Carol Preflatish

The Mill River Recluse by Darcie Chan My rating: 4 of 5 stars I originally bought this book to read because the author used to live near my area. I know where the house on the cover of the book is located. When I started reading the book, the first chapter interested me in that it gave a little information about all of the main characters. Chapter two was a flashback, chapter three back to present day and so on. I really didn't think I was going to like the flashbacks so often, but as I kept reading, I found that I really liked it. Ms. Chan's development of the characters drew me in and personalized it for me even more. By the end of the book, I cried tears of joy for the townspeople. Fantastic book that started slow, but hooked me right in. I highly recommend it. View all my reviews

I'm guest blogging today about writing conferences and specifically about the Magna cum Murder Crime Writing Festival on Marian Allen's blog . Please take a moment to stop by. The photo on the left is from the 2010 Magna cum Murder. From left -right, me, T. Lee Harris, and Marian Allen.

From my home to yours, Merry Christmas! Carol

If you enjoy reading romance, consider joining the Cravings Club with Secret Cravings Publishing for some great reads. To learn more, check out the Cravings Club page on the Secret Cravings web site.

Welcome to my day on the Secret Cravings Publishing One Year Anniversary Blog Hop. What does that mean, you ask? Well, Secret Cravings Publishing (SCP) is my publisher for "Saved by the Sheriff" and they are celebrating their one year anniversary with each of their authors posting on their own blogs each day from December 16, 2011 through January 19, 2012. The best thing is that SCP is giving away some really great prizes: First Prize is a Kindle Fire, Second Prize is a $50 Amazon.com gift certificate, and third Prize is a SCP gift Certificate. What's even better is that each author is also holding their own contest to give away a prize, too. To enter for the SCP prizes, you must post a comment on each blog in the blog hop on their designated day. There's no purchase required, but you do need to leave your email address in the comment. To read the rules and find links to all the blogs, please visit the Secret Cravings Blog . To be entered in my giveaway, please leave ...

Today is Release Day for my romantic suspense, Saved by the Sheriff . Originally scheduled for a January release, my publisher moved up the date. It's been a hectic time getting ready for today. I've been doing a lot of promoting of the book all weekend and you'll see many interviews popping up with me online. Saved by the Sheriff is currently released as an e-book with the print version coming out in a couple months. You can purchase Saved by the Sheriff at Secret Cravings Publishing . Saved by the Sheriff is about New York City writer, Jaime Wilson who wants the Assistant Editor job at Real Mystery Magazine . In order to get it, she has to write a kick-ass story, and what could be better than a 30-year old unsolved murder in a small town. When Jaime visits Royal, Indiana to investigate, she soon finds that someone in the town doesn't want the mystery solved and she becomes a target. After an arrest for trespassing and an attempt on her life, Sheriff Ben Hunter lets...

First, my personal good news. The release date for my romantic suspense, Saved by the Sheriff has been moved up. How much? If all goes according to schedule, the e-book will be released on Monday with the print version to follow later. Check back here on Monday for more details on the release. Next, my publisher, Secret Cravings Publishing is celebrating their one year anniversary with an Anniversary Blog Hop. Starting today, visit the Secret Cravings blog and see what you need to do to enter to win a Kindle Fire. There will also be gift certificates and discounts on books from the Secret Cravings web site . The Blog Hop will last through January 19 and each day a different author will have their own giveaway on their blog. I will be holding a giveaway on December 22, so check back here on that day. Don't forget to check back here on Monday for information on the Saved by the Sheriff release. Carol

I decided to take a look at the goals that I made last December and found that I completed some and didn't even get close to others. Here they are and how I did: 1. Lose weight (again) I succeeded with this goal and lost ten pounds, but I've gained five back. 2. Complete at least one new book and maybe two Big fail here, I finished the book I was working on and signed a contract for it. It will be out next month in both print and e-book. I started a new book, but am only on chapter 5. 3. Find a new day job (this one is leaving me no extra time) I'm happy to report that I did find a new day job. It's actually the job I was transferred from. They wanted me back. 4. Clean off our bookshelves and donate our old books to the local book swap We made several trips to the book swap, both taking and bringing home new books for us. But, our shelves are still overloaded. 5. Fill up said bookshelf with new books See answer for #4. 6. Go somewhere on vacation instead of just stayin...

I have a new author Facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/AuthorCarolPreflatish . On there you will be able to receive updates on my writing and book releases. I'd love to have you and a fan. All you need is a Facebook account and to click 'like' on my page. I am also on Twitter and post on there often, http://www.twitter.com/CarolPreflatish Thanks. Carol

Thanksgiving is over and it's time to get back to business, the writing business. The thrill of receiving the official cover for my next book has faded, well just a little. I'm still pretty stoked about it. But, it's time to move on. The night before Thanksgiving, I opened my email to find my editor had sent me the edits to do on my book. What! The night before Thanksgiving, you've got to be kidding. I know that my editor didn't expect me to sit down right then and start. So, now that the holiday is over, I'm ready to start my edits. I purposely didn't open the file because I didn't want to see how bad they were going to be. Of course, it could have been good, too. Maybe I won't have many edits to do and maybe the editor and I will have agreed on many of the things I put in the book. I don't know, because I haven't opened the file yet, but I will today. Preparation includes getting chocolate and soda or tea next to the computer. Thank goodnes...

Saved by the Sheriff is still tentative scheduled for a January 2012 release in both e-book and print. Below is the cover and a blurb about the book. I'm very please with how it came out and am looking forward to the release. Let me know what you think of the cover. Thanks. New York City writer, Jaime Wilson wants the Assistant Editor job at Real Mystery Magazine . In order to get it, she has to write a kick-ass story, and what could be better than a 30-year old unsolved murder in a small town. When Jaime visits Royal, Indiana to investigate, she soon finds that someone in the town doesn't want the mystery solved and she becomes a target. After an arrest for trespassing and an attempt on her life, Sheriff Ben Hunter lets her stay at his place where he can keep an eye on her while she continues to work on her story. She didn't count on falling in love with the sheriff and he didn't think he would have to work so hard to keep her safe. Finally, when s...

As I was driving home from work yesterday, the DJ on the radio station I was listening to wanted listeners to call in with suggestions for pop-culture movies that his kids should see before age 20. He was talking about movies that people might make reference to by reciting a line from the movie and everyone knows what he's talking about. I think he ended up with a list of about 30 movies in the short segment. I checked to see if he might have put them online, but he didn't. Some of the movies I agreed with, some I didn't. Now his kids are ages 6 and 9, I believe, so he said they would have to wait until older to see some movies, such as The Godfather. A few of the movies I remember his callers suggesting were Grease, the first Indiana Jones movie, Star Wars (he didn't say which one), Steel Magnolias, Goonies, Gremlins, and Forrest Gump. The one movie I thought of that no one called in with was Gone With The Wind. Who doesn't know the line, "Frankly my dear, I d...

I've gone and done it again. Yes, I am participating again in National Novel Writing Month, better known as NaNoWriMo . The concept is to write a 50,000 word draft of a novel in 30 days. Most participates stress themselves crazy during the month. Others just breeze through those 50,000 words. I'm sort of in between. I know from the start that I probably won't make it to the 50,000 words before the end of November. I've taken part in NaNoWriMo since 2002 and I have never made it to the 50,000 words. However, I have some made some great starts to books by doing this. So, how am I doing this year? Today is November 16 and it's the first day this month that I have not written anything on my novel. But, the night is still young and I might get a few words in before going to bed, just so I won't have a wordless day. I'm at 11,709 words. Where I should be, if I had remained on schedule, is at 26,672 words. Why am I so far behind? Well, I have a full time day job an...

Are you interested in buying my first e-book, Love, Lies & Deceit ? My publisher is having a limited time 10% off sale, use code RedRose10 at the checkout for your discount at Red Rose Publishing. I'm busy this month working on my National Novel Writing Month project and may be a little scarce on here until December. Thanks. Carol

This weekend finds me a little sad. I had hoped to attend the Magna cum Murder Crime Writing Festival in Muncie, Indiana. I attended for the first time last year and had hoped to be able to go again this year. There's a myth out there among some non-writers that think if you publish a book, you'll get rich. That's not necessarily so. My first book was released in December 2009 and since that time, I've received one royalty check, one royalty check in almost two years. I'm going to attribute that to a couple of things, I was a brand new published writer, so no one knew me and the ebook explosion had not happened yet. My second book is due out in January and I'm hoping that will help increase sales in my first book. It usually does. Saved by the Sheriff will not only be in ebook format, but should also be out in print as well. However, I still won't be able to quit the day job. On thing I didn't know much about when my first book came out was how to mark...

No, no, not me. But, if the law enforcement authorities ever look in my laptop, they would probably be doing a lot of questioning. As a writer of mystery and suspense, I do a lot of research on the crimes in my books. I'm getting ready to start book #4 in the mystery series that I hope to get published someday and so far, there's been a murder, a serial killer, several thefts, and this one will be about arson. You should see all of the web sites I have bookmarked from doing research. Scarey stuff. As I've mentioned before, National Novel Writing Month starts on November 1. One of my writer friends asked on Facebook the other day what our books would be about. I had a book somewhat plotted and posted a blurb about it, but warned that I would probably end up changing it and well, I did. I came up with a new plot last night and will get that new blurb written soon. My plans for this weekend are to edit the manuscript that I just signed a contract for. The publisher has asked...

I have an interview up today at The Eclectic Writer blog . Please stop by and check it out. Thanks. Carol

Yesterday, I posted about our camping trip to Brown County, Indiana and said that my husband and I had a reason other than vacation for our trip. I wouldn't exactly call it a bucket list, but we have decided to try to do at least one thing each year that we have never done. The first thing we chose to do was pan for gold . I know what you're thinking, gold in Indiana ? Why yes, there is gold in them there hills, but not the kind of gold found in California in the Gold Rush Days. Millions of years ago, glaciers from Canada slowly moved south as far as Indiana and those glaciers moved a lot of the earth, including gold, along with them. This is why it's so flat in northern Indiana. The glaciers stopped at what is now Brown County and why there is gold in some of the streams there and a few other places in Indiana. We made our decision to pan for gold at a bad time of the year. It's the end of the season for a few reasons, one it's getting cold and it's no fun gett...

Slosh-slosh-slosh-slosh . That is the sounds of my and my husband's shoes on Thursday. We went camping and after two-weeks of no rain and the best weather, it rained during our camping trip. Not just rain, but a few times, a downpour. We, of course, knew it was going to rain, so we had prepared for it. Unfortunately, we did not realized that both of our shoes leaked and spent all day and most of the evening on Thursday with wet feet, socks, and shoes. Luckily, we did take extra shoes and socks, but didn't want to change into them until Friday morning, so not to get them soaked, too. Even with the wet weather, we had a great time. We went to Nashville, Indiana, camping at Brown County State Park. For those that aren't familiar, Brown County is one of the prime places to go to view the fall leaf color. The photo to the left does not do the view justice at all. The leaves were gorgeous to look at, once the weather cleared. My favorite store to visit while in Nashville is the ...

Six Sentence Sunday is something that many authors do by posting six sentences from one of their books. My sentences below are from a police procedural mystery that I am working on. Last night, I finished writing Chapter six. I was hoping to have it ready for release this fall, now I'm pushing it back to later this winter. The scene below is a part of a phone conversation between the main character and his old girlfriend. Six Sentence Sunday: "Actually, I'm working on a case where someone is stealing antique signs from businesses in town," he said. "Any suspects?" she asked. "That's the problem, everyone's a suspect because no one's a suspect." "Maybe you're looking too hard, or maybe the theft was just a diversion for another crime," she suggested. "Katherine, you're beautiful. If you were here, I'd kiss you," he said.

If you're a writer, or if you've followed my blog for a while, you know what NaNoWriMo means. If not, it stands for National Novel Writing Month and is held every November. The goal is to write a 50,000 word novel in thirty days. If you're a glutton for punishment, you participate every year. Yep, that's me. I've participated in NaNo every year since 2002. Have I ever won by making it to the 50,000 words. No, I haven't. Do I feel like I have failed every year by not meeting the goal? No, I don't. Why? Because I still accomplished something. My book, Love, Lies & Deceit was my NaNo project for 2004 and was published in 2009. My next book, Saved by the Sheriff will be released in January 2012 and it was my NaNo book in 2006. Both were started from scratch for NaNo and both times, I completed about six chapters in a month. I consider that a huge beginning. I have a couple more books in the wings that I'm working hard to complete that were past NaNo p...

1955 - 2011

We've had beautiful weather for the past couple days. It's cool at night, was actually 34 degrees early this morning, but the days have been wonderful. I thought I would share some photos that my husband and I have taken in the past few days. These are the petunias in a hanging basket on our porch. I have to give credit to my husband for keeping them looking so well. He watered them practically everyday when he put water out for our dog this summer. Purple is my favorite color and these were just beautiful. I checked on them today and I think our cool temps last night didn't set too well with them. They're a little wilted today. Yesterday, I walked down to our persimmon tree to see how far along in the ripening process they were. The persimmons are turning orange and getting a little soft, but no where near close to being ripened yet. As I went on my wa lk yesterday, I had a couple companions. Our dog, Dexter and our cat, Kitty. Dex is blind, but gets around better than...

This past weekend was probably the best weekend I've had in a long time. My husband and I spent the weekend camping with his family. The weather couldn't have been more perfect. Although, I must admit, even though I prepared for it, I froze when trying to sleep Friday night. I'm a seasoned camper and normally rough it when camping, but this time I didn't want to be cold. I took my electric blanket and you know what? I was still cold. Dumb me, didn't put a blanket on top of the electric one to hold the heat in. Brrrrr We had one whole camping area of the park reserved just for us. I think we had six tent s of various shapes and sizes up. The campground was right next to a beautiful lake. My husband loves to fish and caught several, but he's a catch-and-release kind of fisherman, so he didn't keep them. I tried my hand at a little fishing, too. I bought a new rod and reel the last time we went camping, but never got to try it out. This time I did, but probably...

Edgar Allan Poe has always been my favorite author. For a couple years in college, I majored in English and whenever the topic of favorite authors came up, I said Poe was mine. You wouldn't believe the odd looks that I received. But, why not Poe? Even through his addiction to alcohol and possible mental illness, his short stories and poems were superb. This past weekend I tried to write a Poe-like story to submit to an anthology. Finding it very difficult, I completed about a page and a half. I need no more than 10,000 words and have until the end of this month to finish it. Writing in first-person is not something I do very often. It's going to be a slow process of trying to get inside of Poe's head to write this story. After all, I'm not an alcoholic and I don't think I have a mental illness, although there may be some that think otherwise. Wish me luck. Carol

I'm getting some publicity photos taken this weekend and I'm a bit nervous about it. I'm usually the person on the back side of the camera, not the front. Alas, I can't put it off any longer. Most of the pictures you find of me on blogs or social network sites are years old. What I wouldn't do to look like Julia Roberts in my photos. Unfortunately, I won't have a hairdresser, makeup artist, or wardrobe person. It will be all me. I'm have full faith in the photographer and she promised she has some great ideas for author photos. The weather has cooled so maybe my makeup won't be melting down my face. I'm hoping for no wind so I don't have to use hairspray. I hate hairspray. And, sunshine, I really need sunshine on Saturday. My last worry is clothes. I need to pick out three outfits and I have no idea what to wear. Four days and counting. I better go rummage through my closet and see if I can pull out some magic. Wish me luck and I'll be posti...

I'm excited to announce that I have signed a contract with Secret Cravings Publishing to release by second novel, Saved by the Sheriff . The tentative release date will be January 2012. Saved by the Sheriff is a romantic suspense that takes place in southern Indiana. New York City writer, Jaime Wilson wants the Assistant Editor job at Real Mystery Magazine. In order to get it, she has to write a kick-ass story and what could be better than a 30-year old unsolved murder in a small town. When Jaime visit Royal, Indiana to investigate, she soon finds that someone in the town doesn't want the mystery solved and she becomes a target. After an arrest for trespassing and then an attempt on her life, Sheriff Ben Hunter lets her stay at his place where he can keep an eye on her while she continues to work on her story. She didn't count on falling in love with the sheriff and he didn't think he would have to work so hard to keep her safe. When she finally finishes her ...

(singing) Tomorrow ~ Tomorrow ~ Announcement Tomorrow ~ It's only a day away~~~~

Shhhhh, I have a secret. Can't tell about it yet. Announcement coming soon.

Eel's Reverence by Marian Allen My rating: 4 of 5 stars I loved Eel's Reverence by Marian Allen. She has a way with words and puts them to good use in this book. The characters were wonderful. My favorite thing about this book is the cover. Magnificent cover for a magnificent book. Good job, Marian. I highly recommend it. View all my reviews

My book, Love, Lies & Deceit is an ebook and also available as a Kindle download. When anyone mentions a booksigning to me, I shutter at the thought of how am I going to sign an ebook. This is not an uncommon question among ebook authors and today, I found one solution. Have you ever heard of a Kindlegraph ? It's a way for authors to autograph their Kindle books. So, this morning I signed up for it. It's a pretty cool concept. A reader who wants to have their Kindle book signed can go to the web site and search for my book and request the Kindlegraph. I receive an email saying someone wants their ebook signed and I can then go to the Kindlegraph web site and "write" a personal message and sign it. Once I hit enter, it takes about 30 seconds for the reader to received a copy of my book cover with the personal message and my signature below it on their Kindle. Here is a copy of Tina Fey's newest book with a Kindlegraph. Drawbacks? Oh yes, there are drawbacks. ...

It was a very long, hot weekend, but also a very productive one. FandomFest ran in conjunction with the Fright Night Film Fest in Lousivlle, Kentucky. It's mostly a Sci-Fi, Horror, Fantasy show, but with the Literary track, many other genres were also included. Lots of celebrities were on hand for photos and autographs. Unfortunately, I was too busy attending some of the panels and workshops. However, the panels and workshops were really good. I learned many new things about writing and met some fantastic authors, publishers, and editors. That's always a good thing. Did I mention how hot it was? Oh my gosh, the convention hall was so hot. I'm sure the fact that we are having triple-digit temps had a lot to do with it, but I also understand that the air conditioning in some of the guest rooms at the hotel was not working either. Luckily, I stayed at the Holiday Inn across the street and didn't have that problem. Well, actually I did at first. When I checked in and went...

This weekend I'll be attending Fandom Fest in Louisville, Kentucky. There will be tons of actors and celebrities that I'm looking forward to seeing. Have I mentioned I collect autographs. I'll make sure and report in if I can get any good ones. Mostly, I'm going for the Literary Track and will be going to lots of the panels and maybe a few workshops. It will be great fun connecting with some other authors and readers for the weekend. Check back next week for some photos. Keep cool everyone. Carol

I made it home from my trip to Mississippi this morning. It was a very quick trip. I flew down Saturday afternoon and drove back with my daughter about two hours after my plane landed. She wanted to come home for a visit before her husband returned from his deployment. It's too long of a drive (12 hours) from there to Indiana for her to come alone, so I agreed to fly down and drive back with her. We both were very tired and probably switched off driving about every hour or two, especially after getting into Tennessee until we got to Indiana. In a couple weeks, I will do it again in reverse order. Hopefully, she and I will be a little more rested before we start off. I head back to work tomorrow and hope that my co-workers don't find me looking like this during the work day. Oh yes, coffee will be a must in the morning. Have a great week everyone. I'm heading to bed. Carol

I'll be making a quick trip to Mississippi this weekend and will try and post something when I get back. Everyone have a great weekend and stay cool in this hot weather. Carol

Below you will find a rough draft of the beginning of a new novel that I am working on that I hope will be come a mystery series. I'm working on it this month as my Camp NaNoWriMo project and hope to get published as a Kindle book by this fall. Remember, in NanoWriMo it's a rough draft, no editing until it's finished, so pardon the errors so far. Carol Mystic: The Beginning A Nathan Perry novel The lunch crowd had filled The Witch's Cauldron café on this cold January morning in Mystic, Massachusetts. Nathan Perry stood at the door looking for an empty table. Finally spotting one near the rear of the room, he started back. "Nathan? Is that you?" a woman said from one of the tables. He stopped at the table where a cute brown-haired, brown-eyed woman sat. She looked familiar and then it came to him. "Dana Tyler?" She stood and they hugged. "You look great, Nathan. What are you doing back in town?" "I have a job interview,...

This month I am participating in Camp NaNoWriMo . If you have followed my blog for a while you know that during every November, I participate in NaNoWriMo , which stands for National Novel Writing Month and have done so for the last nine years. The goal is to write a 50,000 word rough draft novel in 30 days. I have never managed to make to the 50,000 words, but use it to give me a jump start into writing a new novel. My novel, Love, Lies & Deceit was my NaNo novel for 2004, I believe. I was able to complete the novel later and it was published it in 2009. Two years ago, I decided to give a shot at writing a contemporary mystery involving a police detective in a town in Massachusetts. I completed the first four chapters and then sat it aside to go back to work on a romance novel I was writing. For NaNo last year, I started writing a second mystery novel that was a sequel to the one I started the year before and completed five chapters. Again, after the end of November, I sat it asid...

The Maverick Experiment by Drew Berquist My rating: 3 of 5 stars I love CIA novels. The author's details were great. The plot kept my interest, and the characters were believable, but there were a lot of typos in the book and that distracted me. View all my reviews

I hate wasting time, but this morning was a total waste. I had a business meeting that I needed to attend on July1 and my employer requires any trip over 124 miles round trip requires renting a car through their account. So far, my trips have been under the 124 mile limit, but not the one on Friday. This morning I spent from 8:30 to 11:30 trying to figure out how to fill out the request form to rent a car. Several emails with my boss later, I had the form filled out and a gas card on the way to me in the mail. I called and reserved my car. I was pretty happy with myself. Then, it happened. I received an email about another meeting in another town on the same day. My reply was that I was scheduled in another city that day. No, they told me, "I double checked and you're here on Friday." I looked at my online schedule, which my Central Office sets up for me, and discovered that my schedule had been changed. I no longer had the 124+ mile trip now and I was indeed going to the...

My vacation is over and I'm already depressed that I have to go back to my day job on Monday. I did have a great time off, including a two-night camping trip with my husband to Lincoln State Park in southern Indiana. Originally, they had predicted severe storms for the first day of camping. For those of you that know me, know how much I hate severe weather, but I was a trooper and went anyway. It turned out that we had wonderful weather. No severe storms, or even rain, for us at all. It even turned cold, which I was unprepared for by not taking any shirts with sleeves and no jacket. Above is our home away from home for the two days. Oh my, we felt like we were the slums within the high-rent district at the campground. I could probably count the number of tents on one hand in the campground as opposed to the number of RV's. We were stuck in the middle of them. I couldn't believe how fancy some of the RV's were. All had air conditioners on top and most of them put up a ca...

When the mail came today, the long awaited letter from a publisher I submitted to arrived. Yes, it was a rejection, but that's okay. As my mantra to the left says, "Rejection is not fatal." The letter I received was not the usual form letter. Even though it had the same elements that a form rejection letter has, it was personalized. I was impressed. It was written directly to me, had my manuscript title on it and was actually signed by an Assistant Editor. What really fascinated me was that the editor took the time to explain to me why it was wrong for them and what needed to be worked on. She even apologized for not accepting it. You might say I am the queen of rejection letters from prior manuscripts and I have to say that this one is the best rejection I have ever received. So, what I will be doing is polishing that manuscript up a little more and send it off to another publisher. Then, the waiting game begins again, or maybe I should say it continues because I am stil...

I started my vacation today. Well, I guess you could say technically I started it yesterday, but I went to the dentist so that doesn't count. We don't have any specific plans to do anything, other than a quick camping trip next week. Today, we went fishing. I forgot to take the camera with us so I can't show you the big fish we both caught, and if you believe that, I will be glad to sell you the land we fished on, which is federally owned. Our total catch was four small bluegill. We should have known it wasn't going to be a good trip when we got there. My husband likes to fish with a fly rod and as he was putting the rod together, he discovered that it was broken. His favorite and most expensive rod was now useless. I asked if he wanted to just go back home, or go home and get his other rod, but he said no. The next three hours were spent with us taking turns using my rod and reel. I started out using nightcrawlers, but the fish only nibbled on them, never hitting the h...