. We had to close the door because I didn't want him going through the screen at Cooper.

A curious story is related to this. Colette had a huge black and white coon cat named Smoky. He was very young the first time he appeared in our yard. We had our huge tom tiger cat Marty at the time, a seasoned veteran of street fights downtown, but really a big mellow fellow t heart. He found the younger kittenish Smoky annoying at first, but as Smoky grew up and got bigger they actually hung out together. Marty would often visit Smoky at his people's home, and Smoky was often at ur house. Smoky was never a very friendly cat, but he'd waltz into the house to partake of a pinch of catnip, eat Marty's food, and even would nap down in the basement on a box with a blanket folded on it in the winter if his people weren't home and he was stuck outside. He spent the entire night of a snowstorm snoozing in our basement. I had to call his owner in the morning to assure her that he was all right and would be heading home as soon as the roads were plowed. She was relieved to know he'd had shelter and food during the storm.

Smoky had a secret life at our house, and I suppose the same could be said of Marty at their house. They were great buddies.

After we had Marty put down when he was very sick with cancer, Smoky would come to the house looking for him. We adopted a tabby kitten and a tuxedo kitten that summer. Smokey wasn't so sure about the kittens but would visit regularly. As the tabby, Jason, grew up and looked more like Marty, he and Smoky were soon great pals. Smoky missed his tiger friend and adopted tabby Jason. He started coming itno the house again and even tolerate the more shy tuxedo Diego.

It was a sad day when Colette informed us that Smoky had died.

So, yes, cats do form friendships and pal around together in the neighborhood. I didn't know that because we always had more than one cat in the house so they hung out together and ignored outsider cats. But...the friendship of Marty and Smoky was an eye opener. (Smoky would even show up on Christmas for turkey! And he got his own bag of catnip that we tucked into Collette's mailbox- nothing like putting a baggie of leafy material in your neighbor's mailbox!!!

Anyway- after our visit from Cooper, Kelly and I walked up the street and there on the corner was another neighbor out doing some yard work and lo and behold he had a marmalade puppy with him! We stopped to chat as the puppy was the same color as Cooper. The puppy is a female and her name is Penny. She was barking and growling at us, reminiscent of Revere hissing and growling at Cooper- very protective of her owner and her yard! Cute as a button, too!

So, that is the story of the marmalade cat and the marmalade puppy!

FunTak & Postcards

Well, I just concluded an interesting hour of using a bit of FunTak (poster hanging putty) to adhere a customized guitar pick (which resembles a planchette) to my customized Ouija board postcards for the upcoming Articulture2017 event here in Westfield. Author Melissa Volker (Delilah of Sunhats and Swans, The Thirteenth Moon and the about to be launched Annabelle Lost this weekend) designed the card for me. I loved the card and so did all my co-workers and friends. Then I got a promo from oriental Trading Company for personalized products and the guitar picks leapt off the page at me as resembling the ubiquitous planchette needed to make a Ouija board work. So, ordered some with my name on them.

I took 20 of the cards with the attached picks with me to the Artworks of Westfield, Inc. meeting this evening and they were a big hit with the artists, and musicians and event organizers, plus the bookstore owner and resident author.

I'm really working hard to make this a fun event. last year I had no real clue what I was doing- this year I'm more focused and organized, and it'll be ever so much better!

There's still room for three more artists in the show!

A Sense of Humor

All right- I just finished designing my banner and poster for Articulture2017.

I found coordinating designs that match my new business card.

On the poster it will say Susan Buffum (in italics) on the top line. Next line down it will say Author.
Then the design of an open book separates the top from the book where it will say on two lines-
read me
like a book  (which you can take in two different ways- some people can read me like an open book because I obviously enjoy what I do. While others will interpret it as read me (as an author) and like a book (as in liking one, or hopefully more, of my books).

I like to play with words.

My teachers should have written on my essays and themes- "Plays well with words."

My banner has my name, Author and simple instructions. 1. Open Book. 2. Read.

While designing these things, an author friend messaged me about "party favors" for her book launch this coming Saturday here in town. She just needed me to bounce ideas off of- came up with a brilliant idea just by messaging me. Glad I could help! (I'll be going to her event- it's my birthday so who better to spend it with than an author friend launching a new book!)

Today is another author friend's birthday...he's not a ghost yet!!

Something to Be Proud About

Friday night Kelly quietly completed her novel, Parapsychology, and self published it using the CreateSpace platform. She used a photo from her WPI days, from the October Blizzard of 2011 that crippled the northeast, to be exact. She was at WPI and went to haunted Higgins House with her best friend and roommate Bethany. Bethany's hood has been cropped from the photo but the awesome Higgins House, a repro of a real British manor house, graces the front and back covers with the snow falling past the stucco and timber façade. Her book is set in a community where there are many Tudor style homes and buildings.

I am proud of her for accomplishing something at age 25 that took me until age 57 to do- get my work out there.

Parapsychology was her 2016 NANO novel. Like she proofreads and edits my work, I did the same for her.

I am a proud mom as her first books hits the Amazon marketplace. Already the folks who know her around town from Artworks of Westfield, a non-profit organization by the artists for the artists, and Blue Umbrella Books, our local indie bookseller where local authors hang out and we've both done NANO writing, are already asking for her book.

If Mom is the tree, she is the sapling that will one day overshadow her mother. She has her own unique writing talent, and I enjoy her work. All those years I've written for her and read to her have paid off because she will be an author on her own merit, not a coattail kid who's inherited the family business. This girl possesses the talent to make it on her own- and conquer the literary world by means of her own skill, not mine. She ahs the drive and initiative to do it. Mom has never interfered, only encouraged and supported.

Congratulations, Kelly Buffum, author!

Books for Articulture2017

These are the titles I will have with me at Articulture2017, Saturday, April 22nd from 1PM-8PM at the Westfield Women's Club, Court Street, Westfield MA-

Black King Takes White Queen (fantasy/magical realism novel shortlisted in the recent OZMA book Awards2016 contest)
Black Knight, White Rook (the sequel to Black King Takes White Queen)
13 (a volume of 13 chilling, disturbing tales
Miss Peculiar's Ghost Stories, Volume I (just released volume of 16 ghost stories)

I will also have with me coupons for 15% off any of my book titles in stock at or ordered from Blue Umbrella Books, 2 Main Street, Westfield, MA 01085. Blue Umbrella Books is my exclusive local bookseller because I strongly believe in supporting local small businesses. I live here in Westfield and shop local. If unable to attend the event but would like to order a book with the 15% discount simply call 413-579-5383 to order and mention you'd like the 15% ARTICULTURE2017 discount. Regular shipping and handling fees will be added by the shop.

The Best Thing About Writing Fiction

The best thing about writing fiction is that you build a world, populate it with characters from your own imagination, and manipulate them in the environment that you create, also from your imagination- and anything can happen in that world. Anything.

It's a powerful and profound experience to be the one in control of an entire world and its inhabitants.

It is humbling and amazing to be able to draw a reader into that world and influence their emotions just by the use of words written just so.

Not An OZMA Finalist

Well, they posted the OZMA AWARDS finalist list and my novel Black King Takes WHite Quen was not among the finalists, however, I am not disappointed. I am honored and pleased that it was shortlisted in this contest. The novel was written in less than a month (June 2016) for my daughter for her birthday, self-published two days before her June 26th birthday. It had not reached its final proofreading/editing stage when I spontaneously submitted it to the award contest at the end of October 2016. For a basically unpolished novel to reach the shortlist is impressive, and kind of blew me out of the water. If my raw material can be shortlisted...well, I am submitting the polished novel to the Writer's Digest Self Published Book Awards next. It's been through two revisions since submitting to the OZMA book Awards. We'll see what happens this time.

Meanwhile, the third in the series is percolating in my brain-have a stunning opener in mind as chaos erupts right from the very start...

Two Lives

Sometimes I feel as if I am living two lives. My primary life is still wife, mother, and full time medical secretary. It's how I earn my living. It's the job I put down when asked about employment. It's the job I've held for the past ten years. And I would say I'm good at what I do based on a phone call I received yesterday from an oxygen supplier. The sales rep called because she had put a note on a patient's chart that read- "I love Sue!" and she wanted to tell me that. Why does she love me? She said it was because the prescriptions I send have all the info the insurance is looking for on them and the chart notes I send have everything they need in them (I give my practitioners explicit instructions about what HAS to be in their notes prior to the appointment with the patient.) She said she wished all medical secretaries were as thorough as I was because I make her job easier and the patient's get their DME. That made me feel good. I don't get a lot of positive feedback in what I do- patients just expect to get what they want and don't realize the work involved in fighting their insurance for their needs.

Then there is my other life. I have been writing fr over forty years, but did not do anything with that except volunteer as the Massachusetts State Button Society Bulletin editor for ten years, putting out a 42-page magazine annually. I usually wrote one or two articles on antique and vintage buttons or a related topic for the bulletin. My fiction writing was purely a hobby. I wrote for my daughter, my family and friends, and often just to entertain myself.

Then, in May of 2015 with an offer of two free copies of my NANO novel, I self-published my first novel, a YA book. It was easy- but then again, I had no real clue what I was doing. I began organizing the mountain of material around my house and putting together story collections, and novels and self publishing them. They were pretty novice level.

It's been nearly two years since I started self publishing and I have grown in leaps and bounds as an author. I've made public appearances, something very against the grain for very private me. I walk into the local bookstore and am greeted by name. My books are on the local author bookshelf there.
I know a dozen other local authors and am friends with several of them. We give one another advice and support.

I'm nearing the end now of a major interior overhaul and some cover updates of all the books I've self-published since May of 2015. I've entered contests and done well- been praised for the storylines, but given advice on cover art/design. I do not want to include my pictre on my books and don't feel I have to if it does not sit well with me as a person. My picture is on facebook and my blog and Amazon if people need to see what I look like.

I feel happy and blessed that Black King Takes White Queen was shortlisted for the OZMA Award. I am, after all, still a new and emerging author since I just started putting what I've written out there for readers to enjoy.

After my 8-5 job, I come home and spend 5 additional hours working at my "hobby" as an author. I also spend most of my weekends writing and working on my books. I invest my free time in doing the one thing I really love best, which is writing. My head is always full of stories and ideas.

But when I'm at my primary job, I am focused on helping patients get what they need.

It's like living a double life. I wish I had the time and energy to devote eight hours to both my gainful employment and my hobby job...but for now, I need to work a real job. It's just trying to find time to manage them both that is the challenge! (And trying to keep them separate!)

Miss Peculiar's Ghost Stories, Volume I

Since I'm going to be promoting a recurrent local event, Ghost Stories LIVE!, at Articulture2017 here in Westfield, MA on April 22nd as one of the featured local authors, I've decided I should have Miss Peculiar's Ghost Stories, Volume I available for purchase. I wasn't going to start promoting this book until October, but since I got it done, I might as well have it with me.

The book will be available on Amazon.com in a day or two since I just approved it tonight and is available on Kindle.

Happy Haunting!!!

Adding Books on Kindle

I'm finally am getting around to adding more books on Kindle. The list now includes:
Black King Takes White Queen and its sequel Black Knight, White Rook
The Archetypes-First Generation and The Archetypes-Shockwaves
My Magical Life
Miss Peculiar's Haunting Tales, Volume I
Talon: An Intimate Familiarity
13
and the brand new just released Miss Peculiar's Ghost Stories, Volume I

I'll be adding more as time allows!

Winding up a marathon Edit

Was busy this past weekend doing a marathon proofreading and final edit of Miss Peculiar's Ghost Stories, Volume I because I decided I do want to bring copies with me to Articulture. For the most part- I write fantasy and paranormal, with some odds and ends thrown in for fun.

Have one more story to go tonight and then I can upload the new file and be done with my poor battered proof copy that's been scribbled in for the past two days, and some more this morning at breakfast as I realigned the stories in the table of contents.

The weather has been more spring-like after Friday and Saturday's sleet-fest and snowstorm. It was in the fifties yesterday and reached 60 today. Kelly was out on the back deck for her first juggling practice of the season. Then we began our after dinner walks- something that goes by the wayside when the road is covered with the white stuff!

All authors are now booked for Articulture2017. Besides me (fantasy/paranormal fiction) the lineup includes Young Adult/Adult author Melissa Volker (Delilah of Sunhats & Swans, Anabelle Lost, The Thirteenth Moon), fiction with creepy undertones author Katherine Anderson (Hospital Hill, Shadows in the Ward), children's author/illustrator Rhonda Boulette (Flitten Kittens), non-fiction author Shawn Flynn (The Kitty: Who Rescued Me After I Rescued Him), and cartoonist Rick Storomski (Soup 2 Nutz). Not too bad of a talented local lineup- a little something for everyone!