Oh Mystery Tree, Oh Mystery Tree--DAY THREE!

DAY THREE WINNERS

Harvee - The Ruby of Siam 

Barbara T - Chasing Lady Midnight 

Sherry Smith (Anonymous) - Frozen Assets 

DAY TWO WINNERS

Barbara T won Terror on Tybee Island
Marsha Holz won Chasing Lady Midnight
Ann Marie Japson won Frozen Assets
(please leave an email under your post so we can contact you)

DAY ONE WINNERS

Jerry won Murder in Half Moon Bay

Karen Candee won A Tisket, A Casket

Kathy Otto won Misfortune Cookies

(Karen and Kathy, please leave your email in a comment below. We need to contact you.)

YOU MIGHT BE A WINNER TODAY! ENTER BY LEAVING A COMMENT AND TELL US WHAT BOOK(S) YOU WANT TO WIN. PLEASE LEAVE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS SO WE CAN CONTACT YOU.

From now until December 25th, we're giving away our cozy mystery books each day to readers! To enter, just leave a comment about a book on the tree you'd like to read and your name will automatically be entered!

FIND US!

Deborah Malone

www.deborah-malone.com

deborahsbutterflyjourney.blogspot.com 

Nancy Jill Thames

http:www.nancy-jill.blogspot.com

Nancy Jill Thames on Facebook 

Linda P. Kozar

Linda's website

Linda Kozar on Facebook

S. Dionne Moore

S. Dionne Moore's Website
Join me on Pinterest for recipes and news on books

C.L. Ragsdale

Cindy's Books

Traci Hilton

http:www.tracihilton.com

http://www.facebook.com/tracihilton

AND A CUP OF COZY is FREE on Amazon and Smashwords (ebook). This book is our gift to you! A petite collection of charming Christmas mysteries and holiday recipes as well as SNEAK PEEKS at upcoming mysteries by the authors of Cozy Mystery Magazine!

Oh No, I Have Nothing to Blog About...AGAIN!

Well it has happened again. I have nothing to blog about this week.

Sorry, I’m just boring that way.

The Great Scarecrow Invasion is done, published and over with. Except for the minor details of marketing the thing. Anybody want to buy a book?

Anyway, I may have to skip the Fall completely because I’m so over Fall stuff because this book took so long to write.

Let me know when Thanksgiving gets here okay?

Well I was working on my next book, Chasing Lady Midnight, and now she’s starting to talk to me. My characters do that, a lot. I must remind myself sometime why I wanted to become a writer and be pushed around by imaginary people. I know there must have been a reason.

So what does she want? Well not only, thanks to my graphic guy, does she now have a dog she didn't have before...

Don't you look cute at me, you cause nothing but trouble!

...now she wants a fiancé.
A WHAT?
Do you know what this means? This means I’m going to have to put romance into my superhero cozy mystery. I’ve NEVER written romance in any of my stories. Irene Waters never had to have a boyfriend, why does Lady Midnight?

I have come to the conclusion that my characters are nothing but troublemakers. But I tell you if the dog starts talking to me I am so retiring. 

Just kidding, I hope.

Even better, at my day job my co-worker in my area, who knew everything, has resigned and moved to Texas. I am trying not to be bitter, but I have been having fantasies of the Texas sized bugs (which I have been assured are big enough to be ridden on) chasing and traumatizing her. 

Just a little.

The saga of the front porch has finally come to an end, but it went over budget. Needless to say getting new windows is not looking good in the near future. But I have been assured that the porch will outlast my house.

Great! If an earthquake takes out my house I can live on the porch.

You know if I were not so boring I would have something to blog about. But nothing exciting ever happens to me.
Regarding my eyelid lift surgery, the insurance is still deciding if they are going to pay for it or not. I hope it doesn’t go the same way as my windows.

I am also working on a new recipe for one called Enchilada Chili Beans (hey, I've got to use up those mystery beans my mother left me). It tasted really good, except I accidentally made it a little (i.e. a lot) too hot and my internal organs are not very happy with me right now.

I will mild it down before releasing it. At least I’ll try. No promises this is aggressive stuff, I think it may have melted a spoon.

That reminds me I need to get some Pepto-Bismol.

Well anyway I am sorry that once again I didn’t have anything to blog about.
Better luck next week.

Mystery writer C.L. Ragsdale is the author of The Reboot Files a Christian Cozy Mystery Series, and a superhero story called Chasing Lady Midnight. A California native, she loves to "surf" the web to research plot details for her fun, quirky stories. She has a degree in Theatre Arts which greatly influenced her writing style. Working in various fields as a secretary has allowed her to both master her writing skills and acquire valuable technical knowledge which she uses liberally in her plots. Although that is where she got her idea for The Secretary, she is not an evil mastermind. Although some of her former employers might disagree. These days she contents herself with knitting while contemplating her next diabolical plot. Story plot that is.

Current E-Books

THE REBOOT FILES:  The Mystery of Hurtleberry House, The Island of Living Trees, The Harbinger of Retribution, and The Wrong Ghost.

www.shortmysteriesandtalltales.blogspot.com
http://www.facebook.com/pages/CL-Ragsdale219184744858421

At Last...My Book is Completed!

Finished and Published!
The Great Scarecrow Invasion is now On Sale.
My launch plans are still a bit delayed, not my fault, Really!
Well...
Seeing as this is the first time I am trying to do a launch it's just taking some time to get everything into place. Sorry I'm kind of on a learning curve here. Hopefully next week, but I decided to go ahead and get it published because it needed to be done. It was way delayed. Anyway, there are some pesky scarecrows up to no good and a diabolical corn maze involved. Also the Secretary's plans are finally revealed! And it's good. What are they? Sorry, you've got to buy the book to find out.
It's for sale on Smashwords, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble. Kobo is coming soon. Oh by the way, I did crack the code on Kobo after all, and all of my books (except Scarecrow) were approved for the Premium Catalogue on Smashwords!
Anyway, my giveaway is The Mystery of Hurtleberry House, all nicely reformatted. That's right it is now Free! Just as soon as it gets out to all the publishing sites from Smashwords. That's part of my launch, which isn't working as smoothly as I hoped. But does anything ever work out smoothly for me? I think not. However, you can download it for free at Smashwords if you like.
I do have a new tab on my blog called "A Writer's Got To Eat - Cooking For One". All that's there right now is the stew recipe, but I figure I'll post one a month. Next month is a black bean soup I stumbled on when I made a mess of something else. I make up the best recipes that way. Now I know I'm not as good a cook as some on this blog (yes Dionne I am looking at you), but this soup is really, really good. By the way, I bought all of her books in this series. They are very good. Go for the giveaway.
So while I figure out all of the marketing for Scarecrow (any suggestions would be greatly appreciated) I am working on my first novella outside The Reboot Files Series, Chasing Lady Midnight. That's right, I said novella. Which will be for sale. Why the change? Well I figured out how to make it into a Cozy Mystery, so it's not going to be exactly like the free post. There will be a lot more to it.
What's that you say? A Cozy Mystery? With superheroes?
Do I dare?
Oh yes, I dare.
But more on that another day.
See you next week!

Mystery writer C.L. Ragsdale is the author of The Reboot Files a Christian Mystery Series. A California native, she loves to "surf" the web to research plot details for her fun, quirky stories. She has a degree in Theatre Arts which greatly influenced her writing style. Working in various fields as a secretary has allowed her to both master her writing skills and acquire valuable technical knowledge which she uses liberally in her plots. She is an enthusiastic (if not always patient) knitter and is a big fan of the old Scooby Doo cartoons. Current E-Books THE REBOOT FILES: The Mystery of Hurtleberry House, The Island of Living Trees, The Harbinger of Retribution, and The Wrong Ghost.
www.shortmysteriesandtalltales.blogspot.com
CL Ragsdale on Facebook!

Adventures In Formatting!

Hi everyone. As you may, or may not, have noticed I didn't post last week. But I have a good excuse.
I was formatting. What's that? Oh I have a tale to tell my friends.
What I'm doing is reformatting all of my books because I've improved them a bit. You see when I first started publishing I had no idea what I was doing so I kept it simple by posting on Amazon, then added on Barnes and Noble. By the way, thank all of you who took a chance on a new author.
Well now I've decided to branch out so I'm publishing on Smashwords who will distribute to other publishers, but I have to get the formatting just as they need it because they all use different formats and Smashwords has to be able to convert the book into all those different formats. I am doing the publishing myself on Amazon, and Barnes and Noble. I'm trying to get Kobo to cooperate, but I'm still set to "publishing" even after the 72 hour maximum. So I may have to rethink that and let Smashwords do it. What do you guys think?
Because here is where the formatting can get tricky.
You see Amazon, who Smashwords does not distribute to, is able to convert the formatting used for Smashwords. So did the Barnes and Noble publishing site called Pubit, but Pubit is in the process of being changed to Nook Press and Nook Press (although it will convert your existing stuff just fine) wants everything converted to the Epub format by their conversion process. I think. However, it apparently is not the same as the Epub format that publisher Kobo uses. Because Kobo...well Kobo has its own way of doing things.
Now to the actual formatting. The easy way to go is Microsoft Word, because they all can convert it. They also like the Normal Style in Word. Remember that one, Normal Stiye is your best friend in formatting. However, the other commands tend to vary.
You see most everyone likes the paragraph breaks, except Kobo who wants a soft paragraph break. Did you know there was a soft paragraph break?   Anyway, most publishers also like the hard page break, except the Epub publishers who need the Style Break. Really, there is something called a Style Break. And never, EVER use the Tab key or space bar to indent. Use the paragraph command to indent the first line. That’s another one they all like.
I didn't even know Word had all of these commands!
Also I bought a new computer and I had to buy Word 2013. Good program, but the instructions for the publishing sites only go to the 2010 version. Now the commands are the same, but Microsoft has put them in a different place in itheir new version. AGAIN.
So to make a long story longer, I didn’t post last week because I had to remove my formatting I had originally set up, and replace it with the format each of the publishers need. Not their fault, I just had to do it several times, which can make you a little cranky, and I didn’t think anyone would need to hear from a cranky poster.
Now I've got my first four books in Smashwords, but although books two and four have been approved for distribution to other sites books one and three are still pending. The only problem with that is book one I'm making free and I need that to go out so I can set up my book launch for book number five (I've never done a book launch before so forgive me if I do wrong). Also it's the only Amazon will post it for free.AND I can't upload book 5 until that happens.
To be fair Smashwords does say it up to 7 to 10 days, but book number 4 got approved overnight. How did that happen?
Maybe I'm just being impatient, but I need that freebie! Although you can get it for free on Smashwords itself.
So if anyone ever decides they want write and publish on the internet, and you love to frustrate yourself, use Microsoft Word in the Normal Style, stick with Times Roman Font at 11 or 12, and keep the formatting as simple as you can because you're going to need to change it depending on which publishers you use.
The good thing about all of this is that I am now sure I know how to do it for the different sites.
Except Kobo, they make me nervous. I thought I had their formatting code cracked, but they don't seem to want to take me live. So maybe I should just let Smashwords distribute to them. If they ever approve my other two books.
You know I really want to get back to writing.

I Have Nothing To Blog About

Hey everyone I'm really sorry, but I have nothing to blog about this week.
True, I am in the final push to finish The Great Scarecrow Invasion. I was on track for the end of May, but one of those darn Beta Readers found an inconsistency so I had to to rewrite a section. Also I'm going to try to up the formatting quality a little so I can have an active Table of Contents. But I am determined that it's coming out this week because I've had it with scarecrows and corn mazes!
I don't know if I will survive the trauma when October rolls around again.
Also I have to get Lady Midnight finished and published, but I need to confer with my graphics designer who is going on vacation. Then I have two more series to outline before I forget what I want to do.
My day job is very busy right now, and my partner in my area left early today. She warned me this was coming, but I chose not to think about it. Anyway I had to fend for myself when we are up to our ears in work!
I am very tired.
Also  my plan to replace my old windows with nice new ones became the replacement of the porch plan. It turns out that the termites and the wood rot got to it and it was in danger of collapsing. Which would not be good.
Needless to say, the old windows are going to have to do for a while.
Man I wish I had something to blog about.
On the "I'm getting old" front, I did find out I may have to have eyelid lift. Not because I want to, I am not into pain which overrides my vanity. However, because my eyelids are drooping they are beginning to interfere with my vision. As if I didn't have enough trouble in that area. Hey, you've seen pictures of my glasses.
 I have been trying to get some of my other recipes for one to work out, but they have all turned into disasters. Edible, I can't afford to waste food even if it does not taste that good, but it's nothing that I would share with anyone else.
You all need to stay healthy and buy my books. I've got to save up for those windows.
So I am really sorry I had nothing to blog about.
Maybe next well be more exciting.

Mystery writer C.L. Ragsdale is the author of The Reboot Files a Christian Mystery Series. A California native, she loves to "surf" the web to research plot details for her fun, quirky stories with just a bit of whopper in them. She has a degree in Theatre Arts which greatly influenced her writing style. Working in various fields as a secretary has allowed her to both master her writing skills and acquire valuable technical knowledge which she uses liberally in her plots. She loves to embroider and knit and is a big fan of the old Scooby Doo cartoons.

Current E-Books

THE REBOOT FILES:  The Mystery of Hurtleberry House, The Island of Living Trees, The Harbinger of Retribution, and The Wrong Ghost.

www.shortmysteriesandtalltales.blogspot.com
http://www.facebook.com/pages/CL-Ragsdale219184744858421