Release of "Murder Haunts Myrtle Beach" on Amazon

The latest murder mystery, "Myrtle Haunts Myrtle Beach," in the Rachel Christie Murder Mystery series is now going through final edit and will be for sale next week on Amazon. For some reason, this book took twice as long to write as the others and was much more difficult. Possibly, it was because I put even more of myself into the book than usual and parts were quite emotional for me to write.
     
Over the last seven books, I have found that seeing the story in a different format helps find typos and spelling errors, as well as some plot problems. I suppose that seeing it over and over in the same format, I tend to skip over things. So, I sent a copy to my Kindle and reviewed it there. As the another step in editing, I have just printed the book in paperback form on CreateSpace. Both of these methods help spot errors which I wouldn't have found if I had only reviewed it on the PC, even using spelling and style checkers. I also cooperate with another author and we review each other's books. That puts another set of eyes on the book and helps to find areas where the wording does not flow well or where the facts were obvious to me but not to someone not so familiar with the plot. The last thing is the final edit by an outside source.
     
Following is a brief synopsis of "Murder Haunts Myrtle Beach."

Private Investigator Rachel Christie is thrown into a case where her emotions rage out of control. She has solved difficult crimes in the past, but this time it's different. This time it's her lifelong best friend who is stabbed and is sent to the ICU. Her reasoning ability is clouded and her moral compass is smashed. Her emotions, more than ever, control her actions. The clues lead her from Myrtle Beach, a thousand miles away, to a seedy gentlemen's club in Houston and to her buried and forgotten past. A past that's not what she remembers. A past full of drugs, human trafficking and murder. Can she control her emotions enough to uncover the assailant of her friend or will she, too, become another victim?

I want to thank my readers for their loyalty and for their patience.

Writer's Block or Distraction?

Writer's Block or Distraction?

When I started the sixth novel in the Rachel Christie mystery series, "Murder Along the Blue Ridge," I had a good idea already formulated in my mind and an outline started. The writing was easy and progressed rapidly. However, with the seventh novel, it took longer to actually sit down and begin writing. I knew what I wanted the book to be about, but transitioning from the sixth to the seventh novel was difficult.

Some people might call it writer's block, but I don't think that's what it was. With the holidays and all the festivities around that time made it impossible to concentrate on my writing. This week, I finally put the outline on the computer and my mind has been working overtime with different scenarios concerning the events in the book. I have come up with lots of possibilities and have finally chosen several subplots.

The seventh book will find a conflict of what Deputy Ron Hartwell wants and what private investigator Rachel Christie wants. Whether there will be enough conflict to separate the two remains to be seen and will unfold as the novel progresses. Whatever happens, I hope the readers will not be disappointed.

The last novel, "Murder Along the Blue Ridge," is available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and as a physical book on Create Space.

Uploading Fifth Novel to CreateSpace

Uploading Fifth Novel to CreateSpace

I just went through the process of uploading my fifth novel in the Rachel Christie murder mysteries, “Murder One Too Many,” to CreateSpace. It has sometimes been a real challenge, but this time went pretty smoothly with only one mistake.

After converting the 8-1/2 x 11 manuscript to 5 x 8, the layout was set to mirror margins and the margins were set to a half inch for top, bottom and outside. The inside was set to three quarters with a gutter of 0.15. It would probably be the same to make the inside margin a half inch with a gutter of 0.4, but this works.

I had to justify both the margins and add a new Table of Contents. The process of adding page numbers in the footer, making sure that the first few pages before the actual novel began had no page numbers, came next. That was mainly a matter of inserting a section break and deleting the page numbers before the section break. For some reason, that is usually a trial and error affair. This time it only took three trials and it came out right. Someone on the internet had complained about page numbers on the last few pages after the novel was over. So, I put in another section break and deleted those page numbers also.

Then, I added a bunch of blank pages. The two at the beginning make sure the first page of the book is a blank one. That could be for signing the book. That is what I use it for, but it is more professional to have the blank page. Next, I inserted a preliminary title page with just the title, another blank page for the back of that one and then came the main title page. More blank pages made sure the copyright page, dedication page and table of contents started on a facing, right hand, page and not the back side of a page. Tres gauche.

To make it look professional, I added blank pages at the ends of some chapters so that all the chapters start on a facing page. I think that looks more professional, even though all the big name writers and publisher don’t do it. Many do. I also inserted enough blank lines on the first page of each chapter to bring the chapter name two inches down from the top. Some recommend that the chapter name be centered halfway down the page, but I think two inches looks better.

Then, I went to www.createspace.com, logged in and filled in the required information for the new book, such as the title, "Murder One Too Many," author, key words and others. On my first book, "Murder by the Clock," I made a mistake which I couldn’t figure out how to fix. I started over and at a later date, I had the opportunity of deleting the first one and I did. I always use the guided tour for filling in the book information. Using the expert method skips some things and I usually make a mistake when I do that.

After all that, I got to the part on CreateSpace where the book is uploaded. I just upload the .doc file from Word. That is easy and only takes a few minutes. Time for a short break. Next, the cover is uploaded. That was made in PhotoShop a few days before. It is best to start with a template downloaded from CreateSpace. I used to use another program, but Windows 7 didn’t like that one. I had to get something else. So, I went with the cheap version, PhotoShop Elements. The cover of the book was trial and error, also. But that was easy. I knew what the pieces of the cover should be, based on the plot of the book. By the way, the Walthur PPQ on the cover is a real gun I photographed. The pills and the Power of Attorney, also. It was just a matter of moving the pieces around until they looked right. I began to upload the cover as a PDF file and took another break. This one for five to ten minutes. The cover should be at 300 dots per inch and in medium to high quality. That results in a file of several megabytes and that takes several minutes to upload.

Once the book cover was uploaded to CreateSpace, the book was submitted for review. Sometimes this has taken three or four days, particularly around weekends of holidays, but this time it only took a few hours. I got an email saying it had been approved and I checked the book again. For the previous review, the cover was not part of the ‘Digital Preview’ but this time it was. I could now clearly see that the author name on the cover was not centered by half an inch. How did that happen? I went back to PhotoShop and changed it and uploaded the new PDF cover and resubmitted it again.

I got another email a few hours later saying that it was approved. I checked the digital preview and it looked good. I signed off on it and ordered five copies for less than thirty dollars. Somewhat complicated, but, then, writing a book is complicated. If you can do that yourself, you can publish it yourself.

New Book Published - Murder of the Innocent

New Book Published - Murder of the Innocent

My new book “Murder of the Innocent” has now been published on Amazon and Barnes and Noble as an eBook for $2.99 and as a paperback on Create Space for $9.99. It is the fourth in the series, but is a standalone mystery as well as are all the others in the series.

In the book, a seven-year-old girl, drowned in salt water, is found hundreds of miles from the ocean. A Hispanic male, father of three, is drowned in salt water and his body is discovered in a landfill.

Private detective Rachel Christie must discover the connection. She finds evidence incriminating her partner Cody and pulls out all stops to find the killer before her partner is indicted as a sexual predator, and worse, a murderer. Rachel is shot at, thrown in jail, stabbed and trampled by a horse. Ron says she’ll get herself killed. Sunbeam says Rachel’s harmless to everyone but herself.

Illegal gambling thrives nearby. A registered sex offender is jailed for sending nasty emails to the dead girl. The political race for sheriff adds two more suspects. Would someone kill two people to win an election?

Too many questions. Too many clues. Too many lies. Too many suspects. Too little time.

The beginning is as is as follows:

The clouds were dark on top of dark, threatening. Not gray, but black ominous giants of wrath, poised to spew torrents of rain and a million volts of death-dealing lightning all around us. The wind's fury blew as if I were in a wind tunnel. With two steps trudged along the rushing water's mucky edge, another step was lost to the wind. The river was a murky muddy brown. No way a body could be spotted in water this dark. It would be difficult to see a body on land.

Cody, my partner, called at five and awakened me with an urgency in his voice that I couldn't ignore. Cody was normally the definition of calm. Always cool and collected. Not this morning. He called me from my living room. Maybe he thought that was the best way to wake me up. Better than his bursting in. Maybe he was afraid I might have someone with me. I must be getting a reputation in this small town. He had used the spare house key I had given him to get through the front door. I would have to rethink the option of his keeping the key.

Murder by Lion on CreateSpace

Murder by Lion on CreateSpace

I approved "Murder by Lion" on CreateSpace on Sunday. Then I ordered ten copies. Today, around noon, the books showed up by UPS.

I can't believe the service that CreateSpace provides. In only two days, including a Sunday, they printed my book, shipped it and it was delivered. These guys are really on the ball.

Want to Read a New Murder Mystery?

Want to Read a New Murder Mystery?

After months of hard work, my third mystery novel is finished. This book is third episode in The Rachel Christie Mystery Series. The first two are "Murder by the Clock" and "Murder in Emerald Hills." All of these books take place in small northwestern North Carolina towns. All three books are available in eBook kindle format on Amazon or paperback at CreateSpace.

In this novel, "Murder by Lion," Rachel Christie becomes entangled in the gruesome murder of an heiress and philanthropist when she takes a pro bono case from her homeless friend Joe. She gets beaten and drugged by crazed addicts in solving a murder caused by a coverup that has been simmering for the past ten years.

It is a case that plunges her into physical and emotional bankruptcy and it nearly destroys her agency. Her associate Cody is forced to choose between his family and the agency and Rachel must commit to her close friend Ron or to her life as a private investigator.

* * *

The crowd hushed. The air was thick. Not from smoke, but from tension. Then, fingers pointed. People whispered. The old bum staggered across the restaurant floor. He fell to the floor, knocking over a potted plant, but rose again before anyone could move. Two waiters ran toward him, but not before he made it to the far corner of the room. As the crowd watched, homeless Joe and I caught a glimpse of each other at the same time.

I could see things weren't right. Joe was staggering. Joe would never let me see him drunk, so something bad must have happened. Why was he here? Obviously to see me. I jumped up so fast that my chair went crashing to the floor behind me.

My wine glass fell over onto the white, neatly pressed linen tablecloth. As I rushed toward him, he collapsed and fell at my feet, dropping the cell phone from his hand. Before he passed out, he said, in a barely audible voice, "Find her killer, Miss Christie. You can do it, if anybody can."

The Power of Mindless Activity

The Power of Mindless Activity

Since publishing my book “Murder in Emerald Hills,” last week on Create Space and Amazon, I have been relaxing and enjoying reading and doing some yard work. Both of these activities are good in preparation for my new book.

Yes, I already have the major plot outlined, but I have a few minor subplots on which I need to work. Giving my mind time to relax by doing mindless activities helps me to hone those plots.

Since my first book Rachel Christie book “Murder by theClock,” I came up with several plots for my next four books. As I mentioned, I just completed book two and published it on Amazon and Create Space. I started writing one of the other books but realized that particular book needed to be around number five in my series. Since then I started putting the plot together for book three and have, actually written the first three chapters. However, before I continue this book, I need to finalize my subplots. That is where I started this post. Actually, I have come up with some small subplots. I guess my mindless activity is paying off.

Final Editing of Novel for CreateSpace

I finally received my book "Murder by the Clock" from CreateSpace. I read through it again. Much to my amazement, I still had mistakes. The hopes I had of a mistake-free book was shot.

I had read and re-read my novel in hopes of catching my mistakes. I had a friend to edit my novel, too. He also found a few mistakes. After he read the novel, I re-read carefully and found a few more mistakes. Now, after the book was put into print, I read it again and, lo and behold, I found more mistakes. However, the mistakes this time around were mainly punctuation mistakes. But mistakes, nonetheless. All of these re-reads were done via the computer.

What lesson does this teach me? No matter how thorough I was in editing my book, more mistakes existed. Nothing beats reading the actual paper version of a book in order to catch mistakes.

Editing for CreateSpace Update

When submitting the latest revision of my book Murder by the Clock, I discovered that CreateSpace's policy regarding proof books has changed.

Previously, a paper proof book was free, including free shipping. Now they have instituted an improved digital preview program to replace the free book. It is possible to use this program without having to produce a print book. If you choose to print a proof book, it could cost between $6 - $8.

How to Edit for CreateSpace Publication

How to Edit for CreateSpace Publication

Following is a checklist I made to help in converting a word document formatted for Amazon to a word document formatted for CreateSpace. This is the procedure I used to convert my book Murder by the Clock. I hope I haven't forgotten anything important.

Start with the Amazon eBook Word Doc File. I usually use Word in 2003 mode. Load the file into Word and do the following:

1. Delete the cover page which eBooks have, but printed books do not. It will be used later to make the book cover.

2. Insert two blank pages at beginning. Keep in mind that books are printed on both sides of the page, so to have one complete blank page in the beginning; you need two pages in Word.

3. Add the first title page. It is plain with no graphics. Just the title and author. Insert another blank page.

4. Leave the title page alone.

5. Add a blank page after main title page, after the copyright page and after the TOC. It looks nice for each of these to be on a facing page with a blank back page. Same for dedication page if you have one.

6. Go through the book putting two inches of space above each chapter title. Three inches is sometimes normal, but it looked like too much on a Kindle. Make sure that each chapter ends with a page break if you didn't have that in your eBook version.

7. Remove the Table of Contents. In an eBook you should have had a TOC without page numbers. That doesn't work for a paper book.

8. Add a footer with page numbers. It's safer to put the page numbers in the center. That way you don't have to worry about which side of the page the gutter is on.

9. Insert a new section after the TOC and restart page numbers from one.

9. Add a new TOC with page numbers. To save time later, move the tab for the page numbers left so that the numbers will be on the page when the pages are resized to the smaller size. I used a five by eight book size. If you have more than one hundred thousand words, consider a larger size.

10. Revise all graphics, including glyphs to 300 dpi and reinstall from the filename, not cut and paste. I have done it with cut and paste and haven't had a problem, but some people claim that it caused them a problem.

11. Go to CreateSpace.com and start a project.

12. Insert title, author, use CreateSpace ISBN and choose book size.

13. Choose the Guided not the Expert setup procedure.

14. Upload your manuscript DOC file to CreateSpace. Note that this was probably originally in an 8.5 x 11 size.

15. As the manuscript was letter size, CS will allow reflowing to the chosen book size. Do not choose to resize the book down and keep the same number of pages.

16. Check the automated reviewer and notice all marked mistakes.

17. Download the DOC file produced in the new size back to your computer. It should have everything correct for page size, gutter placement and others.

18. Load the DOC file into Word and revise the DOC file to fix any important mistakes found in the reviewer.

19. Go to View and set it to view two pages at one time. The page on the left is the facing page; the right one is the back side.

20. For a more professional look, insert a blank page at the end of each chapter if needed to make sure each chapter starts on the left or facing page.

21. Check to make sure no glyphs are left stranded by themselves on a page.

22. Revise TOC so that page numbers are shown on the same line as the chapter name and are not wrapping to the next line, by moving the tab stop "Small L" at the top of the page.

23. On a separate page at the end, put in any back material, such as Author bio, email address, blog address or other books published.

24. Add enough blank pages at the end to have a complete printed blank page, in other words, at least two blank pages.

23. Upload the final version to CreateSpace and rerun the previewer. If you find any mistakes do it again.

24. Download the PDF file and check it for mistakes in format.

25. Now all you have to worry about is the cover. I won't go into that, but it helps to download the template for the number of pages you have.