Category Archives: mystery/thriller

Dead of Winter Audio Excerpt

An abridged excerpt from Chapter One of Dead of Winter, created with free text-to-speech software. I’ve been looking into something like this as a cost-effective option for creating audiobooks. Because that was a goal of mine this year: produce one audiobook. While this is okay (just barely) for promos, it’s not appropriate for anything larger. If I could’ve read the section without coughing, guys, I would have. Happy Pollen Season from Vermont! ;D

Anyway, here it is in all its weird glory. Hope you enjoy it!

First Freebie of 2023!

January 25-29, you can download a free copy of my psychological thriller, The Butterfly Girl. A quick and suspenseful read, it challenges our preconceived notions about ghosts and hauntings.

To read a sample, click on the “Free Preview” text below or just follow this link.

Cover Evolution (Part II)

So, if Sky Hollow was all about the “lady in the water,” Dead of Winter started out about floating eyeballs, dead trees, and fear. You’ll find more snarky editorial comments in the video. Might as well be honest, right?

Again, finding free stock images to communicate the storyline presented a challenge (talk about recurring themes). “Lady Hiding Her Face” was good for the first couple of Amazon giveaways, but the e-book didn’t start selling actual copies until the “Silhouettes” cover that’s the next-to-last image. The current cover, the simplest of the lot, which took about an hour to cobble together, has enjoyed a much more positive response. Go figure!

Great News!

Nobody’s Daughter, my dystopian adventure/thriller, made the Wattys 2022 Shortlist!

This is the third time I’ve entered the contest and the second time my work’s been shortlisted. The last time this happened was in 2018. So thrilled and grateful for the recognition!

If a coming-of-age set in dystopian Japan with a strong female lead is your thing, check it out! You can read it for FREE on Wattpad.

Cover images courtesy of Unsplash and Pexels

Vella Free-4-All

Unlock 100 FREE episodes a day on Kindle Vella. Only two days left to score some great reads! Here are four of mine. By the way, you could unlock every single episode and still have tokens left over! Happy reading!

The Dispossessed

NightShades

All the Colors of Death

Blood & Thorns

Holiday Facelift!

My award-winning novella, Dead of Winter, received a new cover design, just in time for Christmas! Okay, yes, as usual, it’s a DIY project using free stock images from places like Unsplash and Pexels, but I’m really pleased with how it turned out. What do you think? Let me know.

Also, if you’re interested in purchasing the e-book, the title link above will take you to Amazon. Had a bit of a “burp” when I uploaded the new cover and blurb on D2D this weekend, and am still trying to iron things out with them.

Here’s the new blurb. It’s not a tremendous change, but maybe more of an attention-getter than its predecessor:

Can a dead woman’s memories solve a murder?

Ten years ago, someone brutally murdered Amara’s twin sister, Nisha. No one ever found her killer. No one found any pertinent evidence at all. The loss devastated her family and drove her father to suicide.

Now, through the use of the controversial technology of memory reconsolidation, Amara hopes to unmask her sister’s killer by having Nisha’s last memories implanted in her mind. But what she doesn’t know is that Nisha’s killer, who is still at large and closer than she thinks, might be something more than human…

Something capable of manipulating time and memory…

Something with an appetite for flesh and blood!