MIND GAMES – crime fiction

MIND GAMES

A collection of short crime stories by 16 authors, completely FREE. Click on the title above to download your book and discover some new authors. See below for the author list.

Author List:

1. Oak Anderson
2. Jaleta Clegg
3. Charles Colyott
4. Ben Ditmars
5. Ellie Eich
6. Helle Gade
7. Maria Haskins
8. Darcia Helle
9. Jen Hilborne
10. Jason McIntyre
11. Patrick H. Moore
12. John Nardizzi
13. Julie Elizabeth Powell
14. Charles Salzberg
15. Maria Savva
16. Joe Schwartz

Price cut

Firstly, a big thank you to all those who have bought a copy of ONE BAD THING, the newest book in the Doucette mystery series. Another big thank you to those who have voted for it in the first round of the April Cover of The Month competition at Allauthor. I’m hoping to make it to the 2nd round, which starts in the 2nd week of April. Only the top 100 go through to the 2nd round, and ONE BAD THING is currently sitting at #31, so please keep those votes coming. Click HERE to vote.

As a way of showing my current and new readers my appreciation, NO ALIBI and ONE BAD THING (books #1 and #3 in the Doucette mystery series) are currently available at the reduced price of 99c for Kindle, and both are available free in the Kindle Unlimited store. If you have not yet read a book in this series, they can be read as standalones. I hope you will give them a try.

I am currently working on the 4th Doucette mystery, set in San Francisco. I put the title for this one out to my readers for a vote. The choices were HEARING SCREAMS and A LIE BEFORE DYING. You’ll have to wait to see which title won and if it was the one you chose.

I’ve been hearing from some of my readers who are going off on their holidays that they have packed one or two of my books to take with them, and this is always so lovely to hear. For me though, it’s back to writing.

Follow me on Bookbub for the latest on sales and upcoming new releases.

Ticket to Ride

I always feel like I’m short on time, and now we’re well into February and short on days this month. The good news is that winter is almost over.

February has already brought good news: I’ve successfully secured a ballot place in the Prudential Ride London which is an annual 100 mile cycling event. After 3 years of commiserations, it was great to see the word ‘congratulations.’ Such an uplifting word.

I’ve been packing a lot in to this month and I’m excited about the progress made on my upcoming new release, Hearing Screams (Doucette #4). I’m in the editing/re-writing phase and I’m pushing hard to finish it by the end of March in the hope of a Spring/Summer release.

For those who haven’t read any of the Doucette Series, each book can be read as a standalone, and the first in the series NO ALIBI is currently only 99c, to encourage new readers to give it a try.

Finally, I have a small ask: Bookbub has a follow function and I would love to capture more readers here to share book news, sales, and promotions. If you haven’t already, I’d love it if you would follow me.

Happy New Year

As a year ends, do you feel a bit nostalgic? I certainly do. 2018 was a good year for me with highlights that included a family holiday in lovely Weymouth celebrating my mum’s 80th birthday, plus a week in France for the Tour de France and a bike ride up L’Alpe d’Huez, which was a personal goal and now off the bucket list (or rather, it’s on the bucket list to do again!)

Climbing L’Alpe d’Huez

Weymouth harbour

For 2019, I’m looking forward to more cycling adventures, and entertaining you with the release of book #8 (#4 in the Doucette mystery series) entitled HEARING SCREAMS.

In the meantime, I’d like to thank all my readers for the wonderful support you’ve given me in my writing career. I hope you all had a lovely Christmas, and may 2019 bring you happiness and lots of good things. See you in 2019.

Thank you

December is almost here, people are rushing around doing their Christmas shopping, and ONE BAD THING has once again made it into the Amazon Bestsellers list.

I want to take a moment to express my gratitude for your support through the years. To all those who have purchased my books, a massive ‘Thank You.’ I love writing, but without my readers it would all be a bit pointless.

ONE BAD THING is book #3 in the Doucette mystery series and can be read as a standalone.

Judge a book

Please do! My latest book, ONE BAD THING has been entered in a cover contest. It’s currently ranked #149, which is way down on some of the others.

As I’ve been working hard on the next Doucette mystery (I’m half way through), I’ve been a bit too busy to promote the competition. However, it’s not too late. There is still the rest of November to vote and I’d love it if you would consider voting for me. All you have to do is click here. Ooh, as I type, I see it’s already moving and is up to #140. Thank you to everyone voting.

If you like my books and would like to hear about sales and new releases, please follow me on Bookbub (click here) and on my Facebook author page (here).

Thank you for your continued support. It’s truly appreciated.

 

Try the 1st book in the series free

You don’t have to enter anything or win.  For 5 days, No Alibi  is free to download, starting Saturday October 13th.

Some use secrecy to protect, while others use it to deceive.

No Alibi is the 1st book in the Doucette mystery series. It includes secrets, lies, motive, and a little bit of romance.

Other books in the series are: Easy Target and new release One Bad Thing

Follow me on Bookbub for book news and sales

ONE BAD THING

Wow, the months (okay…years) have slipped by, and I realize I haven’t posted for a while so I figured it’s time to dive back in.

I hope at least some of my readers are still around and haven’t replaced me with someone more reliable (gulp)!

While I’ve omitted to update my blog, I haven’t neglected my writing. After my first book was published in 2010, my goal was to publish one book every year, and for 6 years I did it.

Then came ONE BAD THING which I started writing in 2016. I finished it, but I wasn’t happy with it, and I couldn’t figure out what to change, so I put it away for a short time while I looked for new inspiration. A short time turned into a long while with several complete re-writes, two title changes, and numerous edits, until I finally had the story I wanted.

As not everyone enjoys reading books with gritty language or rough scenes, I thought I’d add a caveat that this book does include both, though not too much of either. The pages are certainly not littered with it, but the book might not be best suited for readers who are offended by such nastiness!

Good and evil coexist in one man. His strong belief in justice weakens him dangerously, until he makes a terrible mistake.

ONE BAD THING is the 3rd book in the Doucette mystery series.

I’m not sure how many books will be in this series, but until I no longer want to work with Homicide Investigator Doucette, I guess I’ll keep adding them. Or maybe you can let me know how many books you prefer to see in a series.

Anyway, ONE BAD THING is reduced to 99c as a promotional offer.

To my readers who waited so patiently for this book, I’d like to say ‘thank you’ and ‘I’m sorry it took me so long.’ I’m working hard on the next book, entitled HEARING SCREAMS, and am already on chapter 13.

With that, I’ll get back to it…..

NEW RELEASE GIVEAWAY

***ANNOUNCING****

The GOODREADS Giveaway for your chance to win a paperback copy of new release EASY TARGET starts at midnight PST tonight (April 10th) and ends in 6 days at midnight PST on April 16th***

Click the GOODREADS link to enter.

EASY TARGET is Volume 2 in the Doucette Mystery Series and the sequel to NO ALIBI. I’m currently working on Volume 3, titled Vanished, and will announce the release date at a later time.

Hours are missing from Lucinda Fitchett’s memory. She has no recollection of the events that occurred on Sunday night and she cannot recall leaving the bar.

The phone rings early the next morning. A stranger claims to know who spiked her drink and why. If she agrees to meet him, he will tell her, though he warns her the information comes at a price. Desperate to know what happened during the missing hours, Lucinda must decide if his offer is worth the risk. But can she put aside her troubled past, and will she be prepared to learn the truth?

Meanwhile, San Francisco police are investigating a shooting that killed a man in Lafayette Park. When Homicide Detective John Doucette visits the crime scene, it triggers memories that lead him to believe the murder could be connected to an old case, and to someone with a link to his past.

Damaging behavior

I’m reading this book by an author I’ve not tried before. 35% in and I’m finding it hard going, not bad enough to stop, but a bit of a slog (cringeworthy metaphors, implausible actions, editing issues to name a few problems). When this happens, I usually look at reviews to see what other readers think and whether it’s worth continuing.

Unsurprisingly, many readers commented on the same problems and gave negative reviews. What prompted this post is the fact that the author engaged with the readers who wrote the negative reviews in an effort to defend the work. While the author’s comments were polite, they only served to elicit more negative feedback, and even went as far as to put off a number of readers (including myself) from picking up this author’s work again (I won’t name author or book so as not to harm another author’s career).

It’s damaging behavior and (IMO) looks unprofessional for an author to enter into a discussion over a bad review. Not everyone will like your work and that’s normal. Some reviews will be genuine and others won’t, and a thick skin is needed to survive in this business.