Alice Duncan's Newsletter

MAY 2019

May, 2019, might well be an interesting month! Not only am I scheduled to get my left shoulder replaced on May 20 (although this date might be pushed back some, depending on whether the hospital ever calls to schedule the CT-scan the surgeon claims he needs in order to create a map of my shoulder. Guess he’ll use the map and his scalpel at the same time or something. Ew), but the brilliant and talented folks at ePW will publish another Daisy Gumm Majesty box set on May 7! Not only that, but they’ve renumbered the entire series so that SPIRITS REVIVED, the true seventh book in the series, will no longer have the number #6 1/2 on its cover. In other words, Brian and Nina Paules are going to a colossal amount of trouble for Daisy’s sake, and I appreciate them enormously.

The new box set will contain SPIRITS REVIVED, DARK SPIRITS and SPIRITS ONSTAGE. I’m particularly fond of the last one, because in it Daisy gets to play the mean and nasty villainess, Katisha, from Gilbert and Sullivan’s THE MIKADO. Daisy, who has to be nice and polite even to the silliest and most frustrating of her clients (she’s a fake spiritualist-medium, if you haven’t read the books) relishes the opportunity to be awful and not get scolded for it.

Here’s the newly minted link for SPIRITS REVIVED, which will have #7 on its cover (although it doesn’t yet). If you follow me on Facebook, I’ll give everyone the skinny as it happens. I’ll also post the link to the new box set when I get it:

SPIRITS REVIVED

The recently released SHAKEN SPIRITS features not merely Daisy, Sam, Peggy and Joe Gumm, and Aunt Viola Gumm, but a relic from Peter Brandvold’s books (Peter Brandvold is a best-selling western writer whom I met when I edited his books for Five Star). Mean Pete kindly allowed me to borrow Lou Prophet who, in his salad days, was a rip-snorting, hard-drinking, womanizing, deadly bounty hunter. By the time he ends up in Pasadena, California, in 1925, he’s… well, not. But he’s so much fun to write; I hope Mean Pete allows me to keep him forever. Here’s the link for SHAKEN SPIRITS, should you feel inclined to have some fun with Daisy and the gang:

SHAKEN SPIRITS

Not only that, but the immensely talented Denice Stradling, who has been narrating my Daisy books for audio, has finished reading DARK SPIRITS, and it should be available soon! I’m listening to it now, and I’ve never known Daisy to be as downright insufferable as she is in this book. On the other hand, she’s dealing with the Ku Klux Klan, so perhaps she should be forgiven a few lapses into snarliness. I’m kinda sorry I made her so obnoxious, although I didn’t notice this trait when I was writing the book. Must have been in a bad mood or something. Anyway, here’s the cover art, and I’ll post a link on my Facebook page when the audiobook is available for purchase. If you’re interested in reading Daisy as an unspeakable brat, here’s the Kindle link:

DARK SPIRITS

Also, Wolfpack continues to republish every single one of my back-list books! This is so kind of them! The Pack is beginning with the Pecos Valley series, a series I aim to continue once I finally finish editing all the books I have to edit and am able to return my attention to writing. These books are mega-fun for me because they’re set right here where I live (darn it) in Roswell, New Mexico. However, because I didn’t fancy being sued or anything, I changed the name of the town to Rosedale, although a whole lot of the stuff you’ll read about in the books comes from stories my mommy told me. My mother was born right here in Roswell, NM, in 1913. Shoot, that’s more than a hundred years ago! Does that mean I’m old? Oh, dear. I fear it does. Anyway, here they are in order.

PECOS VALLEY DIAMOND

PECOS VALLEY REVIVAL

PECOS VALLEY RAINBOW

After Wolfpack republishes the Pecos Valley books, they’ll move on to the “Meet Me at the Fair” series, which are fun. They take place at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago (the Chicago World’s Fair, in other words). I’m really happy that my early books will be back in print soon!

Because I’m not sure I’ll be able to move my arms much by the end of May, I do believe I’ll forgo a book giveaway at the end of this month. However, I’ll gather names and addresses for June’s giveaway, if you’re interested. I think I’ll give away audio copies of DARK SPIRITS. What the heck, huh? Anyway, if you’d like to enter (and please remember Bam-Bam won’t be munching up names from his special contest doggie dish until the end of June), just send an email to alice@aliceduncan.net 

According to Bam-Bam, who is a special dog and extremely dear to my heart (he was bred and grew up in a puppy mill in Big Spring, Texas, and never quite learned how to be a dog), the wieners of copies of PECOS VALLEY DIAMOND are:

Brenda Williamson (I’ll be happy to send it to your P.O. box), Sue Farell and Vickie Shaw! Congratulations, ladies.

Confession time: I had carpal-tunnel surgery in early April and didn’t get my March books sent out before the surgery. Therefore, I’ll send them soon. Promise. And I apologize!
Um, what else? Well, there’s always Daisy Daze. I love Daisy Daze. Iris Evans and Leon Fundenberger founded the DAISY DAZE Facebook page. On this page, people post all sorts of historical stuff about Pasadena, sewing machines, fashions from the 1920s, houses in which the people in the books might live, and lots and lots of other historical (1920s-era) stuff. It’s fun, and if you’d like to be a member, check it out here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/905100189878318/ .

If you’d like to visit my web page, here’s the link: http://aliceduncan.net/ . And if you’d like to be Facebook friends, please go here: https://www.facebook.com/alice.duncan.925

I think that’s it! Thank you.