With little fanfare, I released my three new books into the wild yesterday. Within hours, they were in the premium catalog at Smashwords and available at Apple iBooks. Amazon was quick to review and make available the Two Sisters and a Journalist books, but Buckeye Hunter has been stuck in review for over twenty-seven hours now. Hopefully, they will release the book soon.
Amateur private investigator, Jo Ravens, is the only common link in the murder of three people and the abduction of a cab driver. While police are busy building a case against her, Jo races to prove her innocence. Her sister Pepper and journalist friend Jackie are on hand to assist in catching the real killer. The antics of her ex-husband and eccentric Mama add to this humorous mystery.
Jo Ravens is busy trying to locate a stolen car, find a missing teen, and catch a philandering husband in the act. She already has more work than she can handle when she finds a murdered girl leaning against a dumpster. Jo also meets Susan Hunter when Susan comes to town to assist in the opening of a Slimmers Weight Loss center.
Susan travels to Southeast Ohio to assist in the grand opening of a Slimmers Weight Loss center. There she meets Jo, Pepper, and Jackie – local sleuths from Two Sisters and a Journalist . When a murder is committed on Susan’s doorstep, Jo is the one to find the body. Susan can’t believe the trouble swirling around her even though she is only two hours from home. She makes a life-changing decision in this final book of the Susan Hunter series.
That’s all for today. In my efforts to continue chronicling my writing efforts via my blog, I wanted to post the new releases.
I’m going to eat some chocolate now.
Breezy Books 
Wow. Look at you go! I downloaded Murder is Where the Heart Is. Though my reading list is long, long, long, I look forward to getting to it. You’re amazing!
Carrie, you are so kind! Thank you very much. I still love the opening line of that book – “Chasing caviar with a double shot of gin killed my stomach.” I don’t expect you to read it anytime soon, but I hope you enjoy it when you do.
I have a long flight coming up in March. If I haven’t got to it before then, I surely will then. They’re just the right read for a long plane ride!
Perfect! I did some editing on that book on an airplane. The lady next to me must have thought I was nuts with all the highlighting and note making I was doing in my Kindle. 🙂
I write on my laptop sometimes on the plane, but I always feel weird when someone looks over to see what I’m doing. “Hey, no peeking,” I want to shout. 🙂
Congrats. on all the new releases–glad to “see” you. 2014 was a bad year and 2015 isn’t much better for me, but I’m happy to see these books!
Thank you, Nancy. I’m sorry to hear last year was a bad year. It’s very early yet … here’s hoping to a better 2015 for you!
Maddie!!!! You done did it girl! Yay!!!! I’m so happy you got these 3 done and published. I can’t wait to read them! 🙂 ❤
Thank you, Jackie. I’ll feel a lot better when Amazon releases its grip on Buckeye Hunter, but it’s such a good feeling (freedom) to have them all finished and out there. Thanks again for your help!
Glad to have been of some small service. You know you just have to shout and I’m there for you!
I know you are! You are a great friend!!
Wow!! Maddie, three books!! Incredible. Congrats! I can’t wait to read them!! Yes, definitely eat some chocolate. You deserve it.
Thanks, Amy! I’m relaxing and watching a movie tonight. It feels good to have let those books go free! 🙂
Three books? Obviously you had writer’s block, or there would have been four books. And do you think we really believe “this final book of the Susan Hunter series.” Susan could always have a flashback, recount a dream, tell a story she was too busy to relate to us years ago, etc. 🙂 Congratulations!
Ha! Number four is in the works. 😉
And it truly is the final Susan Hunter book. I’m having too much fun writing Jo Ravens. One reviewer said the first book in the new series was “Something fun, something different, something funny and, oh by the way, just a little bit warped in the sense of humor department.” I loved that review!
However, I have given thought to trying my hand at young adult fiction. I could write Susan’s daughter as a teenager and have her solve local mysteries. That would still keep the Susan Hunter main characters “alive.”
So many ideas … so little time. 🙂
Cool idea, Maddie. I loved the Susan Hunter characters.
Must be a huge buzz and a huge relief 😀
I’d stressed for so long about getting these three books finished and published, the excitement of a new release was diminished. However, the relief factor is definitely huge. It feels wonderful to be writing and relaxing without other projects calling to me.
One at a time maybe? 😀
That’s the way it should have gone, but there was so much rewriting and work to do on the one book, and the other two had to be released at the same time because they’re parallel stories. But I’ve learned my lesson! One at a time from now on! 🙂
I love the black and whites you’ve put up recently. The swamp is fantastic.
Thank you, sounds like you painted yourself into a bit of a corner, but found a way past it so all good in the end 🙂
I’m off to buy Buckeye Hunter. I love that you set it in southeastern Ohio. It will be easy to picture for me. (Totally different from southwestern Ohio where I live.) 🙂
Thank you, Juliann! When I first started this new series, I loosely based fictional Buxley, Ohio on the St. Clairsville area with Wheeling being the fictional Patterson, Ohio. Although there are no clear resemblances, it helped to have a fixed idea of the area when determining distances and where everyone was going. In the first book, I did send the ladies to Pittsburgh. 🙂 I may send Jo off to Columbus in the new book. Thanks so much for picking up Buckeye Hunter!!
Congratulations on the trio. Being from southeastern Ohio I perked up, then again, Ohio’s southern shape makes defining it difficult.
Thank you, Frank. Yes, it is difficult to define. Fictional Buxley, Ohio could be any small town in any part of Ohio. I didn’t set the location on the river, so it really has no unique characteristics to Ohio other than seasonal weather.
You’re a wonderment. Inspiring.
Thank you, Tim. I appreciate your kind words. … You’re quite the inspiration yourself!
Maddie – 3?! That rocks. I’m about to release 3 this month… but I wonder, do you use a service to convert to all those formats. I’ve got Amazon down, easy, but not sure how to do the others… help?
thanks! looking forward to reading that last ‘hunter’ and the new series!
kevin
Yay for three! Congratulations on your new releases, too!
I use Smashwords for all of my distribution outside of Amazon. I format for them first, then copy the body of the story to start a new word doc. for Amazon and then format/build around that. I posted a step-by-step guide for formatting for Smashwords a while back. Here’s the link: https://breezybooksblog.wordpress.com/2012/09/19/formatting-for-smashwords/ That may or may not help you. Take a look!
Thanks for reading my books! 🙂
🙂 Awesome – thank you!
Do you have a favorite or best platform. So many people are amazon only (like me) and I wonder if there is a better platform now – with Kindle Unlimited, sales have taken the low road 🙂
thanks
Kevin
I have never been exclusive to Amazon. Barnes & Noble (Nook) has usually run only slightly less than my sales at Amazon, and in recent months Apple has surpassed my monthly sales at Amazon.
It helps that I have a “free first in series.” The free book has been promoted across all vendors, and that has been helpful in driving sales to the other books. Kobo included my book in a “free first in series” promo last year, and Smashwords pitched my free book to Apple (along with others, of course), and it was picked up by iBooks for a Christmas promotion.
In the past 30 days, I’ve sold twice as many books at Apple as I have at Amazon. Barnes and Noble sales are about 60% of Amazon sales.
I’m in the process of slating some advertising for this month for Murder Under Construction, the first book in the new series. I dropped the price to 99 cents now that the other two books are out. I’ll probably make that book perma-free eventually, but I’m going to wait until I have another book or two in the series.
If you aren’t happy with going wide, you can always go back to Amazon and take advantage of the exclusive benefits. Good luck! 🙂
Awesome! Congratulations! 🙂 On my reading list! 🙂
Thank you, Julia!! 🙂
I ordered “Maple Leaf Hunter” and “Buckeye Hunter” today–sorry, got behind in the series.
Nancy! No need to apologize for not reading. I appreciate that you’ve read any of the books! Thank you!
I finished Maple Leaf Hunter last night and left my review on Amazon. Nice job! So many books -so little time-lol!
Thank you, Nancy! You are always so kind. 🙂
I love to read great books like yours, but have only read the first two you published, but I will put them on my reading list. So many great books out there and so little time, but soon I will have more time for reading and writing my own books when I retire later this year. I can’t wait and am counting the days.
I’ve worked from home for almost twenty years now. I might as well be retired. You’ll enjoy having your own time and schedule to do the things you want. I agree with you … so many great books and not enough time to read them all!
Weird . . . it says I am following, but have not received any notices . . . I’m way behind on the posts.
I thought perhaps you had stopped posting to concentrate on writing.
. . . at least part of that assumption is correct. Congratulation, and best wishes for the books to be a success.
I’m going to subscribe again, just to make sure . . .
Thank you, Emilio. I knew last spring it was going to be tough to write and have the granddaughter for six weeks over the summer, too. Once I dropped out of blogging, it was nice to have so much time, but I did start missing online friends. I’m getting around on a limited basis right now. I don’t see every post, but I try to read blogs on Fridays and Saturdays. You are back on my follow list, so I’ll see you soon,
Don’t feel like you have to, especially since you’d be hard-pressed to find short posts on my blog.
In fact, I would suggest I should be one of the last blogs you should check out unless you have a lot of time. I don’t say that out of false modesty; I honestly prefer people only read if they have the time to devote to it. Too many obviously skim, and it’s worse than if they had not read it at all.
I know what you mean. I felt like I had to read every post of everyone who followed me, and it took ALL my free time. I won’t do that again. However, there are some blogs I enjoy more than others, and your photography especially delights me every time. If I only leave a “like” at your blog, you can be sure I stayed long enough to read your entire post.
A triple?? Such a feat would be impossible for the average writer– but you, Maddie Cochere, are not the average writer!! Congrats, and well done! And I really like the covers for the Two Sisters books. Hang onto that template, it’s a winner!
Are you still eating chocolate?? Good– you deserve it!!
Hello, Mark!! I’ve been super busy, but I’m taking my Saturday evening to catch up with blogging. I’ll be by your place some time tonight to see what you’ve been up to!
I’m so glad YOU (my favorite illustrator!) like my template. I designed it myself. 🙂
Chocolate has definitely taken a back seat, but a little here and there for celebration is necessary. … Although I really should cut back on the number of things I celebrate!
Your own template?? It’s brilliant– as is your writing and your esteemed self!! : )
No! Wait a minute, the final book in the Susan Hunter series?? Final??? I didn’t get that first time I read the synopsis. No way Hose’, that can’t sure be the final book?!?!?!? Oh well, enough drama. Big girls don’t cry.
Proud of you and your amazing achievement in creativity and productivity!
🙂 Yes, final. I don’t want to force the stories, and I think Buckeye Hunter was a nice ending and transition to the new series. Upthread I mentioned that it might be fun to write a young adult book with Susan’s daughter as the protagonist. That would keep the characters alive but not necessarily prominent in the stories. That’s something to think about in the future.
Thank you for your kind words. 🙂