It’s Off And Running

My new book Tinder Street went live about 9 p.m. Saturday night, and by the end of the day on Sunday, it was already at #32 on Amazon’s Hot New Release list for Historical Fiction. And, strangely enough, at #3 in German Fiction. I guess because one of the main characters has a German last name and is facing discrimination about that just before World War I. Thank you so much to all of you who purchased it and told their friends about it.

With the new book out, I spent much of yesterday finishing the latest edition of my author’s newsletter, which includes a sample of the new book as well as a short story by one of my favorite authors, George Wier. After Miss Terry proofread it and I made a few corrections, I sent it out to the subscribers. If you would like to be added to the mailing list for the free newsletter, just send me your e-mail address at editor@gypsyjournal.net I promise never to share your info or to deluge you with spam.

With all of that out of the way, it’s back to writing. I am already over 18,000 words into my next book, and it’s going well. I usually release four books a year, and Tinder Street was my fourth one so far this year. But with COVID-19 keeping us at home, I am taking advantage of the time to get a lot of writing done. I am aiming for two more books by year’s end.

In other news, some people just suck. I talked to the widow of a friend who died a few months ago. He had several guns, all top-quality firearms, and she has no use for them. His brother contacted her wanting to buy all seven of them for $500. Any single one of them is worth twice that. Her husband and his brother never had a close relationship, and he told her that’s all they are worth, and besides, they should stay in the family. Several “friends” also wanted to buy them for next to nothing to “remember him by.”

Knowing I’m into guns, she asked if I could tell her what they are really worth. When I said easily $4,000 for a quick sale, she was so mad that this jerk who is “family” and others who are “friends” are trying to take advantage of her like that. If you need to rip someone off to get something to “remember” somebody, they obviously didn’t mean much to you in the first place.

I live on the other side of the country and have no way to go buy them from her or to try to sell them for her, and I already have more guns than I can shoot, but I referred her to a reputable gun shop that will sell them on consignment for her.

A friend of mine is a retired funeral director, and he has told me more than once that after a death in the family, whether they are well off or just getting by, the vultures quickly show their true colors. I know that to be true from personal experience.

Congratulations Sue Cates, winner of our drawing for an audiobook of Big Lake Blizzard, the fourth book in my Big Lake mystery series. We had 64 entries this time around. Stay tuned, a new contest starts soon!

Thought For The Day – What will happen when the conspiracy theorists find out that they are part of a conspiracy theory to use conspiracy theorists to spread disinformation through conspiracy theories?