Book Tour: The Desk from Hoboken by ML Condike
March 17, 2024 by marianne h donley in category Apples & Oranges by Marianne H. Donley, Rabt Book Tours, Writing
A Genealogy Mystery Series
Mystery
Date Published: March 5, 2024
Publisher: Harbor Lane Books, LLC.
In a bid to heal from the grief of a personal loss, forensic genealogist, RaeJean Hunter, takes on a straightforward case —identify human remains found on a nearby college campus, believed to be the 180-year-old remains of Mary Rogers, a woman who died mysteriously in 1841 and was believed to have been buried in the nearby cemetery that had washed away. It should be simple enough, a project to get her back in the game.
Unfortunately, it quickly becomes anything but. In fact, it becomes downright dangerous.
Someone doesn’t want RaeJean to investigate the puzzling death of the woman whose death inspired Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Mystery of Marie Roget.” As she follows clues through four states and discovers living
family members who both help and hinder her search, she quickly realizes that the secrets of Mary Rogers’ demise were never meant to be exposed.
What lengths will someone go to keep the truth buried in the past? As threats escalate and RaeJean and her family’s lives become endangered, she’s forced to follow every lead and use every skill she has to find the answers
she needs before it’s too late. Using DNA from two famous New England families, historical data, modern genealogical techniques, and a little guidance from a seemingly mystical antique desk, RaeJean takes on the cold
case despite being given every reason to abandon it.
After all, what truths have been hidden for 180 years that would be worth bribery, kidnapping, and even murder?
RaeJean Hunter is about to find out.
About the Author
ML Condike has published short stories in anthologies that include Strange
& Sweet, (2019), Tall Tales and Timeless Stories, (2022), Malice in
Dallas, Metroplex Mysteries, Volume 1 (2022), and won first place in the
fifteenth annual Writer’s Digest Popular Fiction Awards, Mystery/Crime
category (2019), and 2nd Place in the Tennessee Williams Short Story
Contest, Key West Art & Historical Society (2022).
She’s an associate member of Mystery Writers of America Florida
Chapter, Sisters in Crime National, Sisters in Crime North Dallas
(Treasurer), Granbury Writers’ Bloc, and Key West Writers Guild.
As the result of her study of genealogy for her debut novel The Desk from Hoboken, she researched her own family and she discovered she had a direct bloodline to a Patriot. So, most recently she has been inducted into the
Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR).
Contact Links
Follow the Publisher on Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook –
@harborlanebooks
Purchase Links
Excerpt
Chapter One
Come on, girl! It’ll be fun.” It was mid March and I stood in my bathing suit on the edge of our pool in Wyncote, Pennsylvania. Our corgi, Sophie, watched from ten feet away, ears !at against her head. Her look suggested she wasn’t joining me. She didn’t like water, never mind “fifty-eight-degree water. It would be shocking.
Every year, my husband, Sam, and I vied for the title of First-In-The-Pool. Today, I was determined to swim and win regardless of the pool temperature.
“It’s now or never!” I leaped in, submerged, and then in a split second, shot straight up out of the frigid water. “It’s cold! It’s cold! It’s cold!”
Sophie circled the pool, barking as I splashed my way to the steps and climbed out.
“Phew! What a wake up call, Sophie!” I toweled my hair while she licked my wet legs.
“You win!” Sam shouted from the back door, saluting me with his steaming coffee mug.
“I’ll be in as soon as I dry of.”
He grinned, disappearing back inside.
Five minutes later, I grabbed the hot mug as the last fragrant squirts of Cinnabon coffee gurgled from the Keurig. Something had changed in me overnight. It could have been the promise of spring, with the leaves budding, but I had a hunch it had something to do with the phone call from late yesterday afternoon. A potential client needed a genealogist.
Whatever it was, I felt alive again. Smiling, I joined Sam in the breakfast nook.
“You look happy. Finally beat me to the “first dip. How was it?”
“Bloody cold.” I sipped my coffee in silence. The strong brew made my lips tingle. Or maybe it was simply rekindled optimism.
I, RaeJean O’Leary Hunter, a notorious workaholic, hadn’t entered my home office since the mental fog set in six months ago. Life’s current had pulled me under. Today, I’d resurfaced, gasping for a breath of fresh air.
Sam gazed at me over the rim of his mug. “Thinking about returning to work?”
“Actually, I am. I received a voicemail late yesterday about a case that could be a good segue back to work. Easy, I think.” My stomach $uttered at the prospect, but I knew I had to take the plunge, not unlike diving into the frigid pool in order to feel like a winner again. I smiled to myself.
Sam grinned. “That’s great. Maybe we should resume the office remodel.”
“I’d like that.” We’d purchased the house as is and had been remodeling for a while. Actually, it was more of a restoration, but we’d suspended our work when I got pregnant. If I took the case, I’d need a workspace other than our library. 2 The Desk from Hoboken
“Great. I’ll call the contractor.” He kissed me and disappeared into his office.
After rinsing my cup, I scrambled upstairs with the intent of checking on my neglected office and preparing it for the work crew. I rushed past the door to the room where I’d wallowed for months. After two steps, I froze. A lingering compulsion sabotaged my plan. Instead, I stepped back and entered the unlit nursery.
Scooping up the stuffed bunny that Sam had bought the day we’d learned I was pregnant, I sat in the Boston rocker, reliving the months after our loss. The tiny bunny sprawled across my lap as I agonized over the only thing I tended to worry about since that time, the secret I’d kept from Sam.
Determined to move on, I sucked in a breath and glanced down at Sophie. “Big girls don’t cry.”
It worked. Today, I didn’t shed a tear.
I stood, tossing the toy onto the chair. “Let’s go.” I followed the dog as she padded out the door.
Guest Post
How to Sell Your First Novel
There are thousands of books, internet articles, podcasts, blogs, etc. suggesting how to sell your first novel. Each of them has a nugget that could help, but there’s no one magic answer.
First and foremost, you have to have a product worth selling. Yes, a product! The publishing industry is a commercial enterprise. You must have something a buyer wants. A few words of caution here. Don’t rush the first book. It could make or break your future opportunities.
Write the best book you can. Have readers and writers review it. Once you feel it’s ready, hire a reputable editor. An inexpensive one might do if you’re a natural writer, but an experienced editor in your genre is worth their weight in gold. They’ll save you from sure failure!
Once you have that “golden” product, you must decide if you want to self-publish, acquire an agent, or query publishers who take work directly from writers. This is a personal choice and I have no recommendations.
I wanted vetting by a well-known, successful agent. After 104 queries, I found an agent willing to take on a debut author. I hoped to be published by a big press, so my agent queried them all. After several dozen rejections, we agreed to change our strategy and try a small independent press. Voila! Success!
Smaller publishers offer a variety of services. However, don’t become complacent and think your publisher is your marketer. They will do their best because your success is their success. However, you are not their only author. Their budget doesn’t belong to you. For you to be worth their time and money, your book has to sell!
Start early gathering your tribe of reader-followers. I’ve posted a morning picture to Facebook since 2018 (https://www.facebook.com/marylou.condike) and collected a lot of friends. Readers, authors, and folks worldwide share my sunrises. If I’m traveling, I photograph the sunrise where I’m staying. If I never wrote again, I’d still greet my FB friends with a daily sunrise!
The balance between over-selling the book and getting people interested in buying your product is delicate. You’ll find it when your follower numbers decline, indicating they’re sick of “buy my book” ads. Back off selling and try to find interesting information to share.
I have no advice about book tours or signings. I’ve read mixed reviews about signing tours. Study your market and learn where the majority of your readers shop. I’m guessing it’s on the internet. Get your book listed on as many sites as possible and get prerelease reviews from anyone who will agree to read and review your book. My publisher used Readers’ Favorite: Book World ( www.readersfavorite.com ) and Net Galley (www.netgalley.com ). Become an Amazon and Goodreads author.
Good luck with your first book!
Big, Cheesy News Update!
March 15, 2024 by Renae Wrich in category Writing tagged as Childrens Lit, Coming Soon, Mac and Cheese, writingI’m so excited to announce that my second children’s book, Mac and Cheese in Outer Space is coming soon!
I will be working again with Winda Mulyasari, who helped my mac and cheese world come to life back in 2020 when I published Mac and Cheese, Please, Please, Please.
Winda is super talented and I’m excited to watch her take my wild ideas and turn them into beautiful illustrations. My mac and cheese heart is bursting with excitement.
I’m also feeling very fortunate that I get to have my very first official author reading on Monday! Pictures to come!!
Hope everyone has a wonderful St. Paddy’s Day!
Peace, love, and Mac and Cheese,
Renae
Judging English by Carol L. Wright
March 13, 2024 by Bethlehem Writers Group in category From a Cabin in the Woods by Members of Bethlehem Writers Group tagged as American English, British English, English, Noah Webster
As readers of English, it’s fairly easy for us to tell whether an author is from the US or the UK simply because of word choices or spelling variations between the two countries. The reason for this is partly that, at the time of American independence, spelling in English was not completely standardized. How one spelled a word depended more on local convention than a universally accepted right or wrong spelling. Even Jane Austen misspelled (by today’s standards) a word in the title of one of her juvenile works: Love and Freindship.
When American spellings were standardized in the early 19th century, by the publication of Noah Webster’s first American dictionary, the author was intent on exerting a bit of linguistic independence from Britain. Thus, many American words no longer conform to “the King’s English.” In his original 1828 dictionary, Webster presented simplified American spelling to more closely reflect common pronunciation. This is why some US words have one less letter than used in the UK (e.g. color/colour, harbor/harbour, or valor/valour). Americans also drop letters at the end of some words (such as program/programme) or reverse letters (as with theater/theatre). We might want to ask Webster, however, why there is still an I in Austen’s troublesome word friendship, and why he didn’t reform the spellings of tough, though, and through.
Ordinarily, a reader will pass over these differences in spelling without any difficulty. They generally make little difference in how we would say these words, so why should we allow the spelling to give us pause? I have wondered, though, why, in Webster’s eagerness to simplify American spelling, he made a change to one specific word: judgment.
No matter which side of the Atlantic we’re on, English speakers know that we have two consonants that can produce two different sounds: C and G. The letter C can be pronounced as either a K (hard sound) or an S (soft sound); G can be a hard Guh or a soft J. The vowel that follows these consonants informs us as to whether to give the consonant a hard or a soft sound. If the letter is followed by an A, O, or U, it has a hard sound as in carrot, color, current, gable, golf, or guppy. If, however, the vowel that follows the consonant is an E or an I, the consonant should be pronounced with the soft sound, as in cereal, circle, genuine, giraffe . . . or judge.
So far so good, right?
But even Webster was inconsistent. When adding -ment to the word judge, he dropped the e, spelling it judgment. But this makes no sense. If we must drop the E when making judge into judgment, shouldn’t Americans instead spell it as judjment to match how we pronounce it? Or should we just say it jug-ment?
This English idiosyncrasy annoys me a bit. But then, while reading a British author, I noticed something that appeared to me to be an error. The author spelled judgment with an E after the G: judgement. Is it unpatriotic for an American to accuse Noah Webster of getting it wrong? Well, if so—hold on—so do the British! It turns out, in Britain, both spellings, judgment and judgement, are considered correct, but the preferred spelling is . . . judgment.
As many English-as-a-second-language students will tell you, if you’re looking for logic in a language, learn something else. (And we haven’t even mentioned usage in the British Commonwealth.)
The good news is that no matter which side of the Atlantic you come from, or which standard English you use, the 2024 Bethlehem Writers Roundtable Short Story Award competition will be happy to accept your story through our deadline of March 31, 2024. Stories of 2000 words or fewer—in English—are welcome. Our theme this year is “Holiday Stories” (holiday being defined as from US Thanksgiving through New Year’s Day). Winners receive cash and publication. To learn more, see the website at: https://bwgwritersroundtable.com/short-story-award-2/.
We hope you will consider entering your holiday stories and we look forward to reading them. And when we’re scoring them, we promise we will use our best judgement—er judgment!
A Few of Carol’s Publications
All the Emotions with Designing My First Book Cover
March 12, 2024 by Denise M. Colby in category The Writing Journey by Denise Colby tagged as book covers, Denise M. Colby, writing lifeThis month I have had the pleasure of experiencing all the emotions of designing my first book cover. We all know how important book covers are. Book covers sell your book. They communicate what’s inside. And there are numerous blog and social media posts just on covers. So EVERYONE looks at book covers, because they are very important.
Initial thoughts for book cover designs
I think many of us newbie authors visualize what we think we want for our covers at the beginning of chapter 1. So I knew going in that I had an opinion. And ideas. Lots and lots of ideas. So how do you put all those ideas together into something appealing. A design that sells your book?
I have a graphic design background. Sort of. Things have kindof evolved since I was in college over thirty years ago, and even though I work in the field of marketing, my years of experience is more on layout now then specific design elements. I’m also a visual person. So I like to see something to see how it would work.
My publisher, Scrivenings Press, has a questionaire we fill out to add our ideas and thoughts behind the story for our book cover design. This is useful to communicate key messaging and visuals desired. I might’ve had a lot of ideas written down on my sheet. I certainly didn’t fill it out like a work project. Many emotions were tied into all my ideas. And it was hard for me to land on just one set.
Can anyone else out there relate?
Taking out the emotions when looking at book cover design
So I have to give a shoutout to my husband who asked me some very pointed questions like he would a marketing packaging project (he works in product marketing), since my book cover is my packaging.
This discussion was not emotional based, but true design and product packaging based. He asked me what is the main element of the story that you want people to know? And then asked to look at some books and guessed what the stories were inside.
When I told him what elements were most important, he agreed that those were in my cover design.
Our Emotions Can Get In The Way of Our Decision-Making
And this is when I realized I had a slew of emotions tied up into my cover design.
First, we spend years writing our first novel and agonize for weeks on the verbiage we use, editing continuously our words. My book cover was designed in less than a week. Something as important as a book cover shouldn’t be done overnight, right? But I have to remember my publisher makes mulitple covers a month and know what they are doing. They have standards and expertise. I need to trust that and get out of the way.
Second, we have so many ideas to convey the story on the front of our cover, but then realize that all those elements would make it way too busy and really don’t work the way we think it would’ve. Simpler really is better.
Third, I’m terrified how my cover will be received. But I’m also terrified on how my entire book will be recieved. So my emotions may not be just about the cover.
A Moment to Grow
Now that I’ve realized these new things (remember GROW is my word this year), I can learn from them. Processing emotions is an important step for me (and writing this blog post has helped me immensely).
I do not make decisions quickly. I kindof over think things a bit (Hello! Remember twelve years working on book 1). With a contract and deadlines (I love saying those words and wrote about that last month), everything is moving so fast and it’s all new territory.
There’s bound to be fear, uncertainty, and second-guessing. I need to allow myself room to feel those, but also know that this is all normal and not get caught up in them too much.
Clearly, I will have a much better handle on the process and my emotions for the next round (right?)
Now to agonize on how to do the cover reveal!
Denise’s first book, When Plans Go Awry, will launch June 4, 2024. Watch her facebook page and instagram page for her cover reveal
My psychedelic bell bottoms and Audrey Hepburn shoes: How I turned my 1960s ‘stuff’ into a ‘happening’ at UC Irvine by Jina Bacarr
March 11, 2024 by Jina Bacarr in category Jina’s Book Chat, Writing tagged as 1960s, homecoming, memorabilia, reunion, UC Irvine alumniI write novels about Paris WW2, the US home front during WW2, the TITANIC, the Civil War.
I live and breathe history.
So it’s no surprise I collect ‘stuff’ from history. Vintage clothes, chinaware. Jewelry.
And my own history, too. Childhood, teen years… and university life.
When I had the opportunity to help plan the Golden Anteater Society Event at the University of Caliornia Irvine (alumni who graduated from the mid-sixties to 1974), I mentioned I had cool stuff from the 1960s and voilà! My collection became part of the ‘memorabilia room’ at the University Club on campus. I was so excited to see alumni checking out record albums, university newspapers, Beatles magazines, Buffalo Springfield poster, mini-dresses, those psychedekic bell bottoms, and my hippie fringe purse.
The event was sold out!
I was also excited to display my latest Boldwood Books historical novel, Sisters At War (mentioned in my Letter to the Editor in The New York Times–you’ll see what I mean in the video along with the UCI event). I’ve come a long way since I was a student at UCI writing stories and dreaming of faraway places.
So many adventures since then… I drew upon the most difficult for inspiration to write Sisters At War about sexual assault against women. I never felt more vulnerble in my life as when I was writing Sisters At War and now the sequel Sisters of the Resistance.
A road that led me around the world and back home to the university when I clicked my heels three times.
Wearing my Audrey Hepburn silver slippers.
Jina
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