Bad Apple 4, 5 and 6

I know I have fans of Maisie and Emer.  I think you love them as much as I do and I'm so grateful for your interest and enthusiasm.  There are 3 more books planned and I'm so sorry to disappoint you but I can't do them right now. 

Here's the reality of writing.  It's how I earn a living.  If something doesn't sell, I have to try to write something that does.  Bad Apple found you, you found Neal and Tru, but not enough readers did. 

I tried putting Bad Apple 1 for free on Amazon hoping that if readers downloaded the book they would be intrigued and want to continue with the story.  A lot of people did download the book but they didn't go on to purchase 2 and 3.  There were no sales of 1 after it was free.

So it's sad but that's what a writer's life is like.  You do your best and sometimes people don't connect with the work.

Read Flash and Flash of Light.  Kip and Alex are great.  Read Just Kate.  Kate and Fitch are wonderful.
Read Miss Wish's Missed Wish.  Mill and Caprice are lovely together.

Tell people when you like something.  Leave 5 star reviews so Amazon realizes it's a good book and puts it into their algorithm (people who liked this also liked) and more people find out about the books you like.  Leave good reviews wherever you go--GoodReads, Shelfari, BN, Smashwords.  We're in this together.  It's a partnership.  Writers and readers are closer than ever before in the history of the written word and we need your help.  Can't do it without your support.

Dream Horse in Paperback

Yes, I've been quiet for a while.  That's because I've been busy.  I have a couple different projects I've been working on and decided to do paper editions of Dream Horse, Murder Is Exhausting and Nothing Serious.

Dream Horse was written quite a few years ago and was titled Impossible Charlie.  Charlie was a real horse and he was very impossible.  It was published traditionally and you can still find a paper edition at amazon.fr.  Charles L'Impossible or something.  When the rights reverted to me, it was the first book I self published.   I used the artwork by a famous designer who did this collage in trade for some rare postcards.  His name is Michael Bartalos.   But when it became a digital book I realized that people didn't know by the title what either Nicki & Wynne was about or what Impossible Charlie meant.  So I renamed N&W to Summer Horse and suddenly people understood that.  After thinking about it for quite a few weeks, I renamed Charlie Dream Horse and created the cover using a photo I took of my own horse, Sparky.

1st paperback and Kindle Edition

I was happy being only digital but then began to realize a lot of readers could enjoy these books but haven't gone digital yet.  So that's what I've been doing this month.

Cover for the new paperback version

When will it be available?  Soon.  At Amazon.

Map of a Heart

I'm experimenting.  If you haven't figured me out yet, I'll just come right out and tell you I like doing things differently.

I've been collecting vintage postcard images for quite a while now and it occurred to me they would make a lovely little booklette.  I'm calling it Map of a Heart because the cover image and the first image is about 160 years old and titled Map of a Woman's Heart.   I used Elizabeth Barrett Browning's beautiful sonnet and the postcards which meld together so nicely.

 

Update:  Apparently Amazon doubts I wrote this one, too, so I'm sorry but we'll probably miss Valentine's Day with this.   

Update of the Update:  Here's a link to Smashwords where you'll find this book for free in multiple formats.  

Map of a Heart  Happy Valentine's Day. 

Bad Apple 1 New Cover

Someone far more clever than I about writing books that vast (vast vast) numbers of people want to buy gave me some advice on Bad Apple.  I, being me, didn't take any of it.  I thought it was not the story I wanted to tell or that I had told.  It was exactly the story he would tell.  The Bad Apple books are not about revenge.  They're not about getting back or getting even.  Doing well is the best revenge and Neal is given an opportunity to become who she truly (wink) is.  She takes it and trying to be a sensible person moves on with her life.  It's not an easy book, or an easy trilogy.  The violence is real, the situations are real and the pain is real.

As I was rethinking a cover I did for someone else, I thought about Bad Apple and all the aspects that come into play maybe I could change the cover and see if Brian's advice was right.  Then after it was created I wondered if anyone would recognize what it's a picture of.

For the 3rd time this week I changed the cover on a book, Amazon congratulated me on being successfully published and the cover is still the old one.  So I'm sorry (really sorry) about that.  But if you recognize what this is, please leave a comment.