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What's the bzz?

1/22/2015

I recently entered two books in the Prize Writer competition hosted by bookbzz.com. (Not Book Buzz--that's different.) I put The Time Travel Trailer in the science fiction category and Peete and Repeat in the mysteries. Yesterday morning I was notified that each made the short list (ten books per category). This is really exciting for me. There is actually some prize money for the category winners but more important to me is that it gives credibility to my books. The self-publishing world is very competitive and unfortunately, there's a lot of stuff in print or digital not worth the reader's time or money. So this kind of recognition helps overcome the reader's bias. I hope.

I'm not sure how I feel about the final elimination, though. Instead of the books being judged by reviewers as they were in the first round, they are voted on by the public on the website during February. Therefore, it behooves the writer to badger one's friends and relatives to go to the website and vote.

Since the best things in life are free, Bats and Bones is optimistically currently in that category on iBooks and Barnes and Noble as well as Amazon. And The Lady of the Lake will be free this Friday and Saturday on Amazon only.

On another note, we made our first camping reservation of the year this week in Wisconsin in May. And we are still mulling over the possibility of a trip south sometime in February. Meanwhile, numerous projects are calling.

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Let It Slow...

1/7/2015

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Well the weather is certainly frightful. Although I must say that from the news reports, Iowa doesn't appear to have gotten the worst of it. But bad enough. We don't have a fire that's delightful so I've left the Christmas tree up to get that warming glow.

Apparently I suffered a bit of a brain freeze because To Cache a Killer kind of slogged to a halt in the last couple of days. Mostly because I wasn't sure who the killer killed or how or why. Or when. Necessary for a mystery. So I spent a couple of days on some marketing efforts, including updating this website and meanwhile let a few ideas steep--or I let the book slow, you might say.

I don't seem to have a pattern. Bats and Bones started (in my mind) with the characters; The Blue Coyote with the crime; Peete and Repeat with that spooky old power plant. and The Lady of the Lake with a legend. This one started with a hobby--geocaching. But, if it's going to be a mystery, I guess something mysterious needs to happen.

Meanwhile, I am looking for more camping hints and recipes. Contributions that are used will snag a signed copy of the book for the suggester. You can click on the little envelope icon in the upper right corner of this page to email me your wonderful camping recipes or hints.

And while you're clicking, please click the button below and sign up on my home page for my occasional newsletter. I will send notices about new books, special offers or even giveaways. I think I will also include short reviews of the things I'm reading as well. There's a giveaway to start; if you don't have it, you can get a free download or The Blue Coyote in any format.

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New Year, Old Me

1/1/2015

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It's a little disappointing. I remember as a kid that each New Year's Day, I expected to find a dramatic change in something, but it never quite materialized.

I took a little hiatus from writing to deal with and enjoy the holidays, but now I hope I'm back on track. On Monday, I began the next Frannie book and so far am burning up the keys. Sort of. The working title is To Cache a Killer and Frannie and friends find as much trouble as treasure when they do some geocaching on a camping trip. The location is Dolomite State Park, based on one of my favorites, Backbone State Park. There are some great campsites there, a small lake, lots of spectacular hiking trails, and a number of geocaches.

Geocaching, for the uninitiated, is an outdoor treasure hunting game made possible in the last decade by hand-held GPS devices. According to Geocaching.com, over six million people worldwide currently participate in trying to find two and a half million caches. Caches are listed by their GPS coordinates on the geocaching website. The geocacher enters the location where they wish to search by zip code or other identifier and a list of caches in that area appears.

A geocache is a weatherproof container ranging in size from very small (a 35 mm film canister) to quite large (a bucket.) At the minimum, it contains paper and a pencil so that finders can log the date. It may also contain trade items or trackable items. If a trade item is taken out by the finder, it must be replace with an item of equal value. A trackable item includes a number which allows the geocacher to log the item on line and receive instructions concerning its disposition.

A few years ago, we gave each of our kids' families a hand-held GPS device and a book on geocaching for Christmas. Except we wrapped them and put them in plastic bins and hid them around the neighborhood. They had to find them Christmas morning using our GPS. I had visions of the Christmas Eve snow or the neighborhood raccoons destroying them before we found them but all was well and they got a taste of geocaching.

So I hope you can imagine that this pasttime could lead to all sorts of adventures for the Shoemakers and their friends. I'm just not sure what yet! And a Happy New Year to one and all.

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What's the bzz?

Let It Slow...

New Year, Old Me

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