Read an Ebook Week at Smashwords!

This week, Smashwords is hosting Read an Ebook Week, which is basically a huge promotion on ebooks all across their site. I'm participating this year by offering Hanged to Death and Tweet the Police for free. The Aspen House and The Fornarina Affair are both 50% off ($1.50).

There are a ton more authors participating, so if you like a deal be sure to check out Smashwords' Read an Ebook Week catalog for more discounted books!

Just a reminder...

Today is the last day The Lonely Hipster will be offered for free on Amazon, so if you haven't downloaded it yet, you know what to do.

ALSO! Starting tomorrow, January 23rd, I'll be offering another one of my short stories, The Sea Queen's Daughter, for free through the 27th. Grab it up if you haven't already.

Thanks to everyone for making The Lonely Hipster's debut week a success!

THE LONELY HIPSTER now available, free for a limited time!

Today's the day! The Lonely Hipster is available for purchase on Amazon.com. But you don't even have to purchase it because it's free to download for the next five days, January 18th-22nd. So click, read, and enjoy!

Want a summary? Of course you do:

A mystery where murder meets coffeehouse romance, beards, and flip-flops... 
Stantonville is a small town where everyone knows everyone else and they all get along—or do they? Adam McGill, Stantonville’s lone hipster, gets a lot of flack from the other residents for being lazy and suspicious. So when the town’s wealthiest resident, Peter Stanton, is found shot with a note that reads “McGill” in his hand, suspicion immediately falls on Adam. And the police aren’t the only ones he has to worry about—he's also being followed by the people who actually shot Stanton! 
With the help of the cute barrista in Stantonville’s lone coffee shop, Adam needs to find Stanton's shooter—and move out of his mom’s basement—before he winds up in prison. Or worse.

Pssst... One Day to Go!

The Lonely Hipster has a scheduled release date—tomorrow! Remember I'm going to offer it for free during the first week, so make a mental note to check this blog for buy links or search Amazon for it between January 18th and January 22nd.

Thanks to all my readers for their support and encouragement! I'm excited to finally be sharing this story with you.

THE LONELY HIPSTER—Excerpt

We're getting close to the release date of my next mystery novella, The Lonely Hipster! To whet your appetite, here's an excerpt from the book. And, if you're a member of Goodreads, The Lonely Hipster has its own Goodreads page! Feel free to add it if you're into that sort of thing.

And now here's a peek at our lonely hipster detective in action. Enjoy!

Dubiously, Adam closed his eyes. He felt Moira touch his hand and a zing traveled up his arm.
“Okay, now. In your mind, I want you to replay finding Old Man Stanton, starting from the beginning, and describe it to me. But instead of telling me what you see, tell me what you smell and hear, and touch if it’s applicable. Ready?”
Adam took a deep breath. “Cut grass. Bad Books.”
“Bad Books?”
“It’s a band. I was listening to music. Ummm vibration from the mower. Then a loud pop. Silence. Too much silence, not even a bird. Cool grass on the sides of my feet. The slap of my flip-flops on the stone steps. Rough stone under my left hand. The faintest tinkle of falling glass.”
Adam stopped and swallowed hard. Moira reached out to squeeze his hand again, and he squeezed back.
“There’s a strange smell. Gunpowder? But that’s only part of it. There’s something else, something I’ve never come across till now.”
“Keep going.”
Adam drew a shaky breath. “The curtain on my face. Stiff, rough. Crunching as I walk in to the study. The glass cutting the bottoms of my feet. There’s that smell again. It’s perfume.”
He opened his eyes a found himself staring directly into Moira’s. “Whoever was in the room before me wore perfume.”

Will Adam be able to sniff out the killer, or is the perfume a red herring? Questions! Find out later this month when The Lonely Hipster is released.

Coming Soon: THE LONELY HIPSTER

Hello everyone! I know things have been rather silent on ye olde blog lately. I've been focusing mainly on non-fiction writing for the last few weeks and didn't really have any updates available.

However! I wanted to let you all know that I'm gearing up to publish The Lonely Hipster, a mystery—or hipstery, as I like to call it—about the only hipster living in a small factory town, in January. I already have the cover put together (thanks to my brother for agreeing to be my model! You can also see him on the cover of Tweet the Police) and just have to work on formatting. Very soon it will be ready to publish!

My plan is to offer The Lonely Hipster for free on Amazon.com during the first week after it's published, then price it at 99 cents for the next three weeks before raising the price to the typical $2.99, where I will keep it indefinitely. This way the first people to purchase the novella will get the best deal on it. So watch this blog for the release date and you'll be able to download the novella for free!

I also recently published two novellas, The Fornarina Affair and The Aspen House, to Smashwords. I'm still waiting on them to be published to B&N and iTunes, but I will update the buy links on my books page once they're available. In the meantime, if you use a reading device other than Kindle or a Kindle app, you can download the EPUB, PDF, and LRF versions of both those novellas at Smashwords.

I want to thank all my loyal readers, friends, family, and fellow authors for their support this year. I honestly would have given up on writing a long time ago if it wasn't for your encouragement and help. I hope you all have a great holiday season and here's to a fabulous year of reading and writing in 2014!

Writing Links Wednesday—Venice and Writing

The yellow brick road of Torcello.

Almost forgot about WLW! This week I have several Venice-related links and a few writing opportunities.

• Torcello, one of the "other islands" in the lagoon dominated by Venice, is one of my favorite places to visit. It's a quiet marsh dominated by a brick road that leads past tiny farms to one of the oldest cathedrals in Italy. The cathedral contains the earliest-known depiction of the devil (c. 800), plus the mummified body of a saint you can peek at through a window behind the altar. It's very cool. Venice probably looked like Torcello before it was built up.
• Speaking of the other islands, Murano's glass blowing industry (i.e., it's only industry) is in trouble. Will focusing on "high art" instead of utilitarian pieces save the island?
• This is a dizzyingly long list of writing fellowships and awards, most of which are free to enter or apply.
• NaNoWriMo is less than a month away! This writing pacemaker might help keep you on track.

Five Favorite Movies Set in Venice

Ah, Venice! Ever since I saw Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade as an eight-year-old, Venice has seemed like the most absolutely romantic place on earth. There really is no other city like it: an enclave of music and art, ships of exploration and secret identities, pink lights and rivers for streets.

All of this makes Venice a great setting for movies. A few years ago, I resolved to watch every single movie set in Venice that I could find. I doubt I’ll ever actually complete my goal, but here are my top five so far. What are yours?

1. Casanova (2005), starring Heath Ledger and Sienna Miller
To quote Richard Roeper, “This movie is a romp. A romp, I tell you!!!” Venice looks gorgeous, Ledger looks gorgeous, and I am a total sucker for the sort of insanely complicated comedy-of-errors plot that this movie has. Also, I’m a complete Casanova geek. I’ve read his entire autobiography, and once I got lost in Venice because I was too occupied thinking about how awesome Casanova was and listing all his accomplishments to pay attention to where I was going. I also met the man who created the masks for this film, Alberto Sarria. Fun fact: mask making has been the most profitable Venetian business since the 12th century. Which is saying something.

2. Dangerous Beauty (1998), starring Catherine McCormack and Rufus Sewell
Based on the incredible true story of Veronica Franco, a 16th-century Venetian courtesan who saved the city only to be tried by the Inquisition as a witch, Dangerous Beauty is searingly romantic and an incredible portrait of the city of Venice. Because she’s a courtesan, and smart, Veronica has incredible political power in a male-dominated world. Men respect her opinions and she influences foreign policy, all with the awareness that her fortunes rest on her ever-fading beauty. What I love most about this film is the ending: I was preparing myself for Veronica to die, when suddenly the Inquisition was like, “Venice! What can we do?” before packing up their bags and hieing back to Rome. I found the whole thing a little unbelievable until I found out THAT’S ACTUALLY WHAT HAPPENED. Venice 1, Inquisition 0.

3. The Tourist (2010), starring Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie
If you like classic suspense movies like North by Northwest or Charade, The Tourist is right up your alley. Jolie is gorgeous as a sophisticated ice queen who falls for a “cool” math teacher from Wisconsin. Jolie brings so much to this role and I love Johnny Depp. The only issue I have with The Tourist is that I don’t think Venice was utilized enough as a setting: a majority of the shots are interiors that could be found in any major European city. But it does have Paul Bettany in it, so I’m willing to overlook that.

4. Casino Royale (2006), starring Daniel Craig and Eva Green
Casino Royale surprised me with the fact that it was 1. awesomely good; and 2. a romance. Most of the film doesn’t take place in Venice, but I think the connection between the gambling scenes and the Venetian scenes was brilliantly done, seeing as how cards were supposedly invented in Venice and it was home to the first casino, the Ridotto. Even though Bond and Vesper are only in Venice for about the last fifteen minutes of the movie, the Venice scenes are the most memorable in the film. They’re brilliantly shot and perfectly utilized, and the cinematographer deserves major props.

5. Don’t Look Now (1973), starring Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland
Speaking of that chase scene through the streets of Venice in Casino Royale, you might remember Vesper’s scarlet coat. That’s actually a tribute to Don’t Look Now, a horror flick that shows the grittier side of Venice. I’m not going to say it’s my favorite movie ever, because it’s kind of silly and weird, and there’s a random sex scene with Donald Sutherland and his naked butt (he is my old man crush, but still, TMI). HOWEVER, I like the unique way the cinematographers treated Venice and how the city seemed creepy as heck by the end of the movie. But the real reason you should watch Don’t Look Now is the red coat: it’s a part of pop culture. Aside from Casino Royale, it’s been referenced in Flatliners, In Bruges, the 2005 film The Dark, and many songs including Big Audio Dynamite’s “E=MC2” and the M83 song “America.”

An Interview with Becky from One Literature Nut

It's the final day of The Sea Queen's Daughter blog tour and today I'm answering questions at One Literature Nut. Find out what work of art I based Serena's mask off of, the truth behind the legend of the Sea Queen, and whether or not I'm planning on writing another story set in Venice (one never knows!).

Thank you to all the bloggers and readers who participated in the blog tour this week. Just in case you missed a day, here are all the posts:

• "All the World's a Stage: Venice and Carnevale" guest post at Dina Rae's Write Stuff
• The Sea Queen's Daughter review and giveaway at Penelope's Romance Reviews (giveaway runs through October 1st, so there's still time to enter!)
• Interview at A Buckeye Girl Reads
• Interview at One Literature Nut

It's been a great week, everyone! Now back to writing.

An Interview with Colette from A Buckeye Girl Reads

The Sea Queen's Daughter blog tour continues today at A Buckeye Girl Reads, where I'm answering a few questions. Find out about what topics I researched, what my next release will be, and who my favorite characters are in The Sea Queen's Daughter.

Don't forget to enter the giveaway at Penelope's Romance Reviews and stay tuned tomorrow for a guest post at My Cozie Corner.

THE SEA QUEEN'S DAUGHTER Giveaway Today!

The Sea Queen's Daughter blog tour continues today with an awesome giveaway at Penelope's Romance Reviews. Not only is Penny giving away a copy of The Sea Queen's Daughter, she's also sending one lucky winner a pair of unique, handmade Venetian glass earrings from Vickie Joe's Jewels (pictured above). Love them!

To enter, simply comment on Penny's review of The Sea Queen's Daughter. Tomorrow the tour will continue with an interview at A Buckeye Girl Reads.

All the World's a Stage: Venice and Carnevale

Welcome to the first day of The Sea Queen's Daughter blog tour! Today I'm at Dina Rae's Write Stuff discussing the strange and wondrous world that was the Venetian Carnevale. Here's an itty bitty excerpt to whet your appetite:

During Carnevale, everyone who appeared in public wore a mask. This wasn't just a gesture: the anonymity the mask afforded was considered sacred, giving everyone from the Doge to street urchins the illusion of equality. One 18th century visitor even reported seeing a masked mother nursing a masked baby!

Read the rest here! And stay tuned tomorrow for an awesome giveaway at Penelope's Romance Reviews.

In the Queue 11

Hiro from Heroes, just in case you hadn't realized I am a geek yet.

I did it! I survived deadline hell week! I met all my deadlines, even the ones for pitches that I didn't really *have* to do. Hallefreakinlujah.

All work and no play makes Ellis a dull girl, so I'm looking forward to wrapping this post up and then chillaxing in the sun for a while. Now on to the queue!


Fiction

With pressing deadlines looming, I didn't get any work done in my novel this past week. I am, however, excited about The Sea Queen Daughter's blog tour, which kicks off on Monday. It's going to be epic! I'll be posting much more about it next week and hope you'll take time to say hi on my perambulations across the bookternet.

Reading: I started Zen Attitude, the second book in the Rei Shamura series by Sujata Massey, last night during an insomnia attack. I need to move somewhere where there's not a big difference in the seasons; changes from summer to fall and spring to summer kill me.


Nonfiction

Too much to detail, so in summation: this past week I wrote and edited 2 feature articles, a chapter for an essay collection, 4 short articles, 2 guest blog posts and an interview, plus 2 pitches. I'm not sure my brain is functioning as normal right now...

Reading: I have one chapter left in Take a Closer Look and I'm bound and determined to finish it SOON. Today, if possible.


That's all for this week. See you next week for The Sea Queen's Daughter blog tour!

Writing Links Wednesday: DOCTOR WHO Edition

Yes, Doctor.

Sorry there were no posts last week; I'm in the middle of deadline hell right now and writing as fast as my fingers can type! I'm not out of the weeds yet, but I thought it necessary to take a break and share some awesome Doctor Who links with you all that I discovered in the course of my research (for an article I should be writing right now... anyway):

• It's a truth universally acknowledged that the Doctor can only regenerate 12 times, and Steven Moffat has recently confirmed he will hold to this convention. Since Peter Capaldi is the 12th Doctor, one wonders what's going to happen upon his inevitable exit to bigger and better things. Bring back Tennant? Start a new series called Son of the Timelord? Also: which Doctor is John Hurt supposed to be? I'm very confused.
• "I hate strong female characters." This article in The New Statesmen isn't about Doctor Who, exactly, but I think the female characters on Doctor Who do fall into this trap of being "strong" and little else, one of the reasons why female viewers are so frustrated with Moffat. I also hate the phrase "strong female character." It should be dashed from the lexicon.
• We can all agree Moffat is a terrific writer, but his female characters suck. This absolutely brilliant essay at Of Dice and Pen details exactly why and and how the women of Doctor Who have been re-imagined as characters without agency who only serve at the whims of men. I would just like to add: Clara's not even a character, she's a plot device.
• But maybe that's because there are no women writers on the show. There hasn't been a single episode penned by a woman since Moffat took over, and even during the Russell T. Davies era there was only one female writer on staff. The Guardian investigates why.

Hopefully I'll have everything finished in time to post the queue on Friday. If not, I'll see you for The Sea Queen's Daughter blog tour, starting next week!

In the Queue 10

Just swimming along...

What a weird, stressful week. I decided over the weekend that I wasn't going to write for a certain company anymore; unfortunately, they were my major source of income, so I'm a bit worried and stressed about finding another gig to replace them. I haven't been sleeping, my reading time keeps getting interrupted, and one of the dogs got really sick on Wednesday night. She kept panicking and flailing around and would only calm down if someone was holding her. I need some major happy, distracting and/or inspiring entertainment, stat.

In the meantime, on to the queue...


Fiction

Planning/Editing/Writing: Not much news to report this week. I only managed to write a few pages in Bank Robber's Special (still working on the title) over the week, probably one of the reasons I'm in a MOOD. Writing isn't therapy but sometimes it has the same effect. The blog tour for The Sea Queen's Daughter is filled so now I just need to focus on guest posts.

Reading: This week I finished Death Without Company by Craig Johnson. It was much better than the first book in the series, The Cold Dish—shorter and with more things happening. Currently I'm reading Animal Farm by George Orwell for an essay I'm writing. If Boxer dies I am going to be VERY upset, you guys. Oh, and I'm re-listening to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone on audiobook.


Non-Fiction

Planning: An article on Doctor Who and how it's become a touchstone for feminist and colonial issues because of its popularity and worldwide audience. Just heard today that the new season won't start until fall 2014, incidentally.

Editing: More artist profiles.

Writing: Today is more of editing day for me. If I get time to write I want to focus on my fiction stuff and write up a review of Death Without Company.

Reading: Since I haven't had a lot of time to read, I haven't made much of dent in Take a Closer Look, the book about art interpretation I started last week.



What have you been up to this week?

Writing Links Wednesday

I decided to start a new feature on here for writing and book links I've found interesting or useful during the week. Let me know what you think!

• "99c books are the foundation for the tragically forgotten book pile." Many self-pub'd authors, including myself, are at a loss when it comes to figuring out how to price their books. Most of the advice I've read basically runs along the lines of, "Try out a price and if you're not selling books, change it." So far, this article at Dear Author is the only essay I've encountered with a solid break down of price points and how they relate to buying habits. What's the Right Price of a Book for You?
• "I said she dumped me, but really, I dumped her (body)." I remember when I started thinking about a story where a murder was solved online—what eventually became the plot of Tweet the Police—the idea seemed quirky but incredible. An editor actually told me there was no way that would happen in the RL. Now there are whole Reddit threads dedicated to solving crimes like the Boston Marathon Bombings. This mystery about a map and murder confession sent to Post Secret (an "art project" where people anonymously mail their secrets via postcards so they can be posted on a website) in particular is begging for both an official investigation, and for a writer to turn it into a novel. Did Post Secret Pass Around a Murder Confession?
• "It's the kind of word that you can, actually, build a book around." Do you have a favorite word? Neil Gaiman shares his.

In the Queue 9

What's the haps.

Hello, everyone! Do you recognize the park in this picture? It's the Val-de-Marne in Paris. I have Paris on the brain lately. This morning I've been playing "J'ai Deux Amours" on a loop on my iTunes. I have two loves: my country and Paris. Maybe someday I'll move to Paris, you never know.

Can you believe summer's almost over? I hate fall. My birthday's coming up and I'm already wishing I could go into a coma and wake up when it's over, uhg. But that's still a few weeks off, so on to the queue!


Fiction

Planning: The blog tour for The Sea Queen's Daughter is coming together nicely and I'm super excited about it!

Writing: Still working on the noir story. I'm wondering what to call it; the title when I initially abandoned it was Beefcake Special, because I had some vague idea of making the hero take his shirt off constantly for no reason. Which I can still do, of course, but it doesn't sound very noir-ish. Now I'm thinking maybe The Old Five and Dime? Stay tuned.

Reading: I FINALLY finished The Cold Dish this week and was like, "Yay, I can move on with my life!" After which I immediately picked up the next book in the series, Death Without Company. What can I say, I was feeling lonely without my guys. I'm also re-listening to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone on audiobook. By pure coincidence, this weekend marks the 15th anniversary of its release.


Non-Fiction

Planning: I was contracted to write an essay about George Orwell. I'll admit right now that I have very little knowledge of Orwell and have never read any of his books. So that's going to take some research.

Editing: A press release about an artist. I enjoy writing these things, strangely.

Writing: Meh.

Reading: An art book called Take a Closer Look. It's set up to read like fake letters or conversations, so it has a socratic feel. Terribly clever.


That's all for this week! Do any of you have plans for the weekend?

In the Queue and Tim Gunn Should Be Batman

This week has been okay. Everything has felt a little blah lately, honestly. I might be getting bored. That's never good; when I get bored I start making unwise decisions.

As you may know, I've been watching Project Runway again this season, and I was sooo happy Tim Gunn saved Justin last night. Yay Tim Gunn Save! I was sobbing all over the place when he was eliminated and my mom was like, "You are NOT crying right now." But then Tim said he could stay in the competition! HUGS ALL AROUND YOU GUYS.

In other news, I'm finding it hard to imagine Ben Affleck (Batfleck!) as Batman. But then I probably won't see the movie either way, so my opinion's not worth much.

And now on to the queue...


Fiction

Planning: A book tour for The Sea Queen's Daughter. I'm scheduling guest posts or author interviews for the week of September 23rd. If you have a blog and are interested in participating, please feel free to e-mail me or DM me on Twitter.

Writing: I'm still working on the bank heist noir. I have no idea what to call this book. It's very different from my other stories: for one, it's told in the third person present, which is not a typical tense for me at all, but the story just felt like it wanted to be told that way. Secondly, the tone is much darker than my usual light mystery fare. I hope people like it!

Reading: I've been slogging through A (The?) Cold Dish by Craig Johnson. It's not that bad of a book, it's just that it's the first in the series, so there's a lot of exposition about things I already know thanks to the Longmire TV show. I also started reading it when I was really busy, and as a result I now feel like I will NEVER EVER FINISH THIS STUPID BOOK. Seriously, I've been reading it for over a week and I'm barely halfway through. And it's 300 pages. I'd skim the rest but it's not really the type of book you can skim. UHG. I just want to move on with my life.


Non-fiction

Planning: That post on the roots of the phrase "What's your poison." I think I've mentioned that before in the queue.

Editing: I just finished editing three short book reviews, and I need to finish an article on Albrecht Dürer today.

Writing: This!

Reading: This week I finished a really fun reprint of a 1930 cocktail book called Shake 'Em Up. The appetizer recipes are so bizarre I just HAVE to try them. This book might be a must-buy for me; I definitely recommend you hunt down a copy.


That's all for this week! What's have you been up to?

In the Queue 7

I am so hungry right now, you guys.

I almost forgot to write my queue post today! I'm pet-sitting this week, which means I have two sets of demanding dogs to take care of, and less time to read and get things done. Except for watching Game of Thrones, of course. I'm almost finished with the second season. Have you noticed NO ONE on that show wears underwear?

Anyway, I still managed to have a few productive days this week. Not this day, though, so let's move on the queue...



Fiction

Writing: I just started writing a story about a man who is unwittingly involved in a bank robbery. I have a feeling this one is going to be pretty short, and I'm planning on making it grittier than any of my other mysteries. You can read the first few paragraphs here.

Reading: I started The Cold Dish by Craig Johnson. It's the first book in his Longmire mystery series; Longmore is is a Wyoming sheriff. I don't really want to read the series in order but my mom's making me, haha (she is, though). I'm also still reading The Seven Sleuths' Club. I'm so into it I go days without reading it.



Non-fiction

Planning: After struggling to write two food-related articles last month, this month I have TONS of ideas I'm planning to write about.

Editing: An article about painting styles and three artist profiles.

Writing: An article about photographs that impacted the world in some way.

Reading: Nothing, but I have some cocktail books at the library I'm looking forward to digging into.



What's in your queue this week?

Wrong Place, Right Tie

Waves of heat roll off the blacktop. Diego adjusts his tie, his cheap suit clinging to the skin of his back, and sits on the edge of a dried-up planter, dropping his briefcase between his feet.

He runs a hand through his hair and checks the clock on the bank sign. Thirty minutes late. Across the plaza, a small park beckons with the lure of shade.

In the distance, there’s a screech of tires and the wail of sirens. A white sedan shoots around the corner, nearly tilting onto two wheels. Diego jumps up as it speeds past him, staring at the license plate.

A second later he’s surrounded by cop cars, lights flashing. “Down on the ground! Down on the ground!” someone orders.

Before Diego has the chance to think about what he’s doing, he’s running, the briefcase clutched to his chest like a shield. He can hear shouts and the slap of combat boots on pavement behind him.

The roar of a shot fills the plaza. Diego doesn’t feel a thing: one moment he’s running, the next his cheek is pressing into hot concrete. With what seems agonizing slowness, he pushes himself up and sees blood. A boot kicks into his back, forcing him down.

Diego looks into the barrel of a shotgun, then the lined face of the old man holding it.

With a rush, his hearing comes back. The cops are shouting in the distance. Diego locks eyes with the old man, grabs the barrel hovering in front of his face, and tugs. When the man stumbles forward, Diego pushes back, smacking the old man's cheekbone with the butt of the rifle.

The guy who fancies himself a Clint Eastwood character lands on his ass on the sidewalk and Diego struggles to his feet, pulling the rifle out of the other man’s hands. A quick survey of the blindingly bright square reveals a 1985 Buick running, unoccupied, at the curb. Definitely and an old man car.

Keeping one hand pressed to his side, Diego limps to the Buick, tossing the rifle and briefcase into the passenger seat before sliding behind the wheel. He peels off just as the blue-clad arm of a police officer darts into the open window and grabs hold of his tie. The polyester slips from between the cop’s fingers as Diego stomps on the accelerator and pulls away in a burn of rubber.