Labor Day Sale!

Murder Among Friends, the 7th book in the Rachel Christie Murder Mysteries, has been discounted to $0.99 for the Labor Day Weekend. Normally, the price is $3.95, nearly a seventy-five percent discount. Rachel Christie is a private detective in a small town. She has many flaws and seems to clash with every police officer, but good detective work and a need to succeed to avoid returning to a former life make her good at solving her cases.

The synopsis is as follows:

A secret, known only to a group of seven, rocks a nursing home with murder. It's a secret the members tell no one. Except somehow, someone does know. But who? That someone is ruthless enough to kill frail, suffering, defenseless people, preying on their vulnerabilities to get the secret.

When the Sheriff of Stone City asks private detective Rachel Christie to find his mother-in-law, who has been missing for three weeks, Rachel fears the worse. Her partner Cody has a friend connected to the murders and wants the agency to help his friend. Rachel only hopes that she can unravel the crime and save the others before all end up dead. But, as time goes by, that seems unlikely.

Pick up your copy while it is heftily discounted.

Write, Write, Write!

Today was a productive day for my writing. I pushed aside an angry reviewer (who I don't think really read the book) and concentrated on the reviews I received from those who purchased my books, read the books and gave raving reviews. What's wrong with us that we concentrate on those few who take our books for free (or don't even read them) and then give negative reviews while overlooking many glowing reviews? We do injustice to our loyal fans, those who purchase our books, and care enough to give real feedback. Those are the ones that we want to please. Those are the ones we write for.

I read that we could receive 999 positive reviews, but it only takes one negative review that puts us in the dumps and puts a hamper on our writing. This has been the case with me for several weeks. Well, I say, enough of that. Not everyone is going to like our writing, the style or what we have to say. But we do have some loyal followers who like what we have to say and are willing to pay to read those books. I say we give our thanks to those reviews and readers who say that we have a product they want to read. And as one of my reviewers says, "Write, write, write." I am thankful for her and many others who are loyal fans.

In Cherokee with the Cherokees

This week we took a trip to Cherokee, NC. I haven't been there since I was a teenager, but the place hasn't changed much -- except for the giant strange-looking building containing Harrah's Casino. It was a great trip, not just because of reliving old memories, but because of visiting old friends we hadn't seen in eight years. I have no excuse for not going to Cherokee because it's only a four-hour drive from home, but our friends now live in London and were back on vacation. It was a treat to see them.


I was amazed at the Indian crafts from the double weave baskets to pottery to carvings at oodles of stores all up and down the main street. Since our visit was during the week, not many people were at the Museum or milling about in the shops. However, the play "Unto These Hills" telling the story of the Cherokee people had almost a thousand people in attendance on a Tuesday evening. We went back stage and saw how the scenery was transported on a small train car and where the actors waited in the wings. I was surprised that more accidents did not occur since most of the area around the stage was natural rocks covered with sand.

We had dinner at the restaurant only a dozen or so feet from the vast array of hundreds and hundreds of gaming machines. Our friends' daughter was fifteen years old and was fascinated with the way they treated her at the casino. Since no one under the age of twenty-one could be on the casino floor, we had to wind tortuously through the building to get to the casino entrance near the restaurant. The guardians said that our friend's daughter had to stay on the tile near the wall and not get on the carpet to walk the thirty feet to the restaurant. She felt like she was being treated like her dogs, being told to 'stay off the carpet'. I don't think she minded it much since she said she was going to tell people 'back home' that she was thrown out of a casino. Apparently the younger set thinks that is more interesting than being in a casino or gambling. She was a good sport about it.

At the restaurant, they seated our group in an unused section in complete privacy. At first we thought nobody else was there, but as we left, we saw the main section which was nearly full. It's always nice to have that feeling of having the restaurant to ourselves. The food and service were excellent; however, our friend had heart surgery a year before and was on a low fat diet. He ate his salmon and green beans while eyeing my husband's steak and potatoes au gratin.

Overall, we had an enjoyable trip with lasting memories with many people and things that can be used in my novels.


Sabena Stone -- Author of The Rachel Christie Murder Mysteries