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After reading Jean Sheldon's most recent book, "The Woman In the Wing" I told Jean I liked her easy to read story and I would some day like to read her earlier books. Jean sent me those first three books and after reading the first one I can see that this series is going to be the same easy-to-read story but with a police heroine as the principal actor. The Chicago Police Department's twenty-third district has a very distinct character working in their detective division. Kerry Grant and her partner, Mike Sullivan work as a team to attempt to solve some of the big city crimes, of which there are many.

Jennifer Kincaid was a court reporter that lived in an old, but decent apartment building. Also in that building lived an older woman, Veronica Cooke with whom Jennifer became friends sharing time and conversation together. Kerry was a computer whiz and became acquainted with Veronica when she had to investigate the payoff of a big insurance policy on Veronica-but-Veronica wasn't dead! Kerry worked the case and taught Veronica many facets of the Internet, how to discover fraud and scams, and when to be suspicious. Eventually Veronica learned enough to start teaching other older people about the pitfalls one could fall into through the Internet. Kerry was selected to lead computer training for the Chicago Police Department since she was clearly the expert in this field.

Kerry was planted as a con artist to help a group running scams of various types on the Internet, being very successful with her infiltration. She worked with and through another plant in the group. This worked out fine until some suspicions showed up and things had to come to a head. Eventually Kerry, Jennifer, and Veronica became great friends and worked together. One day Jennifer was a hostage in her courtroom. This took the story off in another area but soon the connection became apparent.

Jean Sheldon writes in a way that any reader can understand. Her storylines are easy to follow but they are not so simple to become ridiculous. I thoroughly enjoyed "Identity Murder" with its characters and I look forward to reading the other two books in this series. Thanks Jean Sheldon.

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Poison Pen: A
Forensic Handwriting Mystery
By Sheila Lowe
Obsidian
300 Pages

Are you a "forensic" fan like I am? Well, then you definitely will enjoy the debut of Sheila Lowe's new forensic handwriting mystery series, starting with Poison Pen.

Through a bit of serendipity, I had the opportunity to read both Poison Pen and the follow-up book, Written in Blood this past weekend--what an enjoyable opportunity!

Claudia Rose, our forensic expert, was pulled into action when her former college friend was found dead in her hot tub, seemingly as a suicide. Only her alleged note,

IT WAS FUN WHILE IT LASTED

did not match the personality of Lindsey Alexander. Indeed, most people who knew her would not be surprised if she were murdered--their surprise was that she had supposedly committed suicide!

There was only one man who seemed to mourn Lindsey's death--Ivan, her business associate, friend and executor of her will. From the personal side, Ivan was sure that Lindsey had not committed suicide; from a business side, the insurance company refused to pay on a suicide. There was no choice; Ivan had to convince Claudia that she must help him prove whether the suicide note was authentic.

Claudia, as well Kelly, her best friend, had been "burned" once too often by Lindsey and couldn't even pretend to know why they had attended her funeral. But with Ivan's pleas, Claudia forced her memories back to college days when she and Lindsey were still friends and agreed. The one thing she required, however, was hard to find--she needed samples of Lindsey's handwriting in block printing, as the suicide note had been created.

Ivan pointed out that this was a very important reason to assume that the note had been faked--Lindsey always wrote in cursive; in fact, trying to find similar documents forced further and further involvement as Claudia worked with Ivan to find needed evidence. That is, until Ivan was murdered!

And when Kelly admitted that she was afraid she "might" have killed Lindsey, while she has also discovered that another good friend, Zeb, had written Lindsey a threatening letter, Claudia is pulled in well beyond her original task of authenticating writing. On the other hand, working with Detective Joel Jovanic and finding a mutual attraction developing between them, placed her in a difficult spot where loyalty to her two friends forced her to make difficult choices. Especially when Claudia finds she could very well be the next victim!

This is a whodunit that will wrap you tight--into trying to solve the mystery along with Claudia. Even though I was narrowing down my own suspects, I wasn't quite sure what had happened until the very end--after all, among many others, there was the senator who had been blackmailed by Lindsey, or her brother who had once been Lindsey's partner in her schemes!

Poison Pen is a page-turner that will keep you reading! Enjoy!

And, now...I'm on to reading Written in Blood!

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Lessons in Character, Citizenship, and Patriotism

In her book "The Secret of Yahweh" LeFerna Arnold-Walch combines mystery, a look at times past, core values, virtues, and patriotism. This is a wonderfully crafted children's novel.

Mary, Petey, and Jimmy, are the good kids. Con, Bitsy and their clique of friends are the mean kids. The story begins on the first day of a new school year in Mss Sawyer's fourth grade classroom. A brief announcement broadcast over the loudspeaker stated that pledge of allegiance would no longer include the words "under God" in the pledge of allegiance to the flag.

This announcement raised questions among the students of Miss Sawyer's fourth graders. In response to these questions Miss Sawyer gave the class members new insights into American traditions, the constitution, and individual freedoms.

During lunch Mary was bullied by Bitsy and a group of the mean girls. They helped themselves to her lunch, yanked her pigtails, and told her she was fat. Soon the disturbance was noticed and Mary was sent to the principal's office for the remainder of the lunch hour. That evening Mary had a visitor, J. C. Lamb, a special messenger (un-secret agent 777) from God on a mission.

The story includes lessons on supporting American troops, lessons in Christian history, and the stories which give insight into the traditions of gratefulness for being "one nation under God."

The book is also filled with lessons on the value of person hood, the power of prayer, and the need for love. These lessons are being taught in the classroom, the lunchroom, on the school bus, playing with friends, in the home, and through Mystery Sunday at church.

LeFerna explains the presence of good and evil in the world. She goes on to discuss Yahweh (God) as the master of the universe, the trinity, and the message of the gospel. She gives details about the fall of man, the plan of salvation, miracles, and the role of the Holy Spirit. She explains how we got our Bible, the various translations, and importance of a lifetime of Bible study.

The message of Jesus is presented through by "preacher", the youth leader, and Miss Sawyer in language easily understood by children 7 - 12.

The clever illustrations included add another dimension to the story and help to maintain interest and reinforce the message of the narrative. The book is Biblically sound, easily understood and can be enjoyed by readers of all ages. The author has created a unique program for passing the book along to others becomes an evangelistic tool for the reader and challenges the seeker to find the "Secret of Yahweh."

Mary's Lamb Publishing, 978-0980179484

As Reviewed for Midwest Book Review

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Have you ever read the book entitled Amapola which is written by Alan Heywood? This novel actually reminds me on the movie of James Bond who is always lucky all the time. This novel is about one character that apparently so fortunate and lucky. This story is inspiring though sometimes impossible but still this story is interesting.

I am interested in the comedy and humor that Alan played at the novel and liked the physically powerful feminine characters. This novel definitely has a serious tilt towards the significance of companionships and a pro-Canada idea that I liked. A retired Major named George Magee could not stop thinking about Sakai. She is a Costa-Rican woman that regardless of many years which divided them simply attracted him. He considered that he decided the correct decision by leaving the youthful beauty however the suffering in his love was not relieved by the times.

After retired, George Magee spends his life with the business of import-export that makes him to go back to Mexico occasionally to meet his clients. His touching emptiness is filled by his sister because he does not have someone else. Miserably, affiliates of a drug cartel callously kill his young niece and brother-in-law and he is filled by furious annoyance and anger.

George is asked by the Canadian government to help the war on the drugs of Mexican by means of using his dealing as a cover, George considers the opportunity to cross out in vengeance. He is powered by his fury and his expectation of having relationship with Sakai again. He is taken on a exciting adventure and journey out and in of the drug operation.

sacred geometry

sacred geometry

How to Find Your Editor

To land a great literary agent you MUST stand out from the pack and not give the agent, or her assistant, any reason to automatically toss your pages into the rejection pile.
 
Some writers need editorial help to get there; some don't. If you decide to hire an independent editor to help you prepare your manuscript for submission, follow these handy guidelines for finding the editor who is right for you - and for your manuscript.

DO:
 
1. Put up an ad. There are lots of websites where you can place an ad for an editor. Some will charge you fees; some won't. You can try getafreelancer.com, guru.com, or elance.com to name a few, but I honestly recommend you take the easy route: craigslist.org. It's free for you and your editor, and TONS of quality freelancers regularly use craigslist listings to connect with potential clients. Beware of a few things if you do place an ad:

You'll get some spam. Easy to delete.
You will get LOTS of responses. Use some of the tips in Part III of this series of posts for sorting through the e-mails and picking the best of the batch.
You'll likely be contacted by scam publishers and predatory fake agents. More on this later, but for now, just hit delete on any e-mail response to a craigslist ad from anyone who claims to be a publisher or agent. The end.

2. Ask your writer's group (and if you don't belong to one yet, join one!). Other writers will be some of your best sources for finding a quality freelance editor. Ask around. If you don't belong to a group yet, Yahoo! has some great groups you can join. (My personal favorites include the Writing and Publishing group and the Fiction that Sells group.)

3. Google. I hesitate to recommend this one to anyone but the most committed of researchers. Searching for a good manuscript editor online takes some perseverance - most of the top results for any given search will be the large services I warn about below. That said, I recently surveyed all of the clients I've worked with in the last five years, and, to my surprise, found that more than a few said they'd found me through a google search. Now, the highest I can find my site without actually typing in "Murdock Editing" is about the 13th page in, so...grain of salt.

DON'T:

1. Pick the first ad that pops up. Finding the right editor takes research - trust me, it's worth your time.

2. Use a big faceless service. I'm not going to name names, but you can find some of the offenders yourself by taking a scroll through the Preditors and Editors database. Many of these larger, corporate-looking editorial services - the ones that have no actual editor name and face behind them - farm out your work to people with very little to no experience in publishing who are working for next-to-nothing and have no real investment in your success. Some hire quality editors - but it's a crap shoot - you'll have no way of knowing whether your editor is a publishing pro or a college student trying to earn a little extra beer money (not that there's anything wrong with that!).

3. Choose a "literary agent" who also charges fees for editorial work. There are many out there with a mission to educate writers about this scam - start at Preditors and Editors or Writer Beware. Basically it comes down to this - no legitimate literary agent will ever charge you for anything upfront (except maybe incidentals like printing and mailing supplies - but that's at smaller agencies and fairly rare). If an "agent" is offering to edit your work for a fee, run. 

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inflatable globes chalkboard paint

Do you scratch your head and wonder what you can do to increase the visibility of your book? Do you wonder how you can get your name and site in the search engines on a regular basis? Well, virtual book tours can help in that area.

I recently did a Google search for "virtual book tours" and it came up with over 17,000,000 results. So, it's obvious that millions of people are using this means as a method of creating visibility. And, why not, it is a valid means of promotion - it not only creates visibility, it is also a useful tool to draw traffic back to your site. But, it's important to remember that it's only one strategy in a marketing plan.

Just how do you get involved in a virtual tour? Well, with most virtual book tours, you ask a blogger to host you. There are many bloggers who are looking for content for their blogs and hosting an author is great content. You may even be asked by a blogger to visit their site as a guest. There are also some organized tours in which you make the rounds (usually for a week of other specified amount of time) as a guest on several blogger sites in a circuit tour. These types of tours may be initiated by a publisher, promoter, or the authors themselves. While these circuit tours do produce a wider range of visibility, it is for a specific amount of time.

While these tours are a useful strategy to help bring you and your book into the limelight, they are limited. It can become a little burdensome to continually need to look for opportunities to be a guest on bloggers' sites. Depending on how large your network is, this can become quite challenging. In addition to this, I'm sure your goal is to sell your book for as long as you can - this means ONGOING promotion.

One group that takes it up a notch is VBT - Writers on the Move. Imagine having the ability to be a guest on other authors' sites on a regular basis - having guaranteed exposure every month, without the burden of finding bloggers who are willing to host you. In addition to this you won't have to find host sites that have good reputations and have a decent amount of traffic. This group is one of the only groups I know of that offers this type of exposure.

VBT - Writers on the Move is a group of 30 authors (so far). Included in the group are: author and President of 4RV Publishing, Vivian Zabel; award winning author and editor, Lea Schizas; and award winning author Carolyn Howard-Johnson, recipient of many writing and achievement awards. What's great about this group is that it covers a wide range of fiction and nonfiction writing genres, such as children's books, romance, suspense, and poetry. This allows the books to be visible to a much larger audience than if they were promoted within one genre.

Along with the ongoing virtual tours, VBT - Writers on the Move offers a number of other marketing tools to help promote its members and their work. It has a Link Exchange, Book Reviews (for those members who are interested), a Library strategy, a monthly Mystery Site Giveaway, a Viewpoint/Hot Topics monthly segment, and it has its own blogsite. But it doesn't stop there, the manager and members are constantly moving forward and looking for new tools and strategies to create visibility and increase sales.

One of the goals of VBT - Writers on the Move is to broaden its horizons by increasing membership. Since the name of the game is promotion through visibility, the more members the more visibility. This means more readers get a chance to learn about the members and their books - this encourages sales.

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drafting table inflatable globes