A Month Full of Water and Dogs. And Books.

Okey-dokey, the reason I write this blog every month is to, with luck, sell books. So don’t forget that all my Daisy Gumm Majesty books are available on Kindle and Nook! Here’s the link:

 

http://ebookdiscovery.com.p8.hostingprod.com/AliceDuncan.html

Also, here’s the updated cover art for SPIRITS REVIVED, Daisy’s seventh book, which will be published by Five Star in March 2014. I love this cover. It looks ever so much more twenties-ish than the first rendition did:

Then, merciful heavens, we actually had RAIN in September. Seven inches of it in a single day, actually. That was a teensy bit too much, as you can see in the following photographs. You can see the sunken garden in Cahoon Park as it’s Supposed to be and as it was after all the rain on September 12. It looks like it’s supposed to now:

 

After three years of drought, this water came as quite a surprise. Here’s a picture of the desert, where the Pecos River overflowed. For the past several years, there was no water at all in the Pecos River:

 

And then there were the dogs. I was down to one foster dog (Mr. Sausage) when suddenly I was asked to take in Santana, who was actually FLOWN to Roswell by a flying saint-type person. Then Cindy, who had been adopted, decided to eat her new owner’s Chihuahua, so she came back to me. Cindy’s a sweetheart, and so are Mr. Sausage and Santana, but this means I’m caring for eight dogs, which is at least five too many. Sob!

 

To top it all off, a woman in Belgium who has a doggy rescue site on Facebook, discovered the photograph of a miserable little doggy that was being held at Roswell Animal Control’s shelter. Her time was about up, so one of my Facebook friends, whom I don’t know in person, sort of volunteered me to pick up the dog and do something with it until her new mommy, who lives in Florida, can work out transportation. Thank GOODNESS my good friends, the Laskys, agreed to foster this little girl, whose name is now Coco. You can see why everyone was concerned. Her Animal Control picture is truly pitiful. But she’s happy and frisky now:

 

I don’t know why I attract dogs, but I do. I guess it’s my fate. Or my rotten luck or something. Maybe it’s Karma. Maybe I baited bulls in another life. Whatever it is, I wish it would stop.

But what the heck! Please enter my October contest, in which I’ll be giving away a couple of copies of ANCIENT SPIRITS, Daisy Gumm Majesty’s sixth adventure. If you win, you may have it in hardback or as an e-book for Kindle or NOOK. If you want to enter, just send me an email to alice@aliceduncan.net and I’ll throw your name into my special contest doggie dish.

Daisy Gumm Majesty Books Recreated for E-Book Distribution

(and a new cover for SPIRITS REVIVED, the seventh Daisy book, which will be published in March 2014)

Publishing is a strange and daunting business if you’re a novelist. It probably is if you write nonfiction, too, although I’ve always heard that it’s easier to get nonfiction published than it is to get an editor to pay attention to fiction. This probably has something to do with the millions, if not trillions, of aspiring novelists out there banging on publishing-house doors.

 However, the times, they have a-changed, and nowadays there are many more opportunities to get your novels published. Heck, you can publish them yourself as e-books or print-on-demand books if you’ve a mind to. This new industry (self-publishing) has spawned many ghastly books, but it’s also given those of us whose careers have been middling at best another chance at success. By success here, I’m talking money. I’ve had fifty-some-odd books published by big New York publishers, which may count as success in some people’s minds, but nobody knows who I am and I’m dirt poor. This means I’ve either fooled a whole bunch of editors into thinking I write well, or I really do write well but I haven’t found my niche. Or maybe editors like my stuff but regular readers don’t. Or maybe . . . oh, who knows? It’s long been my opinion that luck and timing have more to do with anyone’s success in anything to do with the arts than does talent alone. Sour grapes? Maybe, although I’ve thought so for much longer than I’ve been published, so maybe not.

At any rate, I recently decided to take a huge chance and invest a sizeable amount of money (of which, I have little. See above) in presenting Daisy Gumm Majesty, spiritualist extraordinaire (however phony) to the world in new packaging. e-Publishing Works has provided Daisy’s first six books with new covers, and they’re actually going to promote them! Promotion! What a novel concept (sorry. I can’t help myself sometimes). Anyhow, here they are in their new duds and there’s a link to my author page underneath the covers:

http://www.ebookdiscovery.com/AliceDuncan.html

Aren’t they lovely? What’s more, you can tell which book comes where in the series! Another novel concept! Now, if only folks would be kind enough to buy one or two of them and post reviews on Amazon, my own personal life would be even better. I understand that if a book gets ten or more (preferably fifteen) reviews on Amazon, it can then be discounted. So if you feel kindhearted and generous, maybe you could buy the first book and post a review of it approximately ten to fifteen days after your purchase. I know, I know. It’s too complicated for me, too. Sigh. Can you tell self-promotion isn’t my long suit?

But enough of that. Here’s the gorgeous cover for SPIRITS REVIVED, which will be published by Five Star in March 2014. In this book, Daisy not only encounters a real, honest-to-goodness spirit, but she gets to hold up a guy with a pair of chopsticks. Gotta love Daisy! This actually may not be the final cover, because I asked if they could find a more 1920s-era female. Mind you, this woman is gorgeous, so my request might make the book look worse, but oh, well.

 For my September contest, I’m going to be giving away five (FIVE) copies of the new e-edition of STRONG SPIRITS! If you’d like to enter, just send me your name and home address in an e-mail to alice@aliceduncan.net . And if you’d like to read an excerpt from STRONG SPIRITS, you can find the first chapter on my web site: www.aliceduncan.net

 Thanks!