Rosanne Dowell Hosts Missing, Assumed Dead

Rosanne is a romance author with many, many books under her belt already, yet she keeps coming up with great stories. Fortunately, she also has time to host me on her blog.

Read Rosanne's Blog Here

Reminder: Leave a comment at Rosanne's blog for a chance to win prizes.

Extra! Lindsay Below's having a SciFi Fest on her blog. Lots of free books and bunches of SF authors. If SF is your thang, be sure to drop in at her blog: http://lbelow.blogspot.com/ My SFR, Ultimate Duty, is featured today.

Penny Ehrenkranz Hosts Missing, Assumed Dead

Penny is an editor for MuseItUp and happens to be the very fine line editor for this book. Since she's not ashamed to host it on her blog, then she must think it's okay.

Penny Lockwood Ehrenkranz has published hundreds of articles and short stories in print magazines and on-line. She writes for both adults and children. Her fiction has appeared in numerous genre and children’s publications and non fiction work has appeared in a variety of writing, parenting, and young adult print magazines and on line publications. She edits for three small independent publishers. Visit her web site at: http://pennylockwoodehrenkranz.yolasite.com/

Read Penny's Blog Here.

Reminder: Posting a comment puts you in the draw for prizes.

Teen Word Factory Hosts Missing, Assumed Dead

The Teen Word Factor always has lots of great posts for and by teen books an authors. Managed by Rebecca Ryals Russell, be sure to put this blog on your follow list.

Teen Word Factory

Reminder: Leave a comment at Teen Word Factory for a chance to win prizes.

Late Breaking News

I just found MISSING, ASSUMED DEAD available on Amazon.com. The formal release date is this Friday (July 29), but I just had to give everybody a shout out.

Join Me at Long and Short Romance Reviews

I'll be popping in and out of LASR's Yahoo group (loop) answering questions. Well, I just woke up but I may at least finish this first cup of coffee before attemption erudition.

Please drop in on LongandShortRomanceReviews. Join the group if need be. It's easy to do.

The chat is in reference to the interview on the LASR website. They carry reviews and interviews. Maybe next time I can get a review!

The main topic is on "Missing, Assumed Dead," which will be released this Friday at MuseItUp Publishing.

Lessee. Yeah, that's all the pertinent facts.

I'm Interviewed on Long and Short Reviews

July 26th is a busy day where I don't have to lift a finger since all finger lifting has been done.

First off, I'm the featured interview on Long and Short Reviews. I'll be hopping over to their Yahoo group for chit-chat throughout the day.

I'm also the featured author on J.Q. Rose's month-long blogonanza of Beach Reads.

And I have a dentist appointment.

That last one isn't all that exciting, but it is the only one where finger-lifting (and car driving) is involved.

I hope you'll catch me on the internet today! Starting on 7/29, hopefully I and "Missing, Assumed Dead" will be everywhere you look. You can hide, but you can't run. Or something like that.

Cozies - What's with lady sleuths?

I have a mystery releasing on 7/29 (next Friday). I wonder if it's a cozy or not. My MC isn't a cop, DA, or PI, so does that throw me into the cozy world or not.

I'm going with "not" because my experience with cozies are Agatha Christie (Miss Marple), Carola Dunn (Daisy Dalrymple), and a few other British purveyors of of mystery solved by a non-professional.

So my upcoming (7/29) mystery has a non-pro main character driven to solve a mystery by circumstances outside their control. Is it cozy? Not hardly. My character, Kam McBride, has real bullets heading her way. She's related to the mystery. Her unknown to date relative has disappeared. She's in danger in that the bad guys really want her dead. She's not an amateur sleuth since she has no interest in the problem until she's grabbed up into the mystery.

You tell me. When does a mystery with change from "cozy" to something else? What is that something else? Maybe I'm not well-versed enough to give "Missing, Assumed Dead" a neat little slot in the mystery genre.

Hitting the e-stores July 29th. "Missing, Assumed Dead" from MuseItUp Publishing:

Prejudice, murder, insanity, suicide: Every small town has its secrets.

When Kameron McBride receives notice she’s the only living relative of a missing man she’s never even heard of, the last thing she wants to do is head to some half-baked Oregon town to settle his affairs. Her suspicions rise when the probate Judge isn't really a judge and tries too hard to buy the dead man’s worthless property. Kam probes deeper into the town’s secrets and finds almost no one she can trust. Kam must find out what really happened to her dead relative before someone in this backward little town sends her to join him.

And she thought Oregon was going to be boring.

In My Mailbox

The Story Siren (that's her neat mailbox image) has a regular feature. It's kind of informal. All you have to do is say what books you've bought, borrowed, or read for some period. I believe the In My Mailbox blogs are often run every Sunday, so you can search around to find some recommended reads. I'll give it a shot and see if I can even remember the books.

This last week, I read:

Thirst (Ava Delaney #1) Thirst is the first the Ava Delaney series about a woman caught between being human and vampire. Since she's a "daywalker" (a vamp who can come out during the day), she's a valuable commodity to all sorts of baddies. Ava is just getting her mojo on in the first book. I wish it wasn't ended with such a gaping chasm of "you've got to keep reading the books to find out things hinted at but not explained." Even still, it's a good read, and you can always grab the next in the series, "Taunt," to satisfy your curiosity. Well, maybe.

I bought several books from my own publisher, MuseItUp Publishing. The front page always has featured books at marked down prices. I have quite a stack now, and need to get my reading butt in gear to catch up a bit. I have 28 MIU books, but I have read lots of them. Currently, I'm read "The Chameleon's Bite" by Erika Gilbert, another reluctant not-quite-a-vamp story and "Betwixt and Between" by Grace DeLuca, a YA fantasy.

I've also collected on quite a few free book offers including Henrietta, the Dragon Slayer (Five Kingdoms)  by Beth Barany which I've just started. Definitely a Xena the Warrior Princess thing going on, but I loved that series, so I'll stick with it as long as the writing is not hideous. So far, so good. The book is now only 99 cents, so a decent bargain.

You Gotta Read - Covers and Brailers

By some quirky twist of fate, my book, "Missing, Assumed Dead," is at both You Gotta Read sites.

Voting Opens Today on Both Sites

I didn't plan it this way, but it's kind of karmic that I have a shot at starting the mystery's release off with a bang by win, place, or show on either site.

The brailer was posted on the 4th of July, so I'm not sure how many people came in from their picnics and fireworks displays to take a look. Vote for #4 today at You Gotta Read Videos.


The cover spot was on the more fortuitous July 10th spot. Of course, it's great to have your cover or your book show up in the much more desirable pimp spot of July 20th (the last cover and brailer posts). Vote for #10 today at You Gotta Read Covers.


I vote on these two sites. Like so many others, I vote for people I know. Sometimes their cover or brailer isn't the best of the month, but we all know this is a popularity contest.

When a month comes up when I don't know any of the entrants or I know more than one and have to choose, these are my criteria for voting:

For Brailers:

• If a brailer is longer than two minutes, I don't watch the entire spot UNLESS IT IS SO FANTASTIC that I can't resist. Times this has happened? Zero.
• If a brailer was produced by a professional trailer company, it will have to be bloody spectacular. I favor the do-it-yourself authors who do their best to represent their book.
• If one of the slides contains the words: "world is turned upside down" or "little did s/he know" or "caught up in xxxxx" I'm unlikely to vote for it.
• From the remaining brailers, I go for the one that best presents the plot. If the transitions are a little shaky and slides too short to read (I'm guilty of this one), the brailer has less of a chance with me.

For Covers:

• If I can't tell the genre from the cover, then I don't think it works.
• If a cover consists of one or more nude or semi-nude people standing around looking sultry, it doesn't get my vote.
• Color, composition, symbolism: I had enough art appreciation courses to give these covers higher marks.

Promo Art for Missing, Assumed Dead

My cover artist, Suzannah Safi, runs an on-line e-magazine (free to read). Cocktails Magazine Fiction and Gossip carries some promo, but also has some great articles of interest to authors, especially in the many romance subgenres.

In case you didn't know, there's hardly a book that can only be called "romance." The only thing the mystery, paranormal, historical, science fiction, and fantasy romances have in common is that the main characters experience romantic involvement while they're catching murderers, fighting off vampires,waging war in the battle of Agincourt, living on a space station, or battling orcs.

Your mama's romance just ain't the same anymore. Of course, my dearly beloved publisher covers the gamut of romance subgenres, but delves into a lot of other genre fiction (no romance required). But what is human/alien/shapeshifter relationships if not romance.

Here are the great promo pages Ms. Safi designed from my already totally rad cover for "Missing, Assumed Dead." (Release date: 7/29/2011 from MuseItUp Publishing).

BLOGFEST WINNAHS!

AND THE WINNER OF A FREE COPY OF "THE TALES OF ABU NUWAS" IS:

EVERYBODY!

That's right. Everybody who entered wins. I figured some of you might win off another blogfest site (good for you!), but when I enter these things I almost always go away empty-handed. Well, that's not the way we work around here, pardners. Everybody who wants it can download their copy at Smashwords. Just click on the title below and choose the type of efile you prefer. If you haven't signed up on Smashwords, it's easy, quick, and they don't ask for a credit card. Here's the link and I'll email the coupon code to the winners.

The Tales of Abu Nuwas

Abu Nuwas sits in the bazaar telling stories to the passersby he can tempt to pay. When Najda, a poor girl, offers him a packet of spice for a story, Abu Nuwas launches into a tale about a girl named Setara and her genie. As did Scheherazade, he leaves the girl hanging in the middle of each yarn to keep her coming back for more.

Blogfest! Win Prizes

To be eligible for prizes, simply click on the links listed below. In addition, go to you can join in the blogfest, by signing up at http://blogfest.ajourneyofbooks.com/. If you're chosen from THIS blog, you'll win a free ebook copy of The Tales of Abu Nuwas (see Amazon link below).

Delaney Diamond - Sweet and Sensual Romance
Desperado Penguin
Diva's Bookcase
Dollycas's Thoughts
Dr. Stravagante's Traveling Book Circus
A Journey of Books

Galley - Ship, Kitchen, Book

Guess which one of these I'm referring to (yes, Virginia, ending a sentence with a preposition is okay).

Book, of course. I'll bet you already knew that. Dear Publisher Lea Schizas asked me about one item I'd sent on errata for the final galley and told me that one other she wouldn't do. I think it has something to do with regional terminology, but I was in the six-of-one-half-dozen mode, so didn't much care one way or the other. I think both of us were trying to be thorough. Given only one single questionable wording, I'm feeling good about "Missing, Assumed Dead."

Now, what's happening in August? Click on the MAD tab at the top of this blog to check for release info. I've got the virtual book tour line-up (note to self: harrass bloggers to make sure they remember), some nice prizes, and a good start on some additional material on this blog throughout August which I hope you'll find interesting.

Clicking on that Tweet button above the comments area is a nice thing to do especially if you're an author I'll be featuring on my blog. Unlike real estate (location, location, location), blogging is all about traffic, traffic, traffic.

Here are some pictues (not nearly all of them) to give you a bit of the flavor that inspired "Missing, Assumed Dead." I'll post more later.

Near Rome (Oregon, that is)

Basque Shepherd from the 19th C.



Big Horn Sheep in Eastern Oregon



Book Cover Featured on You Gotta Read Covers

I hit a double this month. My book trailer is on:
You Gotta Read Videos (July 4th)
and my book cover is on the sister site:
You Gotta Read Covers (July 10th).

I'll remind you on the 21st to vote for both my cover and my brailer (is that a good short word for book trailer?)

The brailer covers both (I'm dying from these puns. Somebody stop me, please!)

Rumors of My Death Are Exaggerated

Looks like a graveyard around here. All I lack are tombstones. Here's one just to keep it authentic.

I do have posts scheduled through the end of October. I'd been very busy organizing the Magical Mystery Month (all the June posts), getting some tour-type stuff going for August after the July 29th release of my mystery, "Missing, Assumed Dead," and going through the chaos of putting together the MG/YA Cross-Tour Blogathon.

All very exciting stuff for the future. But my blog sits here all bereft and belonely in July without a lot to say for itself (bad blog! bad!). I figured I'd better drop in to let you all know that big things are coming. I can hear the thunder of a runaway herd of authors heading my way. I'm loosening up my lasso, heating up my branding iron, and getting ready to take on the stampede.

Beginning July 29th, I visit several bloggers' sites with info on my mystery's release from MuseItUp Publishing (O Canada!), but that just runs through the first week of August. After that, I'm filling my blog with a bunch of fun stuff:

- It's a Crime Sundays where I invite mystery authors to give you the low down on mysteries of all types. Police procedurals, cozies, paranormal, etc.

- Excerpt Wednesdays aren't just excerpts, but well-thought out, scholarly discussions by yours truly talking about the whys and wherefores of those excerpts.

- Characters Talk: I let my characters do the talking to tell you things about themselves not revealed in the book. These posts will be scattered throughout the month.

So, I've got my work cut out for me and I'd better get crackin' now that I've made all these promises.

Wolfwraith by John Bushore

John Bushore writes a variety of genres. I reviewed one of his releases, "Prisoners of Gender," and thought it was a blast (read my review here). I also loved "Friends in Dark Places," published through Sam's Dot Publishing (read my review here). Wolfwraith is his latest book from Damnation Press.

WOLFWRAITH, a paranormal/suspense novel is published by Damnation Books. And let me state clearly that, despite the cover, it’s NOT a werewolf novel, but a mystery that combines an exotic location – False Cape State Park on the coast of Virginia– with Native American mysticism, shipwreck legends and Pre-Colonial witches. I volunteered in this wilderness park (where visitors must hike or bike in) a few years back and it has enough “spooky” stuff to make anyone think twice about camping there.

Buy Wolfwraith here

John Talks About the Book

I wrote Wolfwraith several years ago as a personal challenge. Could I take a locale that I was familiar with and create an interesting story-line? At the time, I volunteered at a remote park, five miles from the nearest road. There were wild horses, feral pigs, weathered cemeteries, the remains of an old church, and plenty of legends and shipwreck lore. The park was named False Cape because the early inhabitants would use torches to imitate the lighthouses that marked the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay. Many captains were fooled into running their ships aground, where their cargoes were “salvaged.” This is how I got interested in Virginia history and I think I came up with a damned good story that will make you think twice about going camping in the wilderness.

The sequel to Wolfwraith, titled Wendigo is about halfway done. I set it aside for a while because I felt like I was wasting time writing a sequel to a work that hadn’t been published. Like I mentioned with the muse, it’s all in my head, just have to put it down.

Excerpt from Wolfwraith:

Alex cut the engine back to idle as they nosed into the marsh grass. Once in position, he steadied the boat with an oar while they considered their find.

“What now?” asked Shadow, feeling uneasy. “Do we leave her so they can get pictures or anything?”

He hoped it would be the case. He'd seen plenty of bodies in his time, but none had been a young woman and he hadn't had to pull them out of a bay. Or maybe the rocking of the boat was throwing his stomach into a cauldron of nausea.

“No, we’ll take her in. It’s obviously nothing more than a drowning.” Alex pushed the boat closer with the oar. “Can you handle it?”

“Yeah, of course.”

Shadow reached out and grabbed the dainty arm with his right hand. Bile rose in his throat at the unnatural coldness of no-longer-quite-human-feeling skin and the sponginess of slack muscles beneath. The corpse emitted no strong odor, but the rotted-fish stench of the tidal marsh, which Shadow normally didn’t even notice, clogged his nostrils. The putt-putting of the idling outboard motor seemed far away, but the reek of the engine’s oily exhaust seared the tissue inside his nose.

He sensed something else, too. His inner soul responded as he touched the cold, dead wrist. He had once shocked himself with a faulty extension cord and this cold feeling was the spiritual equivalent of that physical electrical shock—a shiver of dread whispering its way up his arm. The knowledge of evil having recently been here was intangible, but undeniable. He’d sometimes been present when his grandmother Min had called upon ancient spirits, even though she worshipped alongside her husband at the Baptist church. Now, many years later, he recognized the presence of something not of this world.

Ignoring his emotional turmoil, he concentrated on the job at hand and applied a steady pressure while he pulled the arm closer to the boat. Her brown hair floated in the water, undulating with the waves. Leaning over the gunwale, he switched and grabbed the arm with the claw and reached his clumsy right hand down into the frigid water, searching around for a grip to pull the body up. By accident, he went down into her shirt and under her bra. Suddenly, to his surprise, he cupped a breast in an obscene parody of a teen-age grope.

"He's a pervert you honor. Who knows what more would have happened if I hadn't come in?"

Book Trailer on You Gotta Read Video

The "Missing, Assumed Dead" book trailer is featured today (7/4/11) on You Gotta Read Videos.

Voting for best trailer of the month runs from 7/21 to 7/28. The winners for the month are announced the next day.

It would be totally cool if "Missing, Assumed Dead" trailer was in the top three considering its release date is 7/29/11 from MuseItUp Publishing. That'd be a cherry on the hot fudge sundae.

Thanks in advance for your votes. Feel free to write comments on the book trailer posts as they appear.

If you just want to view the trailer, you can see it on Youtube at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZI_8LgOIb4

Description:

When Kameron McBride receives notice she’s the last living relative of a missing man she’s never even heard of, the last thing she wants to do is head to some half-baked Oregon town to settle his affairs. But since she’s the only one available, she grudgingly agrees.

En route, she runs afoul of a couple of hillbillies and their pickup in an accident that doesn’t seem...accidental. Especially when they keep showing up wherever she goes. Lucky for her, gorgeous Deputy Mitch Caldwell lends her a hand, among other things. Her suspicions increase when the probate Judge tries a little too hard to buy the dead man’s worthless property.

Working on a hunch and trying to avoid the Judge’s henchmen, Kam probes deeper into the town’s secrets and finds almost no one she can trust. With Mitch’s help, she peels away the layers of prejudice, suicide, murder, and insanity. But someone in town doesn’t like her poking around, and when they show their intentions by shooting her through the police chief’s office window, the stakes are raised. Kam must find out what really happened to her dead relative before someone in this backward little town sends her to join him.

And she thought Oregon was going to be boring.

Missing, Assumed Dead Blog Tour

My mystery set in eastern Oregon is scheduled for release on July 29th. I've managed to browbeat a few of my fellow authors into hosting my book for the release. I'll be posting each day from 7/29 through 8/6 (maybe longer) where you can find my host for the day.

I'll be taking names from the comments left on all of the hosts' blogs for giveaways. Here's the prize list.

I'll select by random draw one commerter from each blog to receive a free copy of "Missing, Assumed Dead" in whatever ebook format they'd like (EPUB, PDF, PRC,HTML), so be sure to leave contact information.

Also, I'll select one commenter at random from all comments on all the blogs for a grand prize. One commenter for each blog is an entry for this one, so if you leave a note on all the blogs, you'll be entered eight times. Only one comment per blog will be counted.

If you're the grand prize winner, you will receive:

• A copy of "Missing, Assumed Dead" in any ebook format you'd like.
• A print copy of any one of my books that are available in paperback (US only-non-US folks will receive an ebook package of several books. US comments can opt for the ebook package.)
• A $10 gift certificate to buy any books you like from my publisher MuseItUp Publishing.

 Here's the tour schedule. If anything changes, I'll repost this schedule with corrections:

7/29 Teen Word Factory (Rebecca Russell) http://teenwordfactory.com/

7/30 One Writer's Journey - Penny Ehrenkranz http://pennylockwoodehrenkranz.blogspot.com/

7/31 Rosanne Dowell http://roseannedowellauthor.blogspot.com/

8/1 The Mind's Eye - Charlotte Volnek http://www.ckvolnek.com/blog.html

8/2  Barbara's Meanderings - Barbara Ehrentreu http://barbaraehrentreu.blogspot.com/

8/3  Lorrie Unites-Struiff http://struiff.wordpress.com/marvas-new-release/

8/4 L.J. Sellers http://ljsellers.com/wordpress/

8/5 The Writing Life For Me - A.M. Roelke http://thewritinglifeforme.blogspot.com/

8/6  Living Our Faith Out Loud - Lisa Lickel http://livingourfaithoutloud.blogspot.com/