Maggie Pill Mysteries

    I have started listening to narrators for the audio version of the second Trailer Park Tales book, Twice the Crime This Time. I had a contract with a narrator a year ago, but COVID intervened, and the contract was never fulfilled. Now I'm looking for a new narrator, and I posted the audition yesterday. This morning I had three auditions...all men. I never thought about having a male narrator. The first book was read by a woman I've worked with before, and I didn't think about it much. Still, the stories are told by four men and four women, so it shouldn't matter who does the reading. Listeners will have to accept the change to another reader no matter what, so why shouldn't it be a male? All three auditions were good. So is it my prejudice that makes me think I should hear a woman reading this?  I'm afraid so. I will wait a day or two in order to get the best narrator I can find, but I need to get over the idea that a woman can read men but a man can...

Well, it isn't technically available yet, but any day now the audio version of ONCE UPON A TRAILER PARK will be buyable. My helpful elves at Cerny American Studios in Chicago hurried to get the audio done in time for Christmas, but the process slowed down at Audible.com. I'm still hoping people have a few Amazon & Audible gift cards to use up, so they'll find out all about the murder at Beautiful Bird RV Park in Florida. The book launch party was held in the park where Hubby and I winter. Some very good friends handled the arrangements, and attendance went way beyond my expectations (though I did learn from my first few book launches to order more books than I think I can possibly sell). Since the party I've heard good things about the book, and quite a few people came by to pick up copies as Christmas gifts. The funniest part is everyone trying to figure out who's who in the book. "When I finish it," one guy told me when we passed his place o...

One of the criticisms I hear of Audible is how expensive audio books are, and I sympathize. Many of my fans save credits or scrimp to buy my newest book, and it's discouraging for authors, who know a new listener probably isn't going to risk $20 plus to try her book. Lately they seem to be getting it, and I have had two hopeful signs. One is that they put my old MACBETH'S NIECE release (written as Peg Herring) into a special romance category that gives readers a price break. The other is that they're having a sale this week (Feb. 18 to 25) on "First of a Series" books, and they included THE SLEUTH SISTERS for less than $6.95 (whatever that means!) That means if you haven't heard Judy, Laura, and Anne perform as Retta, Barb, and Faye, you get a bargain chance. https://www.audible.com/pd/Mysteries-Thrillers/The-Sleuth-Sisters-Audiobook/B00MW75YF0  And since Book #6 is in the works, you'll have some enjoyable listening ahead!

I sent it for editing on Thursday! Anyone who has every written something for publication knows the feeling: half excitement, half dread. Our fondest dream is that the editor sends it back and says, "It's perfect just the way it is!" but that rarely happens. It's more likely to be, "Can you move Chapter Six to Chapter Eight and then merge Ten with Eleven?" Or worse, "You need to make Character D more outspoken, so look at every single line she speaks and see if you can make them all stronger." Anyway, we're on the road to Book 5, in which the sisters go to a retreat at a winery north of Traverse City, MI, (hence the "eat" and "drink" in the title and get into all kinds of trouble (the "be wary" part). The cover artist said I'd see something in February, so stayed tuned. If all goes well, the release will be in mid-April. I plan to put it up for pre-order soon. And for my audio friends, I'm sorry...

The fourth Sleuth Sisters is out on audio, and I have to tell you, I laughed out loud at times as I listened to the actresses read. They're so perfectly Barb, Faye, and Retta! I'm always thrilled with how well Actors' Audio in Chicago handles my books, and the creation of audio books through Audible.com is pretty stress-less for the author. You submit the book for audition, choose the narrator(s) you like, and send them the MS. It takes a while, since there's a lot of studio time, editing, and such involved, but at some point you get the files, listen to them to make sure you're happy with the product, and then okay it. A week or so later, bob's your uncle! Here are the particulars, and if you'd like a code for a free version of the book, let me know. We love to get reviews on both the story and the audio presentation. SS#4 on Amazon

Book #1 I looked up the word benchmark but I didn't learn much. It's a combination of bench + mark, and it represents a new standard. (So what's the bench got to do with it?  Do we sit down and rest when we reach a point where we've done something really cool? I don't intend to. Who wants to rest when you're on a roll?) Wherever the word came from, I'm approaching a benchmark with The Sleuth Sisters, the first book in the series. Sometime in the next week it will hit 1500 in audio book sales. For a book I wrote under a pseudonym, published myself, and promoted haphazardly at best, that's amazing. The production company people are pretty happy, too, since I did a 50-50 share of the profits with them rather than pay upfront. With a second, third, and soon a fourth installment in the series, we've got a small but reassuring stream of money coming in. In e-book, print, and audio sales, I'm earning more on the Sleuth Sisters than any of my ot...

When I go places to promote my books, I usually begin with an introduction to the Sleuth Sisters , explaining that Barb and Faye start a detective agency but don't want Retta involved because she's so very bossy. Audiences get a kick out of Barb's penchant for secretly correcting grammatical errors around her home town. S ome who've read the books tell me what a sweetie Faye is, and a few have confessed that though they didn't like Retta at first, she's become tolerable because her strengths contribute to the agency's success. What's most rewarding about talking to audiences about the books is that women tend to compare their own sibling relationships to my characters' situation. "I have a sister who--" or "There are four of us and--" and interestingly enough, "I'm the bossy one in my family. I'm Retta." They see their own families in the Sleuth Sisters, and they try to decide which sister they're mos...