Sunday, April 28, 2013

And a Publisher Is Born!

Claws of the Griffin is now available in Kindle and on Smashwords. After the upset of losing my publisher for the book, I made a comeback on this in about 30 days. I had a lot of great help from friends and family to get things back on track. TY everyone!

Some changes came out of this near catastrophe.  I started thinking if you can’t beat them, join them. So, I filed a DBA (doing business as) in my home state.  Officially I am now NIGHT WINGS PUBLISHING. Haven’t mapped out entirely where I'm going with this, but it does create some interesting possibilities.

This doesn’t mean I’ve given up totally on publishers, and I still am an Indie Author. My lit agent has my next book, The Witch’s Daughter, which is a paranormal mystery. I have gotten some positive comments back from publishers like, “a real page turner” and “shows promise.” But then in the same breath I hear, “not right for us.”  Here is the opening.


   “According to the police records, you assaulted a man at the After Hours Bar approximately 11:15 PM Saturday night.” The lawyer, a gray haired man wearing an Armani suit, custom made shirt and gold cuff links the size of golf balls, ran his finger down the page. “You broke Frederick Richards’ jaw requiring it to be wired shut. He received six stitches for a laceration above his left eye, and you broke his nose. Would you like to see the photos?”
    We sat at a table in the county jail room reserved for meetings between prisoners and lawyers and whoever else they’d let in. Metal brackets held the wood table and chairs to the floor. A mirror across one wall most assuredly had someone behind it, watching everything. The guard standing by the door wore no gun, but the one just outside did.
    The lawyer leaned forward and spread the photos in front of me. I had to admit it. Freddy looked like a train had hit him. “I should have broken his arms while I was at it.”



Hope to find a home for this one. Maybe it will be NIGHT WINGS PUBLISHING!


Sunday, April 21, 2013

When North meets South, it's murder.



When North meets South, it's murder.

Chicago entrepreneur, Peter Reynolds, is barely thirty and has sold his import/export business for seven million dollars. He is at loose ends, not terribly moral and more than a little spoiled to a lavish lifestyle. All that he has come to know and cherish is about to change when he gets an invitation to attend the funeral of an ex-girlfriend, Diane Cottwell, in Archer Springs, North Carolina.


From the moment he steps off the plane, things take a downward spiral. Beginning with the rental car from hell, he finds himself embroiled with moonshiners, good-ole-boy politics and a sociopathic killer. When Diane’s seven-year-old son inherits the family farm, 875 acres of prime land, Peter has his hands full outsmarting conniving relatives and a greedy businessman, all with their eyes set on getting the property. And a love starved country girl and the businessman’s lustful wife offer him plenty of temptation.



Diane’s death that initially looked like a home invasion gone wrong starts to look more and more like a planned murder. Then more people die and Reynolds finds himself on the trail of a ruthless killer whose next victim may be Diane’s son.



Claws of the Griffin is a roller coaster ride of mystery, mayhem and murder, Southern style.



“When rich northerner, Peter Reynolds, heads to North Carolina for the funeral of an old girlfriend, he gets more than expected, including murder. This is a must read for anyone who likes their mysteries served with a southern flavor.” --Rick Bylina, Author of One Promise Too Many

COMING THIS WEEK!

Saturday, April 13, 2013

A New Cover for Claws of the Griffin

Tah-dah!  This is the new book cover for the upcoming novel Claws of the Griffin,. Ebook due out April 24th.

The entire cover was redsigned with help from designer Joleene Naylor.  The only thing resembling the original cover from the publisher are the claws ripping through it from behind the cover, which btw was my idea.

The original cover from the publisher had a number of shortcomings.  The background was red with no other image. As my daughter who runs the book blog Bittersweet Enchantment pointed out, it needed something.  In this design, the image is of a man who's face is hidden in shadow. It added an element of mystery. Who is this man?  The hero...the killer...?

Another change is the title font. It looks scratchy like something that could have been clawed at by the Griffin.

In the redesign, the banner "A Peter Reynolds Mystery" was corrected. The original had an apostrophe S making it "Reynold's" that was grammatically incorrect. During the book's brief stay on Amazon, a reviewer pointed out this mistake.

The quote from author Rick Bylina was removed and will be used on the back cover. The quote was small with respect to an icon on the Amazon page advertising the book. Most people look at a cover for the impact that probably occurs in the first three seconds. I doubt a book recommendation on the cover has that much impact.

Overall the new design is edgy.

Claws of the Griffin
Coming April 24th! 


Sunday, April 7, 2013

Back from the Ashes



I blogged a few weeks back about my publisher going out of business and I felt somewhat miffed. Not angry but greatly disappointed. But that didn’t last. In fact, I more feel sorry for them. I am sure it was someone’s dream to publish books that didn’t work. Dreams are dashed every day.

Sad thing is the business is very competitive. More and more writers enter the field to play the game. Many come with publishers, but many more are self-publishing. For the publishers, it become an interesting quandary. What can they add that separates them from the other publishers and self-publishers? That’s a hard question.

For me having someone wanting to publish my book was validation that I could write. But I wanted one thing more. Now I won’t spell it out because for another writer it might be something else. I don’t know what your one thing is.

This time, I decided to self-publish Claws of the Griffin.  I know how to get a cover done, how to get it printed in ebook and paper. I discovered the world of marketing and how hard it is. I still need to find that one thing, but for now I’m headed to press.

CLAWS OF THE GRIFFIN
COMING APRIL 24TH!