I've Removed the Print Book for Visions of Death: The Music Department Murders from Amazon

I have several friends and colleagues who will not shop on Amazon.  

It's taken me some time to figure out what to do about the paperback for my supernatural suspense, Visions of Death, which was only available through Amazon, even though I published the paperback and an ebook of The Unmoving Sky through Draft2Digital years ago. I'm happy to work with them. They've been an outstanding resource for authors. 

I don't know why I stayed. Maybe because I serialized that book first on Kindle Vella and felt some loyalty? Odd, right? 

At my last authors' meetup, which I host once a month, I told the group I wouldn't be able to publish a paperback for that book because it would cause confusion, mostly due to ISBNs. One of my author friends said, Why don't you unpublish it from Amazon? DING! 

So that's what I did! Yay, me. It also allows me the opportunity to clean up those pesky typos for the subsequent edition. You can still get the ebook for your Kindle since that doesn't create an issue with distribution. 

I kept sending people to the Draft2Digital sources, and they are W I D E.  You may have seen my last blog post about my excitement over my books being available through Bookshop.org. D2D also distributes through Barnes & Noble, Apple, Kobo, Smashwords, and several libraries, Overdrive, Fable, and more. If you don't see a book you want at your local library, ask for it! 

Once the proof for the book arrives, I'll check it over, and if everything looks good, I'll hit publish. 

So fingers crossed that it looks as good as it does online.  

Bookshop.org Raises Money For Local Bookstores

Very exciting! Draft2Digital partnered with Bookshop last February. I was so engrossed in my current project that I'm finally sharing the Bookshop links to my YA books. 

I finished the first draft of that project two weeks ago, a crime fiction about three sisters, and I'm celebrating by taking time for myself and completing other writerly-related stuff.  

The Unmoving Sky 

There's Nothing Darker Than the Woods Until You Meet Your Worst Fear.

 

Jackson Bower has much on his mind lately. His younger brother hasn't been the same since his mother's death. His father's drinking is out of control. Then there's his girlfriend and the grief that ties them together even as it threatens to drive them apart. He distances himself, hoping for a little perspective at the family lodge. But when his father gets drunk and dangerous, he and his brother Artie escape into the woods.

 

Night creeps in, and the rains come fast. Artie slips down a ravine. Wounded, Artie and Jackson seek shelter in a cave, only to find someone else already taking refuge there. A desperate man with plans to destroy their town. Jackson and his brother must get out of the cave and make it over the mountain in time to warn everyone – without getting themselves killed first.

 

"The rural setting's rich insights and smells grow ever darker as the characters come to life in this poignant tale. A coming-of-age story reveals the bonds between family & friends as the mystery unfolds. This little book is filled with emotion, hope, despair, and suspense."

 

Visions of Death: The Music Department Murders

Summer 1935 Ruby St. Claire is the Weston Music School's rising star with her swinging jazz quartet. Next stop is the Roseland Ballroom Competition. After taking a break from helping the police find murder suspects with her extra sensory vision, the images of death have returned. Girls from school are disappearing. Ruby has to act fast and find their killer even when all the signs point to her.

"I was deeply immersed in NYC’s jazz scene and the elegance, language, and culture of the 1930s, learning much about the era through small details and author’s notes. On top of that, its a great plot-twister and would make an excellent film or series."

Did you know?   

"Amazon Pulls Support for Perfectly Fine Older Kindles"

In an email to customers, Amazon announced that it would be ending service for Kindle devices older than the 2012 edition. Those devices will lose access to the Kindle Store.

WIRED article  

And that Bookshop raises money for local bookshops?  Now that is awesome! So it is Artimis II.  Okay, Artimis II wins in the awesome category. 

No Tolerance in the Era of BS

 

Draped in a cape and multi-colored scarves, a brown wide-brimmed hat, and all the wisdom of the ages, my dear friend of over thirty years walked toward me for our day at the museum. 

We swirled in conversations about our children, now adults, their trials, their art, and new apartments. At the same time, we viewed the museum exhibits about the artifice of man, robots, and films about how governments manipulate the lives of people around the world, interjecting snippets about the pedophile president, bought by the highest bidder, beholden to dictators, who was stripping the American people of their hard-won rights. 

We landed on a park bench in the sun to thaw from months of freezing temperatures, green tea and coffee in hand. 

She is a self-described shaman, living in Woodstock, here to see a doctor who will help her with a medical condition. I’m taking medication for Graves’ disease -- discovered after my routine bloodwork last September. 

Drink celery juice in the mornings, with lysine, my friend said, but make sure to add the lysine, because I forgot the first time. Your skin will be so clear. Oh, your skin already looks great. Aren’t we fortunate our skin looks so good at this age? 

“Are these studies backed by science?” I asked her. “That ‘medical medium’ was found to be a quack, a scammer, years ago. My friend suddenly had to go. She’d finished her coffee, and she was finished telling me all about her life and administering new age remedies. 

I had no patience for the unproven remedies she administered with confidence. I don’t have the patience for pseudo anything. I get my fiction when I write novels. 

In this era of epic scams and cheaters, does anyone have tolerance for BS? I need truth and proven testing, the scientific method. Let’s hope this era of Trumpism dissolves all the phony everything. 

 And that more people find fiction in reading books.

Over 8 Million Attend the No Kings March.

We marched in massive numbers -- Again! 

There were protests across the globe -- shouting against fascism and the US president, enriching himself with our tax dollars, who is beholden to dictators, and destroying the gains we've made through the years in science, the environment, privacy, health, and civil rights, and so much more. Most of us know what's happening, and it's dire. The economic boycott (general strike) is on May 1st. May Day May Day! 

 

Thank you, Eteri Chkdua, for several of these photos! 

Short Video from the march passing through Times Square, video by me. 

Photo: Eteri

Photo: Eteri

Photo: Eteri

Singing Resistance to ICE

Me and Eteri

Since I left TikTok, I needed somewhere to post this Singing Resistance march that happened on February 28!  Watch the video for the full effect. The link will take you to YouTube.  

LISTEN TO THESE BEAUTIFUL VOICES:

As we take to the streets of NYC! 

 

No, to the Oligarchy! One Step at a Time.

I don't feel comfortable using the oligarchy's social media sites, the ones that have harmed authors, children, and the planet. 

And I don't have to while Bluesky is available. 

"Bluesky is free for all users. And it is decentralized, which means it is incredibly improbable that anyone can come along and buy it to use as their own propaganda machine. " Steve Tetreault 

Does this hurt my ability to write? No! Sell books -- I don't know? But it's ridiculous to write against them if I'm using their sites.

Imagine if all creators moved to an open-source social media platform? One of our collective powers is our purchasing power. I've been talking about this since 9/11, when we marched against a war we didn't want, begging people to end their addiction to oil. Some things only change in tiny increments, and it sure is frustrating. 

So join me on BlueSky, Love8Rockets (my old Twitter handle), and say adios! to our oligarch-controlled media, one step at a time.

It's Smashwords Read an Ebook Week through March 7

You can grab a copy of my Young Adult Thriller, The Unmoving Sky, or my historical suspense, Visions of Death: The Music Department Murders, at deep discounts! 

Plus many other ebooks! 

But don't delay, the sale ends on March 7th.