What I did this summer…


Yesterday I asked the question, what have I been up to the last two and a half months?

The last part of May I spent most of that time wrapping up writing related business to prepare for our upcoming vacation. I also put together a Haunting Danielle Zazzle Store. The intent was not so much to try selling my readers stuff (although they can purchase at the online store), the primary purpose was to create some fun raffle prizes I could offer the subscribers to our newsletter.

The first part of June we were off to Minnesota for our family reunion. It’s our Talbot Reunion—that is my mother-in-law’s side of the family. We have been doing this every three years since 1983. We go somewhere different each time. The other locations we’ve been to include: Arizona, California, Oregon, New Mexico, Missouri, Colorado, South Dakota, Arkansas, Wyoming, Utah, and Montana. We always look forward to the reunion and catching up with our cousins. 

Our daughter was just a year old at the first reunion, and our son was almost four. The reunions forged close relationships with their cousins and second cousins, and now I am seeing the same thing happen with our grandchildren’s generation.

After the reunion we had visiting family for about three weeks—and I put the computer away and focused on what is truly the most important thing in life—family.

When the family finally went home I prepared for surgery. (Ugg) Fortunately, the surgery went well, and other than being tired all the time, I suffered no afterpain. Of course, it could be those meds I was on, which curbed the pain and made me tired.

The worse part of surgery, no swimming for 6-8 weeks. I live in Lake Havasu City, and it gets pretty hot here. Swimming is what we do in the summer. But no pool time or lake time for me. I’ve been spending all my hours indoors—either working on my book or sleeping.

I finished writing Book 22, The Ghost and the Halloween Haunt. It is currently in edit phase, and will be released the end of the month.

That about wraps up my exciting summer!

(Photo: Where we stayed in Minnesota for our reunion.)

Have you pre-Ordered
The Ghost and the Halloween Haunt?

It has been two and a half months since my last blog post. Where has the time gone? What have I been up to?  Those words sound rather Déjà vu—probably because I have voiced that same sentiment on this blog before—on those numerous times when there have been wide gaps between posts.

Let me start with what’s new, instead of what I’ve been up to.  

The Ghost and the Halloween Haunt, the 22nd book in my Haunting Danielle series comes out the end of this month. 

To pre-Order The Ghost and the Halloween Haunt:

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Kobo

Google

(Sorry, not available for pre-order at Apple iBooks yet)

I already have a title—and book cover—for book 23 in the series, which will come out before Christmas. But I will save more on that for later.

Tantor Media has purchased the audiobook rights for Books 20, 21 and 22 in the series. (Yes, that includes the book that is coming out the end of the month.)  While I don’t have the release dates for those audiobooks, they are all expected to be out within the next year.

Happy to report, the talented Romy Nordlinger will be narrating those audiobooks, as she has the first nineteen.

For those who have friends interested in the series, you might want to let them know the eBook version of The Ghost Who Loved Diamond (Book Two in the Series) is currently on sale for 99 cents. It will return to its normal price after Tuesday, August 6th. Book One, The Ghost of Marlow House, is a free eBook download.

That’s about all the news for now. As for what I have been up to—I will catch up on that tomorrow.

Looking for Free Books?

Every once in a while, I get an email from a reader who tells me they love my series but can’t afford to buy all my books. (So far there are 21 books in the Haunting Danielle series, with the 22nd to come out this summer.) As of next week, the first 19 books in the series will be available in audiobook formal.

Compared to other eBooks on the market, the Haunting Danielle books are on the low price end, at $4.50. Yesterday, my mother found an eBook she wanted me to order for her, and I about fainted—it was almost $17! And it only had a 3-star average review! Yikes!

But I understand being on a fixed income, and even $4.50 takes a person off budget. Fortunately, there is a way to safely and legally download FREE eBooks and audiobooks—your local public library!

I have a lot of readers who check out my books from their libraries, some of them downloading eBooks and others audiobooks. Sometimes their libraries already carry my books—other times the readers have to request them. Occasionally, the library will have my paperbacks to check out, but typically it is easier to get ahold of one of my audiobooks or eBooks at the public library. 

It requires an app like Overdrive to facilitate the download. When I did it, I went down to our library, and they assigned me pin number to use in order to access the service. Of course, you also need a library card!

The reason I said the public library is a legal and safe source to download free books is because there are websites out there that offer books for free—pirate sites. Very often the person looking for a deal will later discover they downloaded more than just a stolen eBook—they can get a virus or Trojan. Picking up a book at one of those sites is no different than going to the back alley and picking up stolen merchandise. Yet in this case, instead of risking arrest your computer is often compromised.

However, there are a few legitimate online services out there that will get you a safe free read, like BookBub. The difference, they are offering specials offered by the author. They aren’t a pirate site stocking up stolen eBook files. (Some of the pirate sites don’t even have the eBook files they claim to have, just the virus or Trojan they intend to hand out!)

So if you are looking for a free read, take Ben Franklin’s lead—check out your public library.