The Ghost of Dixboro is now up and ready to be downloaded onto everyone's Kindle. Or if you prefer actual print books you can purchase a copy through Amazon.
This book represents a departure for me, since it is the first book that is a fictionalization of actual events.
Check out this post to get the scoop on where the story comes from.
I am grateful for the support I've been getting from the Dixboro Facebook page. I think it was my cousin Kris Koch-Jones who first posted about the book. And since then many people have commented. Keep the buzz going guys, I love it! And hopefully the Dixboro General Store will be carrying it soon, if they aren't already.
Events coming up
I will be at the Bellaire Harvest Festival on Saturday, September 24 signing and selling books.
Then on October 1st, I will be in Grayling at the Arts and Crafts show.
On October 29, I will be in Dixboro at a quilting retreat and hopefully I will be doing a signing there as well, at the Dixboro General Store.
Then on November 5, I will be back in Bellaire at their Holiday Gift Fair. Books make the greatest gifts!
This winter I will be stepping up my schedule and branching out to do library events. I can certainly talk for 45 minutes about writing in general and mine in particular. I will have to limit my comments, because once I get going I don't stop.
If you have any suggestions as to libraries where I could come and speak, please contact me through this site. I will get back with you at once.
What's been on my mind?
This summer has been busier than a bee in a clover field. I had some good events in Elk Rapids, Frankfort and up at the Straits in Mackinac City. I thoroughly enjoyed myself except for one rainy day in Mackinac City. But there is nothing that will spoil an outdoor Art Fair faster than rain.
But all in all, I love getting out to these things because I truly enjoy speaking with people who appreciate the written word. I am getting so that I can tell if someone is a reader or not, because their eyes go right toward printed material as if they are hungry for it. Once I recognize my kindred spirits I can easily get them to walk in under my tent and talk with me about my work. In Mackinac City, I actually had a line of people waiting for me to sign books. It was great! I had two women who bought four of my six books the first day of the show and then came back the second day to buy the other two. It was fun!
That's why I came straight home and signed up for three more events before the end of the year.
My biggest problem is that my employee (who doubles as my personal chef (and my son)) has another job now working at Qdoba up the road from us. So now I may have to do some of these events on my own. It's OK, Qdoba is paying him more than I could.
New Projects:
I've already decided which book will be next. "Border Babes" is being Beta Read right now by two people and as soon as I get their feedback I will be publishing it. So be on the lookout.
Nanowrimo is coming up soon and I will be writing a book about two people who meet a bus station. The working title of it surprisingly enough is "The Guy at the Bus Station."
Zach is a hard working medical student who is studying in Chicago but who hails from Marquette Michigan. Amber is an angry young woman who had to take a few years out of her life to nurse her dying mother but who now is on her way to college in Marquette. They meet at the bus station in Gladstone and spend the next weekend together. Zach goes back to school and things are going well for him. But Amber finds things falling apart around her. After having her life put on hold for four years she finds it's not just falling into place now either, but rather than live through another holding pattern, she gets angry and finds another solution to waiting. She embarks on an adventure, flitting from one job to another, a dealer in Vegas and then awaitress on a cruise ship. However, Zach, totally smitten with this lovely girl, comes home to find her gone. He goes a little insane and starts stalking her. His obsession turns into a self-destructive spiral until he finally finds her. She has been having the time of her life. And barely recognizes the young man who has chased her around the world at the cost of his own dreams.
New Poll:
OK, here are the books that I still need to Edit. I will set up a poll as to which books you would most like to see me come out with next.
1. Blackburn--An Historical novel that takes place on Mackinac Island before, during and after the war of 1812. Blackburn, thwarted in love has turned into a surly youth who hates everything and everyone. Life doesn't matter to him any more so he joins the Pennsylvania Regulars who are stationed on the frontier between the new United States and Canada. There is about to be a major disagreement between not just the U.S. and Canada, but also the tribes of Native Americans who have been promised their own nation consisting of what is now all of Michigan's two peninsulas. The problem is that the promise was made by the Canadians but was never agreed to by the United States who had already begun to enforce their manifest destiny over all the lands owned by the indigenous peoples. Samuel Blackburn is thrust into this and must fight for what will one day be his.
2. Roaming Tide Creator--Cathryn's family is dying. Her mother has been dying since she was in grade school, but it looks like the Breast Cancer that she's been fighting is going to metastasize in Cathryn's senior year. But Cathryn is self-sufficient, and she has a couple of very good friends who love her and want to help her. So her mother prepares her for the worst while still fostering her hope for the future.
Lance on the other hand, thinks HIS life sucks. His father is an Astronaut. He has two older brothers who have made it their life mission to make sure he has no self-confidence at all. And the one thing he wanted above all other things in the world is a dog that is so big that no one can handle it. Then the worst thing possible happens to him, His father retires from NASA and they come back to Michigan where Lance had to get used to a whole new school and make all new friends. But with no self-confidence how is he ever going to introduce himself to the cute girl on the track team?
Lance thinks his life sucks, but Cathryn's life really does suck.
3. The Artesian Quilt Shop--Casey, Ar, and Daisy have been best friends for a long time, but now that their husband's are all retired it's time for them to pursue their dream of owning a quilt shop. They buy a huge building in the Upper Peninsula and renovate it so that the main floor is the quilt shop complete with long arm room class room and office space and the upper story is their combined living quarters and individual apartments. They sink all of their retirement money into this endeavor and get some of their family members involved in it too. When it's all accomplished and they have moved in they discover the building is haunted.
4. The Life and Times of the Notorious Jedrick Jaxon--"My name is Molly Jaxon. I was a nineteen year old sophomore in college when the 20-minute war happened." This is the first line of a post-apocalyptic book. Molly rises to see all the problems with the world and works to solve these problems. The book is filled with common sense solutions to a world gone haywire. Molly is a heroine for the new era. This incredibly complex book may have to come out in more than one volume. It is probably longer than the Wolves that watch. I have to rewrite it before I begin the edits. But it is looking like it could be my masterpiece. More on this later.
So which should I work on next?
Take the Poll to the right.
