Contest Ends December. 10

cj Sez: It’s pre-order time for FINALLY HOME—the feel-good Christmas anthology with eight short romance stories. The Bienvenue Press Authors’ Pre-launch Facebook Hop is still going on and there are PRIZES involved. 

    

   You’ll have to hurry to enter because the hop ends at 8 p.m. CST, Tuesday, December 10. There is a full list of authors’ pages for the Facebook Hop and the Finale Giveaway on the Bienvenue Press Facebook page here:   https://www.facebook.com/bienvenuepress/

   Once you get started on the hop, there are “road signs” to send you to the authors’ Facebook pages, all of whom are giving away some kind of prize.

   When you make the hop to my Facebook page, follow my three simple directions, and you’ll be entered into my contest to win a prize. Two winning visitors will receive a $5 Amazon gift certificate, the ebook of HOMETOWN HEROES, and a cheery Christmas mug with a few other goodies included.

   After you stop at my FB page, I’ll direct you to the final hop where the grand finale prize being awarded to some lucky visitor.

   Psst . . . The price of the anthology is going up soon, but if you hurry, you can pre-order FINALLY HOME now for 99 cents! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0825CCJPH

(free on Kindle Unlimited). And you’ll be getting a two-fer:  A Christmas anthology of short stories, including my “Puppy Love,” with part of the proceeds from the sale benefiting animal rescue groups.

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Aside from the above BSP (blatant self-promotion)…

   It’s the end-of-the-year crunch to gather up the tax data I’ll need to file my taxes. All of that important documentation is lying somewhere amidst the stacks of paper and Pendaflex files in the office closet. My plan in January was to keep a running track of expenses and income, but that fell through the cracks probably in February. I hope you did a better job of attending to that detail than I did. Sisters-in-Crime is producing a webinar on taxes this week…I think I should attend.

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   If you’re a member of the Sisters-in-Crime online Guppy chapter and don’t always get their emails, they recently put out a call for submissions for their 6th short story anthology with the theme The Fish That Got Away. All Guppies who are members in good standing of both the Guppy Chapter and the national Sisters in Crime organization as of November 15, 2019, are eligible to submit.  Be sure to check the FILES folder on their groups.io site for more information.

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That’s it for this week’s post. You-all guys keep on keeping on, and I’ll try to do the same. See you here on Lyrical Pens next week.

cj

 

Read five lovely stories (including my own “Hobbes House Noel”) in HOMETOWN HEROES, now on sale and free on Kindle Unlimited. Get it here:   https://amzn.to/2Y4jqYn     

   Autographed print copies of CHOOSING CARTER, DEADLY STAR, and THE POSSE are still available at the Haunted Bookshop. TO ORDER (and support an indie bookstore) contact The Haunted Bookshop here: The Haunted Bookshop  Angela Trigg, the awesome owner and a RITA Award-winning author in her own right (writing as Angela Quarles) will be happy to ship you the book(s) of your choice. 

   If you’re local (in Mobile area), do stop in at the book store; it’s a neat place to browse. These friendly people make a point to shelve the books of local authors, and FINALLY HOME will be available there soon. If they don’t happen to have any copies of the book you want, they’ll order it for you.

➜ Follow me . . .

➜         on Amazon: Amazon Central Author Page = https://amzn.to/2v6SrAj

➜         on Facebook at:   cjpetterson/author/facebook

➜         on BookBub:   https://www.bookbub.com/authors/cj-petterson

Writes of passage

cj Sez: I found a path into my office closet last week to conduct a long over-due decluttering and found a 900-word flash fiction story called “The Family on Bushnell Creek” that could benefit from a bit of editing.

   As is my habit whatever I read, I began picking out a few things I would edit. Basically I liked the story line, and the nits I picked out were minor…things like two spaces after a period. Imagine my surprise when I realized the story was one I had written six or seven years ago.

  I think I’m going to clean up the manuscript, which will also add a few words, and file it away for inclusion in a future anthology. (The rest of the closet clean-up will have to wait.)

   My suggestion to you is to go back through your old manuscripts. Maybe you’ll find a gem or three you can resurrect.

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   From Owl Hollow Press . . . “We're incredibly delighted to announce THE EXISTENCE OF BEA PEARL, a YA Contemporary Southern Mystery by the amazing Candice Marley Conner Author, coming next fall (2020)! Its atmospheric swampy perfection w/ edge-of-your-seat mystery will make you swoon!”

   Candice Marley Conner Says:

 “Swampy perfection—I adore that. Y’all, I’m beside myself that THE EXISTENCE OF BEA PEARL will be out into the world! It’s my love letter to the swamps of my childhood and stories whispered around campfires crackling next to muddy rivers. Thank you, Owl Hollow Press for believing in Bea Pearl’s existence.”

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cj’s Public Service Announcements: 

   Daylight Saving Time ends at 1 a.m. local time on Sunday morning, November 3, 2019, in most areas of the U.S., so we'll “fall back” and return to Standard time. Ergo: If you’re living on DST, try to remember to set your timepieces back one hour on Saturday night.

   NANOWRIMO anyone? Time to prepare your writing place and allocate your times. 

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   Writing the right word . . .  (I can’t give proper attribution for the following because I don’t remember where I picked up these helpful tidbits, but it was probably on Facebook.)

   That or which? Do you have trouble deciding which to use? Here’s a rule:

If the sentence doesn’t need the clause that the word in question is connecting, use which. If it does, use that…for example:

   The Haunted Bookshop, which has one store, is located in downtown Mobile.
The Haunted Bookshop that has one store is located in downtown Mobile.

   A coffin and a casket? The difference is basically one of design. Coffins have six sides and are tapered at the head and foot and are wide at the shoulders (think of the rough, pine coffins you see in western movies). Caskets are rectangular in shape and are usually made of more expensive woods and trims.

cj’s helpful hints for Holiday Gift Giving List…

   If you, like me, get paid once a month, there are only two more paychecks until time for holiday gift giving. I always look for the bargain that offers more bang for my bucks, and that’s Anthologies! More than one story in a single tome, offering hours of enjoyment at one low price.

   In addition to getting wonderful stories, the best part about the two listed here is that part of the proceeds will go to benefit worthwhile charities. (P.S. I have a story in each anthology.)

 HOMETOWN HEROES (benefits the Cajun Navy) is available now. (A click on the cover will take you right to Amazon.)

 

FINALLY HOME is set to launch December 10 (benefits animal rescue groups).

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   That’s it for this week’s post. You-all guys keep on keeping on, and I’ll try to do the same. See you next week?

cj

CHOOSING CARTER and DEADLY STAR are quick reads, chock full of adventure with a touch of sassy banter and sweet romance. Free on Kindle Unlimited at the time of this post.  (Click on the name to go directly to Amazon.) Visit my Amazon Central Author Page = https://amzn.to/2v6SrAj for more information about my stories.

 

   TO ORDER an autographed copy of CHOOSING CARTER, DEADLY STAR, HOMETOWN HEROES, and/or THE POSSE, contact The Haunted Bookshop here: The Haunted Bookshop  Angela Trigg, the awesome owner and a RITA Award-winning author in her own right (writing as Angela Quarles) will be happy to ship you the book(s) of your choice.

Visit me on Facebook at:   cjpetterson/author on Facebook

Is your favorite author among the Macavity award nominees?

cj Sez:  Nominations are in for the upcoming Macavity Awards. Is one of your favorite authors among them?

   Each year the members of Mystery Readers International nominate their favorite mysteries in five categories from the previous year for the Macavity Awards. The Macavity Awards are a literary award for mystery writers. Nominated and voted upon annually by the members of the Mystery Readers International, the award is named for the "mystery cat" of T. S. Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats.  The winners of this coveted award will be announced at the end of October, 2019, at the Bouchercon convention in Dallas, Texas.
 

Best Novel:

Lou Berney: November Road

Alison Gaylin: If I Die Tonight

Jane Harper: The Lost Man

Jennifer Hillier: Jar of Hearts

Naomi Hirahara: Hiroshima Boy

Lisa Unger: Under My Skin
 

Best First Novel:

Oyinkan Braithwaite: My Sister, the Serial Killer

John Copenhaver: Dodging and Burning

Delia Owens: Where the Crawdads Sing

Catherine Steadman: Something in the Water

C.J. Tudor: The Chalk Man
 

Best Nonfiction:

Laird R. Blackwell: The Metaphysical Mysteries of G.K. Chesterton: A Critical Study of the Father Brown Stories and Other Detective Fiction

Margalit Fox: Conan Doyle for the Defense: The True Story of a Sensational British Murder, a Quest for Justice, and the World’s Most Famous Detective Writer

Leslie S. Klinger: Classic American Crime Fiction of the 1920s

Michelle McNamara: I’ll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer

Laura Thompson: Agatha Christie: A Mysterious Life

Sarah Weinman: The Real Lolita: The Kidnapping of Sally Horner and the Novel That Scandalized the World
 

Best Short Story: (Click on titles in blue for links to the stories)

Craig Faustus Buck: “Race to Judgment” (Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Nov/Dec 2018)

Leslie Budewitz: “All God’s Sparrows” (Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, May/Jun 2018)

Barb Goffman: “Bug Appétit” (Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Nov/Dec 2018)

Barry Lancet: “Three-Star Sushi” (Down & Out: The Magazine, Vol.1, No. 3)

Gigi Pandian: “The Cambodian Curse” (The Cambodian Curse and Other Stories)

Art Taylor: “English 398: Fiction Workshop” (Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Jul/Aug 2018)
 

Sue Feder Memorial Award for Best Historical Mystery:

Dianne Freeman: A Lady’s Guide to Etiquette and Murder

Elsa Hart: City of Ink

Laurie R. King: Island of the Mad

Sujata Massey: The Widows of Malabar Hill

Ann Parker: A Dying Note

Charles Todd: A Forgotten Place

(Source: https://mysteryreaders.org/macavity-awards/ )

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   Special congratulations to fellow Mobile Writers Guild member and author Candice Marley Conner. Her illustrated text chapter book, “Secretly Poppy, the Finder of Lost Things,” was awarded FIRST PLACE by the Southern Breeze chapter of SCBWI in their 2019 writing contest. Southern Breeze reported a record number of entries and tough competition for the winners.  (Yay, Candice!)

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   NaNoWriMo Helpful hint to avoid saggy middles:

http://blog.janicehardy.com/2011/10/nano-prep-planning-your-novels-middle.html?fbclid=IwAR0xG6uvUMwz2bcQP_fZhlYHazIYSICicFkzToY-XjUWRiFaHEqwt-EPcJU

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cj’s helpful hints for your Holiday Gift Giving List: 

   

FINALLY HOME Christmas anthology launch is December 10, 2019

 

   Also still available (you can never have too many feel-good Christmas stories anytime of the year): the  HOMETOWN HEROES Christmas anthology is free on Kindle Unlimited.

And you’ll be getting another two-fer!

   Part of the proceeds from the sale of the book go to the Cajun Navy, those hometown heroes who trailer their personal boats to hurricane flood-devastated areas to help those in need. And they do their incredible volunteerism on their own nickel. 

   By buying this book, you will help contribute to a wonderful cause and be able to read some lovely stories at the same time.

   Discover the role this fox plays in my story, “Hobbes House Noel,” one of the five romance stories in the Hometown Heroes anthology. (Well, actually not THIS fox. This photo was taken in my back yard.)

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   By the by, as the masthead of Lyrical Pens says, if you have a book you want to promote (new or one you want to re-energize the marketing for), let me know. We can arrange a blog date…the only caveat is that this site is PG 13.

   That’s it for this week’s post. You-all guys keep on keeping on, and I’ll try to do the same. See you next week?

cj

CHOOSING CARTER and DEADLY STAR are quick reads chock full of adventure with a touch of sassy banter and sweet romance. Get your Kindle copy on Amazon…visit my Amazon Central Author Page = https://amzn.to/2v6SrAj for more information about my stories.

   TO ORDER an autographed copy of CHOOSING CARTER, DEADLY STAR, HOMETOWN HEROES, and/or THE POSSE, contact The Haunted Bookshop here: The Haunted Bookshop  Angela Trigg, the awesome owner and a RITA Award-winning author in her own right (writing as Angela Quarles) will be happy to ship you the book(s) of your choice.

Visit me on Facebook at:   cjpetterson/author on Facebook

Calls for Submissions etc.

cj Sez:   If you’ve ever dreamed of becoming a published romance novelist, opportunities are knocking.….

   Avon Books recently announced an open submissions period during which unagented romance writers can submit their finished work of fiction to the Avon editorial team for consideration. The HarperCollins imprint is seeking manuscripts by writers of all gender identity, ethnicity, race, sexual orientation, religion, national origin, and ability, and all subgenres of adult romance fiction are welcome, with one mandate: "HEA (happily ever after) or HFN (happy for now) conclusions are required." 

   To participate, writers must submit their manuscript, a three-to-five-page synopsis, and 100-word author bio via the HarperCollins website no later than September 15, 2019.

And a reminder from an earlier Lyrical Pens post:

   Harlequin is looking for new talent and wants to bring more stories representing diverse voices to romance readers and announced they will accept writing submissions from September 1 to October 15, 2019.

   “Harlequin’s ‘Romance Includes You Mentorship’ initiative offers aspiring romance writers from traditionally underrepresented communities the chance to work one-on-one with a Harlequin editor for a year on writing a romance novel and includes an offer to publish their book and $5,000 (US) to support their novel writing.”

   Submit a sample of your writing and apply here:  http://www.soyouthinkyoucanwrite.com/mentorship/

(PS:  Note the upcoming deadlines on these calls for submission, and be sure to follow all the directions.)

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Preliminary Cover Art

   Good news on the home front...my short story, “Puppy Love,” was accepted by Bienvenue Press for inclusion in their 2019 Christmas anthology, FINALLY HOME. The theme of all the touching short stories in the anthology is finding forever homes for homeless animals, and part of the proceeds will benefit a rescue group.

   There is, of course, a romance (between a lawyer and a firefighter), but at the heart of my “Puppy Love” short story is sweet, courageous Molly, a beago (beagle and golden retriever mix) with a prosthetic leg.

Be sure and watch for the launch of FINALLY HOME.

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This was in my email inbox Saturday:

Halloween is Coming! Are You Ready?

(It’s the first week of August, folks.)

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   That’s it for this week’s post. You-all guys keep on keeping on, and I’ll try to do the same.

cj

Free on KU

CHOOSING CARTER: action and adventure in the mountains of Colorado with a touch of romance. 

   When Bryn McKay enlists the help of the man she loves to stop her terrorist brother, she knows that someone she loves may die.

   School is starting soon, but there’s still time to get in some vacation/beach reading. Visit my Amazon Central Author Page = https://amzn.to/2v6SrAj 

   To order an autographed copy of CHOOSING CARTER, DEADLY STAR, HOMETOWN HEROES, and/or THE POSSE, contact The Haunted Bookshop here: The Haunted Bookshop  Angela Trigg, the awesome owner and a RITA Award-winning author in her own right (writing as Angela Quarles) will be happy to ship you the book(s) of your choice.

   Visit me on Facebook at:   cjpetterson/author on Facebook