Tuesday, March 31, 2020

5T Tossup -- New Release

I hope everyone is staying healthy and safe during this difficult time.
 
An April Fools joke turns deadly for Mo Gaffney. Only the visiting New Orleans grandmaster can save her. 

Now available. 99¢ this week only!

Read Chapter One here.

In honor of April Fools and the brand-new release inspired by it, here's Imgur...

This is why we can’t have nice things
Because chemistry!
My university chem department's idea of an April Fools joke

Pure evil...
I'm a 27 year old, immature father of 3 and husband, and IT'S APRIL FOOLS SOON!!

Tuesday, March 24, 2020

4T Olio

New Orleans Nobody 99¢ preorder.
Regular $2.99.
Get it before the price goes up!

An April Fools joke turns deadly for Mo Gaffney. Only the visiting New Orleans grandmaster can save her.

New Orleans Nobody 99¢ preorder. Regular $2.99. Get it before the price goes up!

In honor of the upcoming holiday, here's some April Fools fun...

ha ha ha
April Fools, Doc!


Just a little April fool's prankery

Tuesday, March 17, 2020

3T Writing Tidbit

This is another in my 25 Ways You're Losing Readers (and what you can do about it) series.


Are you losing readers to confusion?

"Tease your reader."

I'll be frank. I don't get it when writing gurus say that. When I write under the influence of "tease" it comes out vague.

Do you have this problem? Do readers say your story is vague or muddled?

How can they say that? You've been teasing them. Don't readers want to be surprised?

Well, yes. Readers want to be surprised. But they want to understand clearly what the mystery is, first.

Let's take a hypothetical murder mystery then compare it to a popular television show.
Hypothetical Mystery: Murder! Look, there's a bunch of clues. Some of them point vaguely at some suspects. Ooh, let's sneak around getting more clues and more suspects. And it's all dark and moody and then suddenly the killer strikes again, but closer! Isn't that mysterious and exciting? LOL.

One of the most endearing television mystery series was Castle. It featured Nathan Fillion as bestselling author Richard Castle doing research ride-alongs with hard-nosed but beautiful NYPD detective Kate Beckett. There was a formula I gleaned from the show that is quite useful.

Murder! Look, there's a clue. Clue One leads us to Suspect A. We interview Suspect A and show how Clue One means A's the killer. But twist, Suspect A says, I didn't do it, I have an alibi (or no motive or no means). But I happened to overhear Suspect B talk about Clue Two. We interview Suspect B and show how Clue Two means B's the killer. But Suspect B also has an alibi... You get the picture.

This is a simple example of how to have a mystery with surprise revelations but still be perfectly clear.

Published since 2009, over the years I've accumulated various items of writing wisdom. The Third Tuesday Writing Tidbit showcases these items in no particular order. Click here to see all 3T Tidbits. Click here to see all 25 Ways You're Losing Readers.

Tuesday, March 10, 2020

2T Repeat Performance

In December 2016, the lovely Magical Musings crew decided it was time to close down their blogging shop. I had three wonderful years with them. This is another of those posts.

photo credit: Hailie Ciomperlik via photopin (license)
Why Princess Might Be the Career Choice for You--originally posted June 22, 2016.

As part of my Cin Wikkid: April Fools For Love book tour, I was asked many Princessly questions. Build your perfect prince or princess was popular. It made me realize my idea of royalty was more Shrek than Disney. But I'm a traditionalist in some ways.

Top 5 Princessly Necessities

Sparkly Tiara. Seriously, these things rock. A hat that glitters and is a nice nest egg for retirement? Where do I sign up?

A handsome prince. Or an ogre prince, but the key point is, this is your soulmate. Seriously, this guy loves you enough to hack apart impenetrable sword-sharp thorns or brave a whole new world or change from a beast into a man. If that isn't true love, what is?

Adventure. From flying carpets or canoes or exploring creepy old castles, being a princess means new experiences. Well, unless you have really, really long hair, in which case you're locked in a tower. It's only a real problem if you make the mistake of starting the pectin diet on the wrong day (beware the door-to-door fruit saleslady) or are the victim of a shoddily manufactured spinning wheel. But Princesses Are Resourceful!* You’ll find a way out of any difficulty by The End.

photo credit: The Britannia State Coach via photopin (license)
No cooking or cleaning! You'll have an army of servants to do all that, or at the very least strangely musical animated household items.

Stylish transportation. Although the new BMW hypercar has a lot to recommend it too.

What about you? If you changed careers, what would it be? Would Princess be on your list?

CinWikkid3x4.5
From award-winning bestselling author Mary Hughes comes a fairytale romance with a twist.
THE WRONGED DAUGHTER Cinderella hungers to escape from under Widow Wikkid's grinding thumb. But to snare a plum job at Prince Industries, Cin desperately needs her degree, and she can't wrap her mind around tax accounting.
Then scarred but sexy Rafe Montoya ignites her imagination with his brilliant tutoring—and, as they work together in his cozy apartment, he sets her body on fire. She thinks he's the one for her, until he starts pushing her to attend Gideon Prince's marriage-mart ball.
THE HANDSOME PRINCE Rafe is really Gideon Prince, head of Prince Industries. He must name his bride by his April first birthday or suffer the loss of his family fortune.
Rumors say he's still single because women love his money and looks, not him. Is he lonely or just another duplicitous tycoon?
THE GLASS SLIPPER TEST Hopefuls flock to Prince's birthday ball, but only the woman who is kind, wise, and generous will win his heart. Is it Cin, or will her stepmother, as she always does, snatch the prize for her own daughters?
And on the night of the ball, when Cin discovers Rafe’s true identity, can she even accept his final test?
Warning: Rags-to-riches fairytale meets the texting generation. Stepsisters who are a blush-brush shy of a full makeup set, and a ball gown built like a tank. Contains material intended for mature audiences. Reader discretion advised.
For anyone who has ever been persecuted or hidden their light under a bushel.

Tuesday, March 3, 2020

March 1T Status Update

I'm at 60K for Night's Bliss first draft, through the Crisis and into the Climax. I took a few weeks out to finish up New Orleans's Nobody for the April Fools For Love 2020 group. Found out recently we won't be doing it this year  

Since I have the story done (just a few brush up edits), I'm going to go ahead and release it anyway.Now available for preorder with the special price of 99¢!
An April Fools joke turns deadly for Mo Gaffney. Only the visiting New Orleans grandmaster can save her.
The reason the blurb is so short is that I'm studying for the third of three comprehensive exams for my schoolwork. Brushing up on class material I haven't seen for nearly two years is lots of fun. Well, not exactly, but it is good to go over the material again knowing what I know now.