Lagrange Book Fair

 

This weekend, I'll be at the Lagrange Book Fair at City Place, 112 First Ave in Lagrange, Kentucky. It will be held from 10 am - 4 pm. The location will be packed with authors selling their books.

I will be signing and selling all three of my Nathan Perry Mystery Series books, as well as one of my romances, Her Bluegrass Beau.

I hope to see you there.

Carol 

 

Best Screenplay Award

 

I am excited and honored to have received the Runner-up award for Best Screenplay - Long Format at the Imaginarium Convention on July 15, 2023. Thank goodness there are no photos of me crying my eyes out when I accepted it, as my emotions got the better of me. My winning screenplay was Homecoming to Murder, an adaption of my first mystery novel of the same name. 

Not only did I bring home that award, but unfortunately, I also brought home Covid. It was a mild case and I'm over it now, but this year's convention will be one I'll remember for long time.

Carol

Exposure - A Tease

 I'm only on chapter two of the first book in my new mystery series, but here's a short blurb, which may, or may not change as I get more into the project.

Three young boys witness the senseless murder of a hiker, then fear they're next because of what they found in an old copper mine. 

 Carol 📚

Screenplay Finalist

 

For those of you that read my previous blog post know that I recently took a dive into screenwriting. I'm excited to say that it has paid off (although, not financially yet). My script, adapted from my book, Homecoming to Murder, was selected as a finalist in the Imadjinn Awards Feature Length category. The winner will be announced at next month's Imaginarium Convention in July. 

Carol

Update: screenwriting and series writing

I haven’t posted on here since October, so I thought I should give everyone an update on what’s been going on in my world. If you don’t know me very well, I hate writing blog posts, and I mean HATE writing them. So, as Nike used to say, just do it.

 

I received some good feedback on my Nathan Perry Mystery Series, which is currently at three books. I had the fourth book about three-quarters of the way finished, but got bitten by the screenwriting bug. I’ve always wanted one of my books to be made into a movie. I even had a little interest from an agent on one of my romances, but eventually she passed.

I had no idea how to write a screenplay, or the money to pay someone to write it. Actually, I thought it was probably beyond my writing ability to do so. Then, Tony Acree, of Hydra Publications, held a free two-hour screenwriting workshop. Tony has had great success with his screenwriting. I figured what the heck, it was free and I might learn something. I loved it and was hooked from the very beginning. After that workshop, then reading two books on screenwriting, and downloading the writing software, I was ready to start. From February through May, I adapted the first Nathan Perry book, Homecoming to Murder into a feature length screenplay. I’d like to say it’s really good, but as my first attempt at this, it’s probably really bad. Only time will tell.

With the script being finished, I went back to working on book four in the NP series. What I found out was that as much as I love the characters of Mystic, Massachusetts, I was really tired of writing about them. I needed a longer break, or something new.

With that being said, I have started a new book. It’s a new location, new characters, and new murders.I’m excited about it. However, at the same time, I feel really guilty about having a Nathan Perry book so close to being finished and then setting it aside. I think what I might do is work on one book and when that gets stale, or I get blocked, I’ll work on the other book. I’ve never worked on two writing projects at the same time before, so this will definitely be a new experience for me. Wish me luck.

Here's a little tease for the new book.

 

Carol

Prime Crime Conference October 28-30, 2022

This past weekend, I attended Prime Crime at the Columbia Club (formerly Magna cum Murder), a mystery conference for writers and readers held Indianapolis, Indiana. This was the third time I have attended and the first Prime Crime since the pandemic kept it from being held for the last few years. After going through two postponements, they finally were able to have the conference again in October 2022. The attendance was smaller than previous years, but hopefully that was only due to the changes in dates so many times. As such, there weren't as many panels as in previous years, which wasn't really a bad thing. It made it easier not to have to chose between what panel to attend.

 

I attended with with friend and author, E.M. Munch, on the right in the photo. Her book, A Haunting at Marian Wood was released just a few days before the conference. As a side note, I highly recommend Elaine's book. It's such a good read. I also met so many wonderful authors at the conference. In the panel photo with Elaine, is Patricia McLinn, a USA Today bestselling writer from northern Kentucky, and Trace Conger, another fantastic writer from the Cincinnati area (photo in collage at the end of the post).

 

The highlight of my trip was getting to meet and talk with bestselling author, and Guest of Honor, C.J. Box. I just love his Cassie Dewell series that the ABC television show, Big Sky is based on. The photo on the left is of myself, C.J. Box, Elaine, and author Lynda Rees. Elaine, Lynda, and I well represented the Derby Rotten Scoundrels Sisters in Crime chapter out of Louisville, Kentucky. Also present at the conference, were several members of the Sisters in Crime Speed City Writers from Indianapolis that we were happy to visit with. And, as always, it was so good seeing friends, authors, and owners of Per Bastet Publications, Marian Allen, Sara Marian, and T. Lee Harris.

My "oh-my-gosh" moment of the conference was stepping onto the elevator at the hotel and seeing a gentleman holding several books he had just bought, and one of them was mine. What an awesome feeling that was. He later had me sign the book for him. 

Prime Crime is a great conference. I hope the low attendance won't keep them from holding it again.

Below is a collage of photos from the conference. Some of them I took and some are from the Prime Crime Facebook page.

Carol

 

Jeffersonville Library Author Meet and Greet

I was thrilled with the turnout for my presentation at the Jeffersonville, Indiana Public Library Author Meet and Greet. I spoke about the research I did on witchcraft for my latest Nathan Perry Mystery, Witch Hunt. I love answering all the questions the group had. 

I highly recommend anytime you can hear an author speak, rather you're familiar with them or not, you should do it. 

I also want to thank Jen Selinsky and Taylor Bary for giving me several copies of their books.

Carol