Heading into BLACK WATER!

Less than three days until BLACK WATER’s e-book launch on Friday, May 24. There’ll be an all-day cyber party. And I’ve just added a Rafflecopter contest to the festivities.

The contest opens on Friday and runs until June 15. Books will be given away as prizes.

And the GRAND PRIZE will be a $50 Amazon gift certificate.

Click HERE to see the Rafflecopter giveaway details–and ENTER on Friday May 24!

Unveiling BLACK WATER’s cover

Voilà! Here’s BLACK WATER’s cover — less than four days before the release of the ebook this Friday, May 24.

That will be a big day for me. I’ll be hosting a cyber launch party from 10 a.m. till 10 p.m. on Facebook. You don’t have to live in Toronto where I’ll be to attend. Drop by and chat. You’ll be eligible for PRIZES.

And on Friday, I’ll be starting a seven-day blog tour. Again, you won’t have to be in the places I’ll visit in order to follow me. Just check in here,  and you’ll find the day’s link. And I’ll be posting it on Facebook as well.

What do you think of BLACK WATER‘s front cover, designed by the talented Ryan Doan. I think it’s marvelously moody, with all that black water.

Mama Bear to the rescue!

Mother’s Day today has me thinking of Pat Tierney, my Mama Bear.

Pat is about to launch into Black Water, and prove once again that her family always comes first. When the book opens, her relationship with her daughter, Tracy, is stretched to the limits. So when Tracy asks her help to find her partner, Jamie Collins, Pat heads out to cottage country where an elderly man has perished in a suspicious fire. Unfortunately, Jamie is the prime suspect.

Black Water will be released at the end of this month. And I’m busy, busy, busy getting ready for it. I’ve seen the book’s cover and it’s FABULOUS! I’m planning a cyber launch party and a virtual book tour.

Details of all this will be released soon!

Melodie Campbell on writing comedy

My guest today is Melodie Campbell, who has just launched her new fantasy novel, Rowena and the Dark Lord. It’s the second in the Land’s End time-travel series that features plucky Rowena, a thoroughly modern heroine in an archaic land. Filled with swashbuckling warriors, breathless pacing and wonderful humour, these books are fun reads. Maybe that’s because Melodie got her start writing comedy.

“I had the flu once.  It was terrible.  I couldn’t eat a thing for three hours.”

I hope you giggled at that line.  I think it’s one of my best.  And yes, I am a tad fond of eating.  In fact, you could list it as my major hobby.

My name is Melodie Campbell, and I write comedies.  (This is a self-help group, right?)  Sure I’d like to kick the habit and write a ‘real’ book with literary merit.

Okay, so that’s a lie.  Leave Rowena and the Dark Lord behind?  Not write a sequel?  I’m starting to hyperventilate.  Actually, I love writing comedies.  It’s in my blood.

<crowd gasps here>

A GREEK MASK

Some people are born beautiful.  But most of us aren’t and we look for ways to survive the slings and arrows of life.  Sometimes we choose to hide behind a mask.  That Greek Comedy mask was the one I picked way back.

As a means of self-preservation in the cruel world of teenagers, I looked for the “funny.”  More often than not, I made fun of myself.  This was easy to do.  I knew the target well and there was a wealth of material.  And it didn’t hurt anyone else, so people liked it.

When I left school and found a “real” job, I started writing stand-up on the side.  I rarely delivered it – usually I wrote for others. That led to a regular newspaper humour column, and more.

So when it came to writing fantasy novels, I fell back into “safe mode.”  Write it funny.

IT’S AN ADDICTION

Worse than chocolate and foreign Counts. Comedy writers take a situation, and ask themselves “what’s the worst thing that could happen now?” And then, what’s the funniest?

But why do it?  Why does an otherwise sane individual write zany and some might say silly comedy, and risk the inevitable hit from critics who say your book is without great literary merit?

One reason, and one reason only: many readers love it.  Their comments and reviews are heart-lifting.  I’ve lightened their day with adventure and laughter, and in some cases given them a story they can escape into, over and over again. It’s all about readers.

And here’s an excerpt from Rowena and the Dark Lord:

I was beginning to get a very bad feeling.

“Did you volunteer for this job?”

“Yes.” Howard was now relieving himself off to my right.

“Why?” My voice was perhaps a little harsh.

“To get out of fighting, of course. Everyone says there’s going to be a big battle. It seemed like a good time to leave the castle.”

I rolled my eyes. So now I had a complete newbie horse dude who was also a coward to look after on this trip. Howard the Coward. Lucky me.

“Can we sit for a bit? I’m exhausted.” He plunked down on the grass. Then he sprang up again.

“Ow! Ow! Ow!” He ran around in circles.

“What is it?” I watched in amazement.

“A bee! I sat on a bee.”

“Are you sure it’s a bee?” I said, crossing my arms. “Maybe it was a wasp.”

“Does it matter?” He was jumping up and down.

“Well, if it’s a wasp, you’re okay. If it’s a bee, the stinger will still be stuck in you. So when you sit down again…”

“Ahhh!! Take it out! Get it out!” He lifted his tunic and bent over.

Ick.

I turned away. “I am so not doing that.”

 * * *

Melodie Campbell achieved a personal best this year when Library Journal compared her to Janet Evanovich.  She has over 200 publications, including 100 comedy credits, 40 short stories, and 4 novels. She has won 6 awards for fiction.  www.melodiecampbell.com

Enter for a $50 Amazon gift certificate and 15 book Giveaway!  Free!  Deadline is May 10 www.funnygirlmelodie.blogspot.ca

Rowena and the Dark Lord is now available at the special introductory price of .99! You can buy it here.

And the book that started it all, Rowena Through the Wall, the first adventure in the Land’s End series, is available here.

The cover story!

Just saw the cover of NEFARIOUS NORTH. I have a short story, “The Pre-Paid Funeral” in this exciting new crime fiction anthology. Isn’t its cover fabulous? Click on the image to see a LARGER version.

The anthology will be released in September, and it’s the brain child of Karen Blake-Hall, a mover and shaker in the crime-fiction community of southwestern Ontario.

AND speaking of covers, I just caught a glimpse of the cover that’s being designed by Ryan Doan for my upcoming Pat Tierney mystery novel, BLACK WATER. The image is moody and suspenseful, exactly what’s needed for this novel about buried secrets, family ties…and so much more. All the endorsement blurbs are now in from crime fiction icons Rosemary Aubert, Gail Bowen, Maureen Jennings and D.J. McIntosh — and the novel will be released late next month!

Heady days ahead! And they include the publication of yet another short story, “The Sweetheart Scamster,” in another brilliant new anthology, Mesdames of Mayhem’s, Thirteen for 2013, that’s also coming out in the early fall.

I can’t WAIT for all of this to happen!

Pat Tierney’s headed for Black Water.

Finally! My second Pat Tierney mystery has a title: Black Water. Imajin Books’ copy editor Todd Barselow has just completed the edit of the manuscript, and two wonderful endorsements have already come in from authors Rosemary Aubert and Gail Bowen, with a few more still to come.

The manuscript has now moved into the next production phases–cover design and proofreading. I’m not sure exactly when it will be released, but I’m hoping for late spring, maybe late June.

I found it devilishly difficult to come up with a title for this book. Safe Harbor just fell into place, but I agonized for months over what to call my second child. A few days ago, Gail and Ted Bowen suggested Black Ice or Black Water, and a light went on in my mind. The story is set in the month of March when unseasonably warm weather brings an early spring breakup in Ontario cottage country, so Black Water is perfect for this book. The black water that’s exposed as the ice cover on lakes and streams slowly recedes is deadly cold and treacherous. Like some of the characters in the book.

Please note that the image shown here is NOT my book cover. It’s a painting by Canadian artist Tom Thomson–titled Spring Breakup.

The editing stage

Easter Weekend and spring has finally arrived in central Ontario. With the stirrings of new life all around me, it seems most appropriate that the second Pat Tierney novel has now entered the editing process. My second baby, SAFE HARBOR’s sequel, is in one of the final stages of its gestation.

While the title is still under discussion, the manuscript is now in the hands of Todd Barselow, an Imajin Books editor. Todd’s goal is to polish the novel, not to change it unless there are plot holes or continuity issues. I’m sure he’ll make suggestions for improvement here and there.

In case of a stalemate between us, Imajin publisher Cheryl Tardif will come up with the final decision.

I’m looking forward to working with Todd because I’ve been fortunate to have had some inspired editors in my journalism career. Putting marks on paper – or on an e-document – is the most basic task that an editor does. Editors correct misspellings, punctuation errors, incorrect word usage, and make the book conform to the publishing house’s style rules. But the most effective editors do a lot more than that. They develop a feel for the author’s vision, and take the almost-complete product, and clip, prune and graft. Writers sometimes find this hurts.

Creative marriages between author, editor and manuscript have produced some of the world’s most successful fiction writers. American editor Maxwell Perkins famously presided over the prose of Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Thomas Wolfe.

Canadian editor and publisher Louise Dennys worked with renowned writers such as Graham Greene, John Irving, Alberto Manguel, Ian McEwan, Mordecai Richler, Salman Rushdie and Rudy Wiebe.

I’m not sure what the McCracken-Barselow relationship will produce. But, hey, one can always hope…