A progress report! Ugh…I feel like I’ve been such a slug this summer (no summer releases), but I’ve really been quite busy. The delay in getting anything released is due to my early summer experiment with Amazon’s KDP Select program. (Okay, we learn by our mistakes!) Their “exclusivity” clause meant I couldn’t release “Trace Evidence” anywhere in digital format except on Amazon. Then I finished “Press’d To Kill” which had spoilers for “Trace Evidence”, so I put it out on KDP as well. (A chain reaction causing a back-up in the release process…my poor readers!)

All this means early September release of “Trace Evidence”,  

followed by release of “Press’d To Kill”

only once TE has fed to retailers. Then I can release #11 in the series, followed by work in progress, “Christmas Jumper”.

Yes, I’m tired just thinking about it! LOL

Both of these KDP agreements end by the first week of September, so I can finally get them out on Smashwords, Barnes & Noble, Sony, iTunes, PublishMyBook.ie, Bibliocracy, etc. for my Nook fans and others. 

A new Preston Andrews mystery “A Pressing Reunion” comes out this fall. This one introduces Samantha Hartley (remember her from “Pressing Engagement”) who has opened her own business in DC and is getting her own series, .
So, of course, I had to get started on Sam’s first book, “Christmas Jumper”, out this fall, as well. Got a very  bright and wintery cover designed. 
Then, someone (Hugh) suggested that I put out a print version of The Preston Andrews Mysteries in what he called “omnibus” versions–I call them compilations. Tomatoes…tom a toes! That meant tracking down the published versions of each of the novellas, pulling them into two volumes (1-5 and 6-11), reformatting each one to a new size (7″x10″ for these large volumes) and doing covers (which I love to do anyway).

 

Whew.
Thanks to Hugh Ashton (his patience has to be wearing thin) and Jacqueline Hopkins-Walton, authors with their own work to do (not to mention lives to live) my enthusiatic beta readers this summer, “A Pressing Reunion” has now been finalized and the cover designed. It’s uploaded for print, but will not be released until fall.

Keep your eye out for THE PRESTON ANDREWS MYSTERIES 1 (VOLUMES 1-5) and 2 (VOLUMES 6-11). This will be a great way to give these novellas as a gift for the holidays. Each will be $15.99 on Amazon, which is much more reasonable than I can price the print versions individually. 

I look forward to hearing from my readers when these projects finally get released! In the meanwhile…

Keep reading!

Linda Rae