Sunday, February 28, 2021

FREAKY FREEBIE FEBRUARY - FINAL BOOK

I'm setting some of my books free! Let them run like the wind!!!! Right onto your Kindle. There are a few books that appear to not like the corral that is KDP Select (e.g., sell only from Amazon). Since they don't sell, I'll just give them away. They'll still be on Kindle, but after their KDP Selection expiration, they will become available in other formats (EPUB, PDF) and will spread further afield to places like Barnes and Nobel, Kobo, and a bunch of independent distributors where they will be pirated and put up on a Chinese website. They're all out there somewhere, so it makes little difference.

Did you miss the first few weeks? That's okay, there's one more book to grab.

FEBRUARY 28TH - MISSING, ASSUMED DEAD

Have a Sunday special free book. This is the final day this mystery is free on Amazon.

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

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.


Monday, February 22, 2021

FREAKY FREEBIE FEBRUARY - FINAL WEEK 4

I'm setting some of my books free! Let them run like the wind!!!! Right onto your Kindle. There are a few books that appear to not like the corral that is KDP Select (e.g., sell only from Amazon). Since they don't sell, I'll just give them away. They'll still be on Kindle, but after their KDP Selection expiration, they will become available in other formats (EPUB, PDF) and will spread further afield to places like Barnes and Nobel, Kobo, and a bunch of independent distributors where they will be pirated and put up on a Chinese website. They're all out there somewhere, so it makes little difference.

Did you miss the rest of the month? That's okay, you can still get two more free books. 

February 22nd - 26th

The Compleat and True History of the Witches of Galdorheim - 5 book box set

After 10 years in print as individual books, the Witches of Galdorheim saga is now presented with every word of of the four books and one short story comprising the entire series. This is it in all its radiant glory.

*NOTE: Compleat is an archaic spelling of the word complete. See Izaak Walton's "The Compleat Angler."


Sunday, February 21, 2021

Murder, She Wrote

Missing, Assumed Dead

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

Amazon Link for free ebook.

The Story According to Kam, the Main Character

I'm Kam McBride and my story is "Missing, Assumed Dead," free on Amazon.

I hardly have time for this type of appearance. After all, I'm not a public speaker (even in the virtual sense), although I can make a presentation on a new software product with the best of them.

Personal life? HA! I have none. It's either work or helping out my mom, who's now in a wheelchair from long-term MS. She helps me too. What would I do without her love, wisdom, and chocolate chip cookies.

Because I love my mom, I set myself up for this incredibly stupid trip to eastern Oregon. Some old guy named Salvadore Vasco disappeared seven years ago, so the court is declaring him missing, and assumed dead. Guess what? I'm his last living relative, so (lucky me), I get to be the executor of his estate.

The word 'estate' sounds like some major goodies to inherit, right? No such luck. The old man, bless him, was churchmouse poor. I should have just let the court go ahead with the probate without me. That's where my mom comes in. She's a geneology nut, er, enthusiast (that how I found out Salvadore was my long-lost whatever). Since she wanted any photos or family records left behind, she made me go to gawdforsaken eastern Oregon...in the MIDDLE OF THE SUMMER. What was she thinking?

First thing I do is get lost. I can't find this itty bitty town. So, I'm standing in the middle of this desert--so much for green Oregon--and haven't a clue. But luck is running a little bit my way when Deputy Mitch Caldwell shows up in his big SUV. Hmm. Not so bad after all.

That was my only lucky break, though. Soon enough I've got some really weird people coming after me, and I don't even know why. Not until I do some digging around. Then all hell breaks loose. 

I thought Oregon was going to be boring.

Here's an excerpt from the book when I'm in deep doodoo, which is most of the time.

* * * 

Kam gasped and jumped down the embankment toward the creek, stumbling through the underbrush. She heard the pickup tires screech and glanced back. Scruffy had gotten out and headed down the slope behind her. She moved faster, gripping her hair spray. A strap broke on her sandal, and she kicked it off. Ignoring the brambles poking into her legs through her jeans, she moved as fast as she could, the terrain preventing her from flat out running.

She heard the crashing of bushes behind her and put on more steam. She knew the pickup would have reached her car by now, but she’d be coming up on the passenger door, slightly downhill from the driver’s side. She switched the hair spray to her left hand and pawed into her purse for the keys. Finding them, she dropped the bag on the ground to free her hands and kept moving.

When she reached the Chrysler, the driver had already skidded down the embankment and was standing on the driver’s side. Thin compared to the other man, but his arms were solid muscle under the tats. She rushed to the passenger side, jerked open the heavy door, dived in, slammed the door and hit the lock button on the key fob.

The driver pounded the window with his fist. The scruffy one had caught up and pulled on the passenger side door handle. Kam hit the panic button on the fob. The deep and seriously loud Chrysler horn went off with honking bursts. Both men jumped back from the car.

The driver yelled, “I’ll fetch the rifle.” He scrambled to climb up the embankment.

Kam’s heart almost stopped. Even the shatterproof windows wouldn’t stand up against a hunting rifle. She looked around the car wildly, her breath coming in sharp rasps, and then launched herself over the console and into the rear. Sweat ran from her armpits, soaking her blouse. She ran her shaking hands across the top of the seat back hunting for the latch. She hoped the Chrysler had fold down back seats. If she could just reach the tire iron, she’d have a weapon. If this stupid car even had one that is.

She felt the latch pin, grasped it and pulled it up. It clicked. She grasped the seat back in both hands and pulled it down. On her belly, she crawled halfway into the trunk searching for the spare tire well. 


Tuesday, February 16, 2021

So, What Do You Think?

First off, here's a link to the Singing Horses. If you're feeling blue, just play around here and sing along. It never fails to make me feel better. If they ever remove this site, I'll be bereft. Now, here's my synopsis for "Bad Spelling." Maybe a bit more trimming may be in order, but I swear as goddess is my witness, I'll never...wait, that's from "Gone with the Wind." Okay, without further ado, the entire plot of "Bad Spelling." C'mon, agents. This is a really fun plot. If somebody steals it, then their karma is going to suck as bad as Donald Trump's. 

BAD SPELLING SYNOPSIS 

KATYA lives with her mother and her half-vampire younger brother, RUNE on the frozen island of Galdorheim, a secret haven for Wiccans created in the days of the medieval witch hunts. Her father BORIS, a Siberian hunter, is frozen in a glacier. He’s not dead, but he’s not exactly alive, either. 

Katya is a witch . . . sort of. She has power, lots of it, but no control--she’s a bad speller. Even her simplest spells backfire. Her family and teachers think she just doesn’t try hard enough, the other young witches tease her, and her only real friends are Teddy, her bunny familiar, and her brother, Rune, who believes her real power is an affinity for animals. However, on an island where almost every animal is somebody’s familiar, she didn’t even realize she had this skill. 

 Fed up with the teasing, Katya vows to search for her father’s family in hopes they’ll let her live with them. Boris came from somewhere in Siberia, but where? Siberia is a big place and nobody on Galdorheim knows where the wandering walrus hunter lived. 

 Katya’s Aunt THORDIS, although her harshest critic, uses magic to chat with Katya’s not-quite-dead father to discuss her niece’s failures. She learns that Katya’s great-great-grandfather is a shaman, and Thordis suspects he cast a protective spell on Boris and that’s what interferes with Katya’s abilities.

Boris cryptically suggests that Katya visit the OLE the Troll King in his mountain hall. Learning of the spell, Katya decides she must go immediately to Norway to find the Troll King. Her mother and aunt forbid her to go, at least until the spring thaw. Katya is unaware that the village council is already working to resolve the problem. 

Katya secretly calls on the ancient sorceress MORDITA for help. Checking the facts by scrying crystal, Mordita discovers that the shaman’s curse is not limited to Katya, but is spreading across the village, and may very well destroy the village’s magic. This makes Katya’s journey even more urgent. Mordita agrees to help Katya prepare for the journey to cross the frozen sea. 

Katya also asks her little brother, Rune, for a few packaged spells to take along. Instead, Rune says he should go with her. She protests, but the boy relishes the idea of an adventure away from their tiny island village. The two set off across the ice, towing a sled boat to use when they reach open water. 

When a polar bear appears out of nowhere and threatens to attack, a killer whale comes through the ice and chases the bear away. Katya falls in the water and almost drowns, but the orca saves her life. It surprises, and delights her, to find she can speak with the orca. 

Katya learns the whales came to her aid because they heard her subconscious call for help. The orca agrees to tow the boat, while the rest of his pod breaks the ice in front of them. With a little speed enhancement spell from Rune, the duo gets a Nantucket sleigh ride across the Kara straits. The orcas take the siblings to the northern shores of Norway, where they continue on their own. 

They find a little village where trolls are a tourist attraction. A local witch leads them to the hidden path to the Troll King’s realm. On the path, a jotun--a rock giant--attacks, but at the last minute a group of eagles saves them. Again, Katya has accidentally called on animals for help. She is now getting the idea that she has more power than she once believed. 

 The brother and sister meet a trio of trolls, ANDI, his brother Endi and his other brother Indi. After a misunderstanding on a bridge and a brief scuffle, the troll trio leads them to the Mountain King. The Troll King is expecting the visit. He fondly remembers his old flame Thordis, but can’t think of how he can help them. 

When Andi learns Katya is searching for the Samsis of Siberia, he reveals that his troll mother stole him from the Samsis when he was born--he is a changeling. Living with Trolls, he grew up to look like one, but he longs to visit his human family. King Ole figures out that Andi is the reason Katya has been directed to his hall: to lead her to their mutual family. 

 A breakneck journey on the Troller Coaster--the ore train used by the mining trolls--carries the searchers from Norway to east of the Ural Mountains. King Ole’s brother OLAF rules there. 

He helps them continue their journey to the northern coastline of Siberia on a sled drawn by a sextet of werewolves. The sled become mired in quickmud, but the werewolves manage to pull them out. During the journey, Katya notices that Andi is looking less like a troll and more like a human all the time, and she likes the change. 

 The chief shaman, the TADEBYA, of the Samsi tribe turns out to be Katya’s great-great-grandfather. Katya tells him Boris is dead and begs the shaman to remove the protective spell from around the body. However, he tells her it is not his spell, but that of the fearsome shaman, the SAMBANA. 

When she reveals how she knows about the spell, the Tadebya realizes she is a witch and the Samsis have a policy of executing witches, even when they’re relatives. The Tadebya takes Katya and Rune prisoner and is seriously thinking to kill them, when he recognizes Andi as the long-lost child stolen from his tribe. 

He reconsiders and is ready to release them all, when the ancient and evil Sambana arrives at the village. The Sambana not only cursed Katya’s father, but is also responsible for the attacks from the polar bear, the jotun, and the quickmud. Driven insane over the years, the Sambana’s hatred of witches has taken him over and he wants Katya and Rune dead. The Samsis fear the Sambana and he forces them to drag the pair out to the village square for execution. 

He then makes a long speech to the villagers, giving Katya time to use her newfound talent to call for help. A most unlikely group of rescuers answers her call--lemmings. When the tide of little golden brown bodies passes, the Sambana has disappeared. 

 Meanwhile, Aunt Thordis has called on King Olaf to aid her niece and nephew. He leads a troll army to the rescue, only to find everything under control when he arrives. The villagers, happy to be rid of the fearsome and insane Sambana, welcome Andi back to the tribe and greet King Olaf as an ally, since they now share blood ties. 

The troll left in Andi’s place is relieved to discover his true nature. At a suitably big celebration, Katya meets Boris’s father, her grandfather, who says he wishes to come to Galdorheim to retrieve Boris’s body. 

 Andi has completed his transformation to human form, and Katya definitely likes what she sees. He promises to visit her at Galdorheim and she gets her first kiss from a former troll. Katya and Rune depart with the trolls. With the Sambana’s spell broken, Katya feels confident her magical talent with animals can now develop normally. She looks forward to seeing Andi again, thinking that a witch and a Sami boy might become more than just friends.

Sunday, February 14, 2021

FREAKY FREEBIE FEBRUARY - WEEK 3

I'm setting some of my books free! Let them run like the wind!!!! Right onto your Kindle. There are a few books that appear to not like the corral that is KDP Select (e.g., sell only from Amazon). Since they don't sell, I'll just give them away. They'll still be on Kindle, but after their KDP Selection expiration, they will become available in other formats (EPUB, PDF) and will spread further afield to places like Barnes and Nobel, Kobo, and a bunch of independent distributors where they will be pirated and put up on a Chinese website. They're all out there somewhere, so it makes little difference.

Did you miss the first two weeks? That's okay, there's plenty more where that came from.

FEBRUARY 14TH, 21ST, 28TH - MISSING, ASSUMED DEAD

February 15th - 19th

Mixed Bag - Short Story Collection

The same as Mixed Bag II, but without the adult material. This is kid-friendly.

A little science fiction, a bit of fantasy, plenty of humor, and some really shocking horror. These are tales to suit any mood. All stories in this book were previously published in on-line or print publications. The author is re-issuing the stories since an editor somewhere liked them enough to publish them in the first place. 


FEBRUARY 21ST, 28TH - MISSING ASSUMED DEAD

February 22nd - 26th

The Compleat and True History of the Witches of Galdorheim - 5 book box set

After 10 years in print as individual books, the Witches of Galdorheim saga is now presented with every word of of the four books and one short story comprising the entire series. This is it in all its radiant glory.

*NOTE: Compleat is an archaic spelling of the word complete. See Izaak Walton's "The Compleat Angler."



FEBRUARY 14TH, 21ST, 28TH - MISSING ASSUMED DEAD

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



Sunday, February 07, 2021

FREAKY FREEBIE FEBRUARY - WEEK 2

I'm setting some of my books free! Let them run like the wind!!!! Right onto your Kindle. There are a few books that appear to not like the corral that is KDP Select (e.g., sell only from Amazon). Since they don't sell, I'll just give them away. They'll still be on Kindle, but after their KDP Selection expiration, they will become available in other formats (EPUB, PDF) and will spread further afield to places like Barnes and Nobel, Kobo, and a bunch of independent distributors where they will be pirated and put up on a Chinese website. They're all out there somewhere, so it makes little difference.

Did you miss the first week? That's okay, there's plenty more where that came from.

FEBRUARY 14TH, 21ST, 28TH - MISSING, ASSUMED DEAD

February 8th - 12th

First Duty SF Space Opera

Nyra Hutchings, a young woman born into a life of servitude on a repressive factory planet, is desperate for a different life. When she's accepted into the Space Service Academy, run by the organization that enslaves her planet, she discovers the truth behind generations of rebellion. Now, she must decide what to believe, where her first duty lies, and fight for more than her life against impossible odds.

FEBRUARY 14TH, 21ST, 28TH - MISSING ASSUMED DEAD


February 15th - 19th

Mixed Bag - Short Story Collection

The same as Mixed Bag II, but without the adult material. This is kid-friendly.

A little science fiction, a bit of fantasy, plenty of humor, and some really shocking horror. These are tales to suit any mood. All stories in this book were previously published in on-line or print publications. The author is re-issuing the stories since an editor somewhere liked them enough to publish them in the first place. 


FEBRUARY 21ST, 28TH - MISSING ASSUMED DEAD

February 22nd - 26th

The Compleat and True History of the Witches of Galdorheim - 5 book box set

After 10 years in print as individual books, the Witches of Galdorheim saga is now presented with every word of of the four books and one short story comprising the entire series. This is it in all its radiant glory.

*NOTE: Compleat is an archaic spelling of the word complete. See Izaak Walton's "The Compleat Angler."



FEBRUARY SUNDAY FREEBIE - MISSING ASSUMED DEAD

Have a Sunday special free book. On the 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th, this mystery is free on Amazon.

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



Monday, February 01, 2021

In February, Lemons Make Lemonade

First Free February Book - It's small, but entertaining. Hey, it's a picture book without the stupid-looking drawings which a mature 10-year-old wouldn't be embarrassed seen reading it.

 February 1st - 5th - Free at:

Kindle  and Smashwords

Lemons and Other Kid Tales - 3 short stories for kids

Lemons: Karen is horse crazy. One day, everything seems to go wrong.

One Fine Dog: Dogs weren't just pets, but working members of the family. Some, they could do amazing things and perform feats almost like magic.

Practical Cat: Boots wanted to explore outside, but finds out there's no place like home.