Guest Post

HAVE A BOOK TO PROMOTE? Lyrical Pens welcomes guest posts. Answer a questionnaire or create your own post. FYI, up front: This site is a definite PG-13. For details, contact cjpetterson@gmail.com cj

Sunday, June 26, 2022

A rescue organization goes above and beyond

cj Sez:  Because it’s butterfly season, and the photo is beautiful, here’s a “buckeye.”

Buckeye Butterfly

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  I’ve finally gotten around to reading the stories in THE BIG FANG, the Harbor Humane Society’s Charity Anthology, which have earned some enthusiastic 5-star reviews on Amazon.

  Without exception, the first titles I’ve read have fully invited me into the story. Well-developed characters, including the personalities of the critters, carry the story, plot, and theme along at a rapid pace. Interesting, funny, and/or twisty endings are de rigueur. I’m humbled and excited to have my short story, ‘Firebug,” included among the cozy and humorous mystery and crime stories in this book.
  
  By the by, it’s a two-fer: Buy one book filled with stories written by 22 multi-published authors, and…and… the proceeds of your purchase benefit the Harbor Humane Society and the wonderful work they do. I have to tell you this story about Harbor Humane's commitment to saving animals:

  About a month ago, the organization received a call from a temporarily closed Alabama animal shelter requesting help to rescue abused dogs discovered in a suspected puppy mill. Two members of Harbor Humane drove eleven hours with a truck full of kennels from West Olive, Michigan, to Birmingham, Alabama, to pick up 35 animals and drove another eleven hours to bring them back to their facility for loving care, medical treatment, and to find them fur-ever homes. Now that’s commitment. See how your purchase will help?

THE BIG FANG Anthology is available
on Amazon and through your favorite bookstore. 

(Next week I’ll do a post on the steps I follow when I write a short story.)

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Coming Attractions:

  Mark your calendars.  

  National best-selling and Agatha-nominated mystery author Kaye George is scheduled to be Lyrical Pens’ guest on July 20.  

  Her latest book, DEATH IN THE NEW LAND (A People of the Wind Mystery Book 3), releases July 19 and is available for pre-order.

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Tidbits for Readers and Writers

  For readers, it’s what to look for and why you find a book a satisfying read. For writers, it’s how and why to make your book a satisfying read . . .

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  That’s it for today’s post. You-all guys keep on keeping on, and I’ll try to do the same. (I hope you have a safe and wonderful holiday weekend … sending up prayers for your health and safety.)

cj


  The ebooks of DEATH ON THE YAMPA and THE DAWGSTAR are now $2.99.

  Just in time for your summer reading pleasure . . . fast-paced, exciting thrillers with a smidgen of romance (ala Jane Bond).

 P.S.  The Haunted Bookshop has signed paperback copies of my books in stock. TO ORDER my author-graphed books or any book of your choice on-line, contact The Haunted Bookshop here: https://www.thehauntedbookshopmobile.com/contact-us  
P.P.S. Pre-signed copies of THE BIG FANG are not available at The Haunted Bookshop.

➜ Follow me on . . . 
➜ Amazon:    Amazon Central Author Page

Goodreads: https://bit.ly/3fcN3h6

Sunday, June 19, 2022

Father's Day!

 cj Sez: I hope all the wonderful dads out there have a Happy Father’s Day.

  Father’s Day, like Mother’s Day, has a history that goes well beyond greeting cards. The first known American celebration to honor fathers happened in 1908 at the Williams Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church South in Fairmont, West Virginia. A Mrs. Grace Golden Clayton wanted to have a memorial service for the more than 200 fathers who had died in the Monongah mining explosion that occurred on December 6, 1907. Described as “the worst mining disaster in American History,” the explosion left some 1,000 children without fathers.

  Two years later, Father’s Day was formally observed in Spokane, Washington, on June 19, 1910 (the third Sunday in June). It became an annual celebration there and started events in other towns, but did not become a permanent national holiday for decades. Congress first introduced a bill to honor fathers in 1913, but it did not pass. 

  In 1966, Lyndon Johnson used his Presidential Pen to issue a proclamation designating the third Sunday in June to honor fathers. Father’s Day finally became law in 1972, when President Richard Nixon signed a law declaring that Father’s Day be celebrated annually on the third Sunday in June.  

cj’s note: 
  According to a National Review analysis, at the time of the Monongah mine disaster in the early 1900s, fewer than eight percent of kids under the age of ten lived in a household that didn’t include their biological or adoptive father. Today, more than one in four kids under the age of ten have absentee fathers.  https://www.fatherhood.org/father-absence-statistic

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  My father struggled through a harsh life, was raised by a stern grandfather with little expressions of love. Growing up in Detroit, I don’t remember that we ever said “I love you” to each other but I knew he loved me by the unexpected and thoughtful things he did for me, like when he walked blocks to a drugstore to get me some medicine and spent money he couldn't afford (he'd been laid off his factory job) to buy me a comic book. 

  What I remember most about Daddy are his strong hands, his Swedish accent, his blue, blue eyes, and seeing him dance the schottische around the kitchen on Saturday mornings when he made breakfast for his family. He died many years ago, one month before his 61st birthday, and I miss him and cherish his memory still.   

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  Weather report for the Gulf Coast . . .



 

 
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  By the by, at the risk of repeating myself . . . as the masthead of Lyrical Pens says, if you have a book (new or old) you want to promote with a blog post, drop me a note. We can arrange a blog date…the only caveat is that this site is PG 13.

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  That’s it for today’s post. You-all guys keep on keeping on, and I’ll try to do the same. Prayers going up for your health and safety this year.

cj

P.S.  The Haunted Bookshop has signed paperback copies of my books in stock. TO ORDER my author-graphed books or any book of your choice on-line from an indie bookstore, contact The Haunted Bookshop here: https://www.thehauntedbookshopmobile.com/contact-us   
P.P.S. Pre-signed copies of THE BIG FANG are not yet available at The Haunted Bookshop, but when you order a book from them and want it author-graphed, let them know, and I'll pop down there and sign it for you. Thanks!

➜ Follow me on . . .           
➜ Amazon:    Amazon Central Author Page
➜ Goodreads: https://bit.ly/3fcN3h6

 

Sunday, June 12, 2022

Deadlines and rabbit holes

cj Sez:  I wish I had a bit of Elmore Leonard’s discipline for sitting down and going about the business of writing. What started as necessity for him turned into habit when he became an established author.

Recognize anyone?

“To support his family, he worked as a copywriter at an ad agency, where he developed his aversion to adverbs, and also his knack for brief, punched-up prose. He began a habit of waking at five a.m. and immediately starting to write -- not even putting the water on for coffee until he had something down on paper -- then going to work at the office, first in advertising and later writing educational films for the Encyclopedia Britannica.” (Source: http://www.biographile.com/a-capital-crime-elmore-leonard-deserves-a-definitive-biography/22523/ )

  It used to be that I worked better when I had to crash for a short-term deadline. So I thought if I gave myself a deadline, I’d have the incentive to keep writing. Found out that’s not true because somehow I seem to know the deadline is self-imposed. (As if.) I manage to bury my deadline under weeks of procrastination that I call “research.” (Leonard paid others to do his research.) It seems that the more research I do—I learn really fascinating things—the less creativity I have.

  However, I’m not giving up on my current work in progress. Last night I made a note or two when I went to bed . . . I get a lot of good ideas just before I fall asleep. That’s why I keep paper and pencil on the table next to the bed.

  I don’t sit in front of this computer very long on Sundays but I’ll start writing on Monday … right after I feed all the critters, including me, do some weeding or picking up pine cones and deadfall, do a bit of housecleaning, and by then it’s time to watch the news at 5, 6, and 6:30. After I make supper and do the dishes, I’ll put BIC in front of the computer. But I promise you I won’t make any deep dives down research rabbit holes. (I need to promise you because if I promise myself, I’ll find something irrelevant to do.) 
  
  How about you? When do you get your best ideas? How do you conquer the blank page in front of you? How do you stay out of the research rabbit holes? I really need some help.

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  The international writing organization Sisters in Crime (of which I am a member) announced their Eleanor Taylor Bland Emerging Crime Writer of Color Award Recipient: 

“We'd like to congratulate Shizuka Otake of Jackson Heights, NY on being named the 2022 Eleanor Taylor Bland Emerging Crime Writers of Color Award Winner! Her submission, Murder in Tokyo, is a story of a Japanese American teen’s life which is shattered when her boyfriend is arrested as the prime suspect in a classmate’s murder. “I lived in Tokyo as an adult and found it painful to be viewed as different,” said Otake. “I expected to fit in and wondered how much harder that experience would have been if I was a vulnerable teen.” 

  Otake’s story was selected from more than fifty submissions

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Gremlins

  Over the past week, Blogger re-issued Lyrical Pens posts for December 5, 2021, and January 2, 2022. I guess Google's been messing around with their programming and LP subscribers received an auto-idiot email. I’m wondering how many posts will be reissued before they correct the problem. Sorry about that, but I can issue a true disclaimer: I didn't do it. 
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  By the by, as the masthead above says, if you have a book (new or old) you want to promote with a blog post, drop me a note. We can arrange a blog date…the only caveat is that this site is PG 13.  

§§

  That’s it for today’s post. You-all guys keep on keeping on, and I’ll try to do the same. Prayers going up for your health and safety.

cj

P.S.  The Haunted Bookshop has signed Paperback copies of my books in stock. TO ORDER my author-graphed books or any book of your choice on-line from an indie bookstore, contact The Haunted Bookshop here: https://www.thehauntedbookshopmobile.com/contact-us  
P.P.S. Pre-signed copies of THE BIG FANG are not available at The Haunted Bookshop, but when you order a book from them and want it author-graphed, let them know, and I'll pop down there and sign it for you. Thanks!

➜ Follow me on . . .           
➜ Amazon:    Amazon Central Author Page
➜ Goodreads: https://bit.ly/3fcN3h6

  

Sunday, June 5, 2022

A good time to pay it forward

cj Sez:  Half a year (minus a few days) has come and gone, and I still haven’t planted the basil I need for all those wonderful tomatoey dishes. My excuse is that at 92° in the shade, it’s already too hellaciously hot and humid to be working in the yard.

Summer Tanager

   Instead I think I’ll plant some ideas in your heads for summer vacation reads . . . by authors who have a new book release or one that will soon be launched.

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  Carrie Dalby’s 
Malevolent Hearts, Book 1 in “The Malevolent Trilogy”
scheduled for release on July 19 is available for preorder now

... nineteen-year-old Merritt Hall arrives in Mobile, Alabama, at the end of summer in 1897. Straight-laced Merritt and fifteen-year-old Winifred clash with most of what's important to the elder cousin—decorum, responsibility, and education.”

  Five Belles Too Many by Debra H.
Goldstein has a launch date of June 28, and is available for pre-order now

“When Sarah Blair’s mother participates in a reality show competition for brides in Wheaton, Alabama, things get a little too real as a murderer crashes the wedding party . . .”

  Death in a New Land (A People of the Wind Mystery Book 3) by Kaye George has a Kindle launch date of July 19 and is available for pre-order now

Enga Dancing Flower and her tribe have reached a place they can stay in safety. Or have they?  ...this is made even more evident when a male of Enga’s tribe is murdered, and a baby is kidnapped.

And, of course, my two novels: 


  Fast-paced, exciting thrillers with a smidgen of romance (ala Jane Bond).

§§

  By the by, as the masthead of Lyrical Pens says, if you have a book (new or old) you want to promote with a blog post, drop me a note. We can arrange a blog date…the only caveat is that this site is PG 13.

§§

  That’s it for today’s post. You-all guys keep on keeping on, and I’ll try to do the same. Prayers going up for your health and safety.

cj

P.S.  The Haunted Bookshop has signed paperback copies of my books in stock. TO ORDER my author-graphed books or any book of your choice on-line from an indie bookstore, contact The Haunted Bookshop here: https://www.thehauntedbookshopmobile.com/contact-us   
P.P.S. Pre-signed copies of THE BIG FANG are not available at The Haunted Bookshop, but when you order a book from them and want it author-graphed, let them know, and I'll pop down there and sign it for you. Thanks!

➜ Follow me on . . .           
➜ Amazon:    Amazon Central Author Page
➜ Goodreads: https://bit.ly/3fcN3h6