The New Book is Coming!

My new Maeve and Kate Mystery is coming out May 21st, and here is a brief synopsis of their new adventure. If you are interested in catching up on their previous stories, you can find them on Amazon for your Kindle or Kindle apps.

Their first mystery is What Would Nancy Do? http://amzn.to/hyRpFN which was followed by Emails: A Maeve and Kate Mini-Mystery http://amzn.to/pnofVT

This second novel is Lethal Prescription which is full of all the fun, excitement and suspense of their previous stories!

SYNOPSIS OF LETHAL PRESCRIPTION:

Best friends Maeve Haile and Kate Hanson are at it again! During a hospital stay Maeve meets Victoria Winters, a young nurse who reveals her concern about something taking place in the hospital. When she turns up dead and it’s discovered her roommate is one of Kate’s clients, the pair set out to unearth what is going on in their small town of Elkhorn.

Nurses, doctors and patients in their hometown and the surrounding area are involved in a drug scam involving prescription drugs ... or are they? As the two women uncover clues they wind up with more questions then they have answers for. Why was Victoria killed, and who is threatening her roommate? A second murder, a threat on Maeve and Kate’s life, and a frightening and intimidating street thug all add up to a mystery that has the friends racing to discover who’s behind it all before some else winds up dead!

I hope you have as much fun reading it as I had writing it!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Since February is the month of Valentine's Day, my romance novel Finding Normal will be available until the 15th for 99 cents on Amazon.com http://amzn.to/xSqyH8

Summary:  Cassidy Maguire is a world famous actress and singer who longs for the normal life she knew as a child. Deciding to take a break from her hectic life in Hollywood, she moves to the small town of Aspen Grove, Colorado to try to find some peace and quiet. When she meets the town’s veterinarian Seth Walters sparks fly almost immediately. Seth likes his life as it is, but his heart is drawn to Cassidy. Can they make their relationship work? And as rich and famous as she is, will Cassidy be able to gain the love she seeks and find normal?

Happy Valentine's Day ..... and happy reading!

A New Story for Christmas!

I have published a new story for Christmas! Grandpa’s Gift is a special story about that time in a child’s life when you begin to question all the mystery and magic about the season.

Grandpa’s Gift is available on Amazon http://amzn.to/rSieHI and on Smashwords http://bit.ly/roRa79 and will soon be found on Barnes & Noble and other online retailers. Grandpa’s Gift sells for $.99!

Synopsis:
Eight-year-old Alexander Billingsworth is having a very bad year. His best friend’s brother told him there was no Santa Claus. Now he sees the holiday as one big lie. That is, until his Grandpa gives him a very special gift that will answer his questions once and for all.

I'm also proud to announce that my son, Kevin S. Mullis, designed the cover for me. He's a talented young man, and I hope it won't be the last one he does!

Pick up a copy of Grandpa’s Gift today and add it to your collection of holiday reads. You’ll be glad you did!

Happy Release Day!

I am happy and excited to announce the release of my newest novel, The Christmas to Remember!

The Christmas to Remember is a very personal book for me, as it is based on many of the personal experiences of my grandfather, Neal Jacobsen Hillyard.  It is from his personal history that I have taken many of the events and people and based this fictional account of a young boy named Jens.

Here is a synopsis of the book:

In 1902 Aalborg, Denmark, life is hard for the Pederson family. Eight-year-old Jens has started working to help his mother and his older brothers and sister provide for their family. With angry adults around him, a bully at school out to get him, and his teacher assigning a dreaded essay, Jens has far too much to worry about.

But Christmas is fast approaching. With their meager earnings, the Pederson family begins preparations for the Christmas feast. Learning the true meaning of faith and hope as he helps with the plans, Jens has but one wish: to make this holiday the best one ever for his family. A Christmas to remember.

The gorgeous cover was designed by Rachael Sherwood, a professional photographer and a personal friend of mine. She has such a lovely eye for the beauty in the "ordinary" things of life showing how extraordinary they really are. She has created magic with her camera, not just for this cover but in her photographs of families, which are her specialty. I invite you to visit her website A Thousand Words at http://picturesareworth.blogspot.com/ to see what she can do!

Right now, The Christmas to Remember is available on Amazon (http://amzn.to/mRV0Ga) and at Smashwords (http://bit.ly/eRAVbp) and will soon be on sale at other e-book online retailers such as Barnes & Noble, Apple, Sony, Kobo, Scrollmotion and Diesel.

I hope you'll take the time to check out this very special holiday story and add it to your personal collection. And if you do, please let me know what you think!

Modern Times

Vacation time is here! Er, no, I'm not going to Jamaica or anything as luxurious as that, I just liked this picture! My family and I are getting ready for vacation. The housesitter/dog watcher is all lined up and reservations are made and, of course, I have my reading material waiting for me.

Writers are generally people who love to read. That's why we become writers. Unfortunately as a writer, plus a wife and mother, there is not enough time for me to read all that I would like to. Vacation time, whether its spent at home or on a trip, is a time for me to get some serious reading in. In between the sightseeing trips, time in the pool, or picnics, I like to read. A friend of mine confessed to me that when she and her husband went on a cruise not long ago, he spent the time in sports activities, seeing shows, hitting the buffets and the like while she sat in a deck chair with a cold drink and ... you guessed it! A long list of books. It was the perfect vacation for each of them.

But what my friend and I also have in common is that modern device: the e-reader. While it used to be that you could only bring a couple of books with you, or you had to hit a bookstore on your trip, you can now take a whole library with you! It's so great! I'm usually reading a couple of books at a time, and having an e-reader allows me to easily take all the books I'm interested in with me wherever I go and switch from one to another effortlessly.

I think ebooks are amazing anyway, but if you're a traveller, be it for pleasure or business, there can be no better way to go!

Who Says You Can't Get Something for Nothing?

Just to let you know that I have a selection of short stories available at Smashwords for your e-readers. They are free of charge and available in a wide variety of formats. Please feel free to check them out:

ELIZA AND MRS. FRANK  Left alone in the 19th century sea captain’s home she and her husband bought on the northeastern coast, Eliza finds that vestiges of the original owners surround her. As a storm rages and waves crash below, it seems she and Mrs. Frank, the widow of the sea captain who’d built this house for her, may have more in common than Eliza first thought. http://bit.ly/fOrUM1

TEA AT THE BILTMORE The stately old Biltmore Hotel was once the site of the social events of the year. During afternoon tea two women have a chance meeting that isn’t exactly what it seems to be. http://bit.ly/hGGNzP

FAMILY TREE As an amateur genealogist and an apricot farmer, Ruby Gillingham has learned the value of good lines. Known for the quality of her apricots and getting on in years, Ruby calls her disreputable nephew Lawrence Pratt to the family farm. Intent on getting his hands on his aunt’s fortune as his aunt is on pruning the family tree, but who will get the upper hand? http://bit.ly/hDpdjF

THE BOOK CLUB A group of women meet every month to discuss a book, until one summer evening when the monotony of it all inspires them to try something new ... with some interesting results. http://bit.ly/ifnpFy

I hope you get a chance to read some of my stories and if you do I hope you enjoy them!

A New Short Story

I've published a new short story! The Book Club is only available at Smashwords.com and is FREE! 

A group of women meet every month to discuss a book, until one summer evening when the monotony of it all inspires them to try something new ... with some interesting results.

Click here to go download it http://bit.ly/ifnpFy and get it for your e-readers, PCs or laptops. You can download the Kindle software for your PCs and laptops free of charge at Amazon.com, or you can download it as a text file or PDF if you wish to read it that way.

I hope you will take the time to read it and post a review on Smashwords if you like.

The Possibilities Are Endless

I watched an interview this morning on Good Morning America with author Jane Green about her new book  A Modern Fairy Tale: William, Kate, and Three Generations of Royal Love.  They're calling it an "enhanced e-book." I hadn't heard this term before and was interested to see what it was all about and I was totally blown away. I guess if I'd thought about it, it would have made sense that this was coming. (Am I the last person to find out about this?)

As an "enhanced" e-book it allows you to expand photos to get a better look at them, bring up videos to watch as well as interviews. For example, you can watch the engagement of interview of Charles and Diana as well as of William and Kate. Videos of William as a baby with his parents, etc. In the interview Green referred to it all as "very Harry Potter-ish." Indeed it is!

While I don't think this will affect novels all that much, can you imagine what it might do for textbooks? And at $6.39 on Amazon, this book is extremely affordable which is something I think college students (and their parents) would surely embrace. Spending fifteen dollars for a textbook rather than $170, and to have these types of enhancements available would be a boon to the educational system. You could see a math problem worked out step by step in a video, watch videos of important historical events, scientific experiments, and the humanities could go wild.

Childrens books too could move to a new level on some books. And with the I-Pads and other such devices I can only imagine all that could happen with these opportunities. Pretty heady stuff.

Yes, the possibilities are endless. It's an exciting time we live in!

Question: How Much is Too Much?

How much do you, should you charge for an e-book?  When I go online to see what others are asking I am surprised by the range being asked.  Some of the prices seem a bit outrageous to me.  $14.99 for an e-book feels a bit over the top to me, even if you're a well established, seasoned writer.  You are getting the story, true, and the author's hard work, talent and time should be compensated, but there is no actual "product" of paper, print, cover, etc. 

I've sort of held with the idea that if you are self-publishing your work as an e-book and are not paying the publisher their huge cut, or giving 10% to an agent than you ought to keep the cost of your book low enough so that readers can get the most for their money as well as their e-readers.

As a reader I find I balk at paying too much for an e-book.  Somewhere inside me I've set the limit at $5.99.  More than that and I either check out the price of the print book or hit the library.  Seem strange to hear from a writer?  Maybe.

But, while I want to be compensated for my work, it is not the motivation behind my being a writer.  I write because I love writing.  I love to tell stories, to make up characters and situations and put them down for others to read.  And that .... that is what motivates me.  I want others to read, to enjoy, to gain something from my writing.

So there's my question?  How much do you think is a fair price for an e-book?  As a reader, and as a writer?

Launch of My New Book

My latest novel, In the Company of Women, has been released and is now for sale on Amazon  http://amzn.to/hUG51v and Smashwords  http://bit.ly/fMjeLt . The cover was designed by Tara Kelley-Cruz (tara@thunderbaby.com).

When a group of women come together in a critical year in their lives, they learn that gratitude for what life does or doesn’t bring you, and friends both old and new can carry you through no matter what is thrown at you. Gillian faces a life threatening surgery; Nancy and her husband must deal with the hardest trial of their lives together; Joyce is forced to give up her most precious dream and take up a new and more powerful one; Emma discovers she has something that can change not only her life but her community’s; and Nancy’s daughter Jane is given a chance to share a long held secret and learns, along with the others, how forgiveness’ embrace can give you a new life. They are stories all women can relate to.

Ultimately they all discover that when things do not turn out the way you want they can turn out to be what you need. These women take life head on and know as long as they have each other it is possible to triumph over it all.

In the Company of Women explores the strength of friendship, the gift of gratitude, the power of forgiveness and how a group of women can change themselves and those around them.

Please feel free to check it out at one of the above listed websites. Smashwords will allow you to download the first 20% of the book for a free preview. And let me know what you think!

New Story Available

I've just published a short story I wrote about five years ago.  It's a tale of suspense titled Eliza and Mrs. Frank, and it's available free of charge on Smashwords http://bit.ly/fOrUM1 in a wide variety of formats for your e-readers.

Left alone in the 19th century sea captain’s home Eliza and her husband bought on the northeastern coast, the young woman finds the vestiges of the original owners surround her.  As a storm rages with waves crashing below, it seems she and Mrs. Frank, the widow of the sea captain who’d built this house for her, may have more in common than Eliza first thought.

Holiday Sale!

Here's a deal for the holidays!  My cozy mystery What Would Nancy Do? is on sale at Smashwords!  From now until the end of the year get 10% off when you purchase a copy of my e-book.

Just click here   http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/20925 and enter the coupon code ED43Q to receive 10% off the purchase price.

E-readers are the biggest selling items this holiday season, and e-books are an affordable gift to accompany them.  At Smashwords you can get What Would Nancy Do? in a wide variety of formats to accomodate whichever e-reader you may be giving, or already own.

And remember, if you don't have an e-reader you can go to Amazon and download the Kindle software for free to have on your laptop, notebook or PC.  You can enjoy my book in just minutes, or keep it under wraps until the big day!

Happy Reading!

Christmas Books

This is the time of year we are thinking of giving to those we care about.  One popular gift has always been books.  Books are fun to receive, and especially fun to give.  To go to a book store and look through all the selections and pick out just the right story for just the right person is a pleasure I have always enjoyed.  And now, to be able to look online for e-books to give from the comfort of my own home is a new treat.

But what about reading this time of year?  There are so many good holiday books out there for us to read and reread year after year.  Of course, we all think of the classic A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, or Truman Capote's A Christmas Memory.  What about The Mansion by Henry Van Dyke?  Or The Christmas Shoes by Donna Van Liere?

There are too many Christmas books to mention here.  I would encourage every writer and reader out there to not only give books (both print and e-books) for Christmas, but to also pick up a book written about/for Christmas and read it this time of year.  It'll set the mood for the season and help you prepare for the celebrating.  And that's always a good thing, isn't it?

There's a New Kid in Town

It seems that every time I pick a magazine or look at the news on the internet there is something about ebooks.  Sales are up something like 188% while print books are down 40%.  E-Readers are selling like the proverbial hot cakes.  Not only do we have Kindle, Nook and I-Pads, but there are apps for your phones and knockoffs of e-readers showing up everywhere. 

My husband was out shopping Thanksgiving weekend where one store was selling an e-reader for $89 and they were flying off the shelf.  One man was buying six of them.  He told my husband that it was what he was giving for Christmas this year.

Remember when a book was a great gift to give/receive during the holidays?  Looks like now it's an e-reader!

For those of us who write e-books this is an exciting time.  More and more readers are getting into the whole concept and it looks like this is the future.  I'd love to be a fly on the wall in one of those publishing houses to see what their take is on all of this. 

As for me, I'm going to keep writing, and hoping readers will find, read and enjoy my work.

Hitting the Big Time

Ever since it's inception I have longed to see a book of mine on Amazon.com.  This week, I finally achieved that goal.  To me that is hitting the big time.

It's quite something to see your book published, to know that your story is finally being read and enjoyed by others.  Every author wants that.  Seeing it on all these different websites delighted me. 

Amazon.com is the one website I really wanted my book on.  I thought that would give me a lot more exposure.  And I was receiving a lot of emails and questions on facebook from potential readers asking why they couldn't find me on Amazon. 

Well now they can!  Happy day! 

How Does It Feel?

The news on my book this week is that it is now being offered on the Barnes and Noble website (http://www.barnesandnoble.com/).  When I posted this news earlier a friend asked me, "How does it feel to see your dreams coming true?"

Interesting question.  I'm not sure.  As I talked about in my previous blog post it doesn't quite feel .... "legit" is the only word I can think of.  I guess that to me a book is something tangible that you can see and feel and hold in your hands.  An e-book, while I like them, is a big adjustment for me. 

So I guess the real answer to that question is "unreal."  It is a dream come true.  People are reading my book!  People are reading the accompanying story!  I mean, as a writer can it get any better than that?

The thing is though, if I saw someone sitting on the beach with their e-reader I wouldn't know by the cover that they are reading my book.    But I can believe they are!

I Love Books

I went to a bookstore yesterday, one of my favorite places to visit. I walked around looking at all the books available, touching the covers, picking some up and flipping through them, feeling the pages turning under my fingers. Edges that were cut, ragged, cream colored and white. I love the feel and the aroma of books.

As I walked around checking out the bounty in the store, I found I had to remind myself that I am a published author. My book is out as an e-book, and not a print book. For some reason this fact makes me feel as if I’m not published. I know, intellectually, that this is not true, but wandering around that store yesterday made me feel .... a bit unfulfilled.

Environmentally e-books are a better way to go. Less waste, less use of trees which we really need to let be. I myself have a hard time spending 25 to 30 dollars for a hardback book, often waiting until it’s out in paperback to purchase a book I really want, so I know that if I can get an e-book for a third of the price that’s nicer too. I can buy three books instead of one! I’m sure other readers feel the same way.

With an e-reader I can carry dozens of books with me. Couldn’t possibly do that with print books. How crazy great is that?

And yet ... I long to be published in print. I think I’ll keep working on that goal while I continue to work on publishing my books for e-readers.

Book Trailers

One of the marketing devices that seems to be quite popular is the book trailer.  Much like the movie trailers we love to watch before the feature starts, a book trailer can be an effective tool to tease a potential reader into wanting to read more. (If you've never seen a book trailer head on over to YouTube and type in "book trailer" in the search engine.  I've entered "cozy mystery book trailer" to get ideas for my own book.)

It's interesting how many different styles of book trailers there are.  Some utilize actors to create a scene from the book while others display a slide show of interesting photographs with an overlay of text describing the book, much like what you would read on the inside flap of a novel.  All trailers feature dramatic and interesting music to accompany what you see on the screen.

Doesn't seem too difficult does it?  I am working with a videographer to create a trailer for my cozy mystery.  We've been going over the various styles trying to decide which would suit my book the best.  I've discovered that it's more work than I thought it would be.  Just making a choice, deciding on what I think I like the best, is tougher that it looks.  What I thought would be a piece of cake is turning out to have my head spinning with ideas and possibilities.  And that's not a bad thing. 

I planning on finalizing some decisions in the next couple of days so I can get back and concentrate on my work in progress and the revisions on my last book.  And hopefully I'll be posting a trailer here before long!

Something for Free!

My cozy mystery What Would Nancy Do? is currently available on smashwords.com in a wide variety of formats. This is an ebook, and is not available in print format as of yet.

However, you can preview the first twenty percent of the book for free to see what it's like.

You may also download a companion short story Emails: A Maeve and Kate Mini-Mystery. This story features the characters from the novel and is a complete mystery on it's own. Emails is available for free.

Both of these can be found at http://www.smashwords.com/ or you can go directly to my author page there at http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/maureenmullis if you desire.

I hope you'll take the time to check them out!

Action Alert!

I've been informed by several different people who have tried to access my book on Smashwords.com that they cannot find me or my book on the website.  I contacted Smshwords and they informed me they are having a little bit of a problem with their search engine and are working to correct it.  It should be working soon.

In the meantime, and in case you mistype my name, here is a link to my author page on Smashwords that will also give you access to my novel What Would Nancy Do? as well as the free short story Emails: A Maeve and Kate Mini-Mystery featuring the characters from the novel.

Here it is: http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/maureenmullis

Happy Reading!