Great News for FREE!

Finally! Great News Town is finally up on Kindle and is available for FREE in the new Kindle Lending Library for people who are members of Prime. Sounds like a good deal for everybody!  And if you have an Ipad or some other reading device, just download the free Kindle app and read away. I am so excited!

Live at the Library

November is getting off to a good start with a presentation at the Traverse Area District Library in a couple of hours. I'm hoping we get a nice crowd, but I'm a little worried that we may run out of books. This will be my last presentation after a busy month of presentations. Time to go home and get ready for Christmas and Florida.

A sign?

Last time I checked, the number of Good Reads members who had signed up for my Great News Town giveaway was 666. What an ominous tally! and on Halloween weekend? Do-do-do-do.

Great Give Away!

Hey, this is fun. I'm giving away five copies of Great News Town on the Good Reads website. Check it out!

Bookin' it!

My Up North friends can now find Great News Town (and Laughing for a Living) in the Traverse Area District Library. That is, if they are quick. Three of the four copies of Great News Town have been checked out already and two of Laughing for a Living are on loan. Don't you just love libraries???

Better than Fair

The Author Fair in Joliet was Awesome. Reconnected with lots of old friends and met lots of new fans, sold a bunch of books and heard wonderful stories from people who remember the summer of 1983 (which inspired the book.)

Write a character!

Well, not only is Duke Dukakis running a cussing contest. Now he's accepting email at dukeyboy44@sbcglobal.net. Try to keep 'em clean. Editor Josie Braun also is taking emails from fans at josiebraun@att.net.  Watch your grammar and spelling. She gets testy about that.

Cussin' Contest!

Ormand "Duke" Dukakis, the crime-fighting reporter in Great News Town, likes creative curse words.  "Peacock Piddle," "Canary Crap," and "Dingo Drizzle" are some of his favorites. Want to join the fun? Use the comment key on this post to suggest a new curse phrase for Duke. If I use your suggested phrase in his next adventure, One Shoe Off, then I'll give you recognition in the credits and send you a free, autographed copy of  One Shoe Off.  

Artsy Smartsy

Whoa! Great News Town will be featured on a self-publishing panel Wednesday between a children's author and a nun's memoir. Talk about contrast. Serial killers are not comic relief.  The panel will be held at Biggby Coffee in St. Joseph, Mi., starting at 7 p.m. I may become a coffee drinker yet!

Great News Town is going home

Just got an invite to an Author Fair in Joliet on Oct. 15. It will be exciting to see the reaction of people who remember the summer of 1983. I suspect they'll be surprised that Great News Town doesn't stick to the facts of what really happened that summer. If it did, it wouldn't be called fiction. But I think they'll be intrigued to see fact and fiction woven together into such a frightening tale.

Great News grows.

Opportunities for Great News Town are multiplying. The book now has its own Facebook Page as well as a display at my local beauty shop, Lamar Hair Studio. You may think serial killers are out of place in a beauty shop, but it's not so different from the gossipy ceramic shop in the book.

Going Great Guns!

Great News Town is really taking off this week. Kent District Library has requested a copy and I've agreed to speak on a writers' panel in St. Joe on Aug. 31 as well as a panel at the Peninsula Writers retreat on my birthday, Oct. 1. Nice way to celebrate. And the 15 percent online discount is about to expire, so if you are ordering a copy from lulu.com, don't forget to put in the coupon code: MYBOOK305

On the spot

Great News Town is featured in the Kalamazoo Gazette's Self-Publish Spotlight. I've included a passage from the book, the same one I read at my book signing at Schulers'. Guaranteed nightmares. Check it out here

Death at a discount

If you click on the copy of Great News Town  to buy a book through Lulu.com, be sure to type in the discount code MYBOOK305,  good for 15 percent off. But hurry, the discount is only good through Aug. 15. And thanks for your interest in Great News Town.   

Sell out!

As predicted we sold out of Great News Town at tonight's signing. We had an enthusiastic audience of about 40 people and sold almost all of both books. I will restock Schulers' tomorrow so they have a few on hand and deliver some to friends who weren't able to get copies... and order some more. Nice problem to have. I enjoyed talking about the books and really appreciated the support of so many friends.

Great Day for Great News Town

Today's the day. My latest book, Great News Town, will debut at 7 p.m. tonight at Schulers' Books and Music on Alpine.  I'll be talking about the new book as well as my first book, Laughing for a Living. They're very different. Laughing for a Living is factual and fun. Great News Town is fiction and frightening. But they're both memoirs of a sort because they're both based on events that happened during my 40 years as a journalist. I've had a strong response from people planning to attend so I expect a good crowd. I'm not sure we have enough books on hand.

Signs of a signing on the way

Got another shipment of books, errors corrected and looking wonderful. Also created a few T-shirts featuring Ryan's great cover art. Tuesday is going to be a great day for Great News Town.

Fourth of July

The holiday's hot weather is perfect for taking a kayak spin around the lake. And tonight I'll watch the fireworks reflected in the water. But this year I'm thinking of a Fourth of July weekend almost 30 years ago when I was working at the Joliet Herald-News.  Two people were killed in a rural area and we had no idea that it was just the beginning of a summer of murder.

First copies have arrived

I received my first shipment of books today and they look great. We will be checking them for any errors or problems that need attention. Ryan Wallace, my son and cover designer,  is already making adjustments to color and measurements. He's the perfectionist in the family. You can see a copy at my book signing, 7 p.m. July 12,  at Schulers' Books & Music on Alpine.