History and Mystery Fiction Freebies!

I know - I'm not here.Some readers who downloaded my books months ago and haven't to around to reading them until now, will click this link and isn't this nice - a free giveaway!

I have an historical mystery series in the works so I'm very interested in authors who are writing it and I thought some of my readers might be too. 

History and Mystery offers six carefully curated historical mystery novels and novellas to choose from. Historical Fiction Freebies has over sixty Historical Mystery and Romance titles.  

The giveaways are hosted by BookFunnel. You will have to give your email address and subscribe to the author's newsletter to receive your book, but you are free to unsubscribe at any time. Click on the image or the links above to be taken to the Giveaway page - and happy reading!

Cozy Mystery Free Book Sale

Dear Readers,

Maybe we're in a recession or maybe not. Maybe a pandemic is still raging or maybe not. Maybe the world is going to hell in a handbasket and maybe it'll keep turning awhile longer. 

The nice thing about aging is you start to feel like you've seen this movie before, and while the storyline isn't your favourite, you know the ending and just can't get worked up about it. 

Experience has taught me that it softens the ride when we all help each other out. My tiny contribution to the general well-being of my fellow humans is St. Ives Book Club Mystery, in which six retirees and two young reporters solve cold case murders. The tone is light but not melt-in-your-brain light. Some brains crave something to chew on that won't keep them up at night. Like a late-night snack that is both satisfying and digestible. 

If you haven't started the series yet, but would like to, there is no time like the present. Advertisement for Murder is free on Amazon from November 9, 2022 to November 13, 2022.

Pick up your Free copy HERE:

Advertisement for Murder

The sixth book in the series, A Deadly Case of Blue, dropped today and is available until November 13, 2022 for $2.99. After that, the price goes up to $3.99. Dig through the couch cushions and place your order to save big. 

The series can be read out of order if you are okay with getting to know characters mid-series. I know I am. I've read  almost every series mystery out of order, just grabbing what I could from the library. St. Ives Book Club Mystery is in Kindle Unlimited if you have that service. 

Pick up your Discounted Copy HERE:

A Deadly Case of Blue

 

St. Ives Book Club Mystery is also available in print from Amazon. My plan is to sell on other retailers in 2023 and look into audio books as well. Writing the series consumes most of my available brain cells at the moment ... which is the downside of aging. 

Happy reading and I wish you a blessed Remembrance Day!

Free Cozy Mystery Short Reads Promotion

 Cozy Short Reads for a Short Month

February 1st to February 28th 2022

Hello Mystery Lovers!

Over 20 authors have come together this month to offer mystery lovers a chocolate box of choice in short cozy mystery reads. 

Click the coupon below and take your pick (as many as you like!) at no cost to your wallet or your hips. 

Bookmark the link to come back again and again throughout the month and fall in love with a new mystery. 

(Offer good until Feb. 28, 2022)

This is pretty exciting for me. It's my first time in a group promotion with other mystery authors, writing in the same vein. As The Butler Didn't Do It subscriber list grows by leaps and bounds, it's going to be fun and thrilling hunting down more freebies, giveaways, sneak peeks and special deals for subscribers. I love a bargain.

We'll talk mystery too. Lots to talk about there. For example: What makes a mystery a cosy? We had a spirited discussion about this in my writers' forum. Some felt cosies had broken free of cats, cupcakes and cartoons on the covers. I don't have animals or cooking in my series but I believe I still qualify as a cosy mystery writer. 

It comes down to tone. There is a murder but it is how that murder is tackled and resolved that makes one mystery a cosy, another a hard-boiled and another a police procedural. 

Food for thought! Subscribe to The Butler Didn't Do It and get in on the conversation. 

And Happy Valentine's Day!

Get your FREE Cozy Short Reads Here!

Guess what's free today...

 

Razor Wire

FREE on Amazon today only. (reg. $2.99)

From the back cover:

Classical violinist Charlotte Dawson needs money. San Francisco tech boom billionaire, Daniel Razor, needs a companion for his agoraphobic stepbrother. Razor makes Charlotte an offer—one hundred thousand dollars in exchange for one year hanging out with the handsome, talented, but deeply troubled Joel Razor. The job is too good to be true. Charlotte accepts. Then Daniel Razor comes to her with a request that redefines the role of companion and Charlotte discovers the lengths she will go to realize her ambition. 

Set in fog-shrouded San Francisco, Razor Wire is new adult noir suspense in the tradition of Alfred Hitchcock. Originally published on Amazon in three novellas, Razor Wire is the first in a three-book series. Razor Close and Razor Edge will be published in 2016.

Goodreads Giveaway Winners!

And the winners of the Goodreads Giveaway for THE RIVER BRIDE are.... *insert drum roll here*

Susan Gannon of Arvada, Colorado
Arturo Operario of North York, Ontario
Sarah Hansrote of Knoxville, Tennessee

792 people entered THE RIVER BRIDE Giveaway and 365 people added it to their To-Read shelves. Thank you!

Folks, this will be my last Giveaway and here's why:

The mailing of books is costly in addition to the cost of the books themselves. This expense is absorbed by the author. The service the winning readers provide is to post their reviews at Goodreads. Without reviews, authors cannot afford to continue to enroll their books in Goodreads Giveaways. A print copy is the only format accepted and because of the cost involved (and often disappointing result) many authors I know are giving up on Giveaways. It is a great program and I'd hate to see it go but for independent authors on a tight budget, it has become a poor return. 

There are readers out there who buy indie books at full price and post their reviews. There are companies who for a fraction of the cost of a Giveaway will promote an independent author's book. When marketing dollars are tight, the non-performer gets cut. 

Writing a review can be nerve-wracking but your opinion matters, especially for an unknown work in this day and age. Think of yourself as a literary talent scout! Finding diamonds in the rough! going where no man has gone before! Readers rule! Discovering a new work by an unknown author is an adventure. You have to tell the world about it because if you don't, who will?

Congratulations to my three winners. Folks, your books are in the mail and I look forward to reading your reviews!

Peace and happy reading.

THE RIVER BRIDE Goodreads Giveaway!

Open to U.S. and Canadian residents! Toss your name into the hat to win a free, signed copy of THE RIVER BRIDE! 

(whew. exhausted. feel like a carnie barker.)

(If you don't see the fancy entry form, the other link will take you to the same place.
Go ahead. Click it.)

 Free Sample: Two chapters of The River Bride on Wattpad

 

 

    Goodreads Book Giveaway

   

       

   

          The River Bride by Nadine Doolittle      Giveaway ends January 23, 2015.

         See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

         

      Enter to win

Humanity and Indie Publishing

I couldn't think of a better title for this post which is really a potpourri of this week's events in Writing for My Life.

1) Sales in August fell off a cliff. The benefit of falling off the sales cliff was that it was going to happen sooner or later, right? I was cured of watching the graph thingy at KDP because it was too depressing.

2) Plagiarism seems to be a hot topic among indie authors these days. Plagiarism (for those too busy plagiarizing to use a dictionary) means "to steal ideas or passages from another's work and present them as one's own." - Collins English Dictionary. In the exchanges I'm reading online, the offenders argue that because they made changes to the original work it's all copasetic. Dear Plagiarizer: It is not. Write your own stuff. (and look up copasetic) I have more thoughts on this subject but it's been a busy week so onward!

3) Lots of traffic from Turkey this week so a big shout out to all my visitors. I wrote a thesis paper on Turkey when I was in high school so I feel like we're old friends. Nice to shake virtual hands! Think of my sales cliff! Buy a book!

4) Piracy. I found a pirated copy of Iced Under on an ebook site, heavens knows where or how or why, but there it was buried in pages and pages of mysteries. When I made it available for free, I assume it got passed around as books do. So until I am as popular as Grisham, no more free ebooks. At least one person out of 7 billion will have to buy the book first before passing it on. The humanity!

5) Diet. I'm on one again. Must lose weight for daughter's wedding to get into Mother of the Bride outfit. So what I want to know is how am I supposed to write if I can't eat Skittles?

6) Spent the day correcting minor errors in Wanton because that was soooo much easier than writing a new scene in Wastrel. (Confused about plagiarism? If you find writing a book is easy-peasy you're probably stealing it.)

7) I have a book event on Saturday! Authors' Day at the Wakefield Market in beautiful downtown Wakefield, Quebec. From 9:00 am to 1:00 pm. I will be selling print copies of Iced Under, The Grey Lady and The River Bride in a 3-Book Gift Pack for Christmas at a shockingly low price. So get over here!

8) The winners of the Goodreads Giveaway were Cassandra Edwards, Sausan Sumar and Dorothy Huckaby. Signed copies of The Grey Lady were popped in the mail on Tuesday so it is anybody's guess when your books will arrive, ladies. I love Canada Post but ... well. You know.

That's me for another week. Be nice to each other.

Canada only - THE GREY LADY Goodreads Giveaway!

WE HAVE A WINNER! (Or three!)

• Cassandra Edwards in Saskatchewan (My dad was born in Saskatchewan!)

• Sausan Sumar in Ontario (I used to live in Ontario!)

• Dorothy Huckaby in Alberta (I have family in Alberta!)

Copies of THE GREY LADY will be put in the mail today (August 29) and Canada Post willing, you'll have them after Labour Day.

Ladies, if you like the book, please let your fellow Goodreaders know. And a big thank you to the 105 folks who entered the Giveaway! Stay tuned because I'll be running another one in November for my third book in the series: THE RIVER BRIDE.

If there is enough money in the kitty, I'll open up the next Giveaway to the US and UK but for now, I wanted to introduce the series to Canadian readers who are always on the lookout for mysteries set in Canada. I know I am. 

Congratulations to the winners!

Due to circumstances beyond my control...

The Kindle Countdown for THE GREY LADY is not on, not going to happen, kicked to the curb.

There is a lesson here--yet another lesson for today's writer. Take notes. There will be a test.

1) The Grey Lady was originally published by McArthur and Co. All rights reversed. Every effort made to have electronic versions removed from all retailers.

2) Author enrolls The Grey Lady in KDP Select to take advantage of wonderful promotional tool of Countdown.

3) Author receives an email from KDP Select team saying terms of Select are being violated as The Grey Lady is for sale at iTunes.

4) Author hustles over. Yes, indeedy, there it is--the old edition of The Grey Lady is still being sold although author had no knowledge of it and has not received a single penny. Responds to KDP that book will be removed pronto. Emails iTunes legal to have book removed. Book is removed. Emails KDP team the good news.

5) Author checks KDP bookshelf and sees The Grey Lady is no longer in Select and therefore not eligible for Countdown. 

Crack open Joseph Heller's "Catch 22" and give it another read. Feel blood pressure return to normal.  

Screw it. Author determines will reduce price of The Grey Lady just because she can. 

I see a Kindle Countdown Deal in your future....

THE GREY LADY is going rogue. To celebrate the Civic Holiday she's throwing herself out there for .99 on July 31. Her price goes up a buck a day thereafter until August 6. 

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00K33AASG 

 A mystery, a puzzle, a psychological suspense novel. One dead man. Eight suspects. A driving rainstorm. Secrets, lies, scandal and hidden hate.

"As with any good mystery, virtually everyone has something to hide ... tightly written and perfectly paced, we feel we are being swept along by the story like a fallen branch in a fast-flowing river of spring runoff." Montreal Review of Books

Happy Birthday Canada! Open it, it's a book.

I brought a gift to the party!

To celebrate Canada's birthday and to honour St. Jean Baptiste Day for Quebec, ICED UNDER will be available for FREE for 5 days on Amazon for Kindle e-readers. The gift-giving begins on June 27 and runs until July 1st. 

The story is set in the winter which will make us all appreciate the summer a little more. Because if there is one thing a Canadian enjoys, it's complaining about the weather. 

Don't say I never give ya nothing.

PICK UP YOUR GIFT HERE!

I have a lot to be grateful for as a Canadian author. Inspiration from the land, the people, the diversity of cultures, the weather, a dynamic pool of never-ending talent and artistry to draw from when I run dry.

Thank you, Canada. And a very happy July 1st.

Thank you Goodreads!

The Goodreads Giveaway has ended! Over 1100 readers entered to receive a signed copy of ICED UNDER and the winners are: (drum roll please....)

Mary De Maris,
Cassandra Fryer
Kathy Hormann
Amber Griffiths
Bree Lennox
Bertha Hammond
Cyd Bennett
Brooke DeSpain

The Giveaway was held over a two-week period, organized by Goodreads, and was easily the most fun I've had since ICED UNDER was launched. It was sort of like watching the Winter Olympics; I was glued to the Giveaway site, thrilling with each new member entered. I don't know what I'll do now that it's all over. One of the winners even lives in Wakefield, UK. I live in Wakefield, Canada! Coincidence? I think not.

I sincerely hope the winners enjoy ICED UNDER, and thank you to all who participated. I'll be hosting a Q&A at the beginning of November to discuss and I hope I meet some of you there.

Merci beaucoup, Goodreads!