Wine & Murder
I want to kill someone in public.
I don’t have a particular person. Just someone.
Last weekend I volunteered for my business districts wine walk event. It was a fun event that paired artists and wineries with local businesses. Visitors bought a ticket which guaranteed them ten tastings from the wineries of their choosing and then they walked to the various locations ogled the art, tasted the wine and walked to the next stop. This puts visitors inside local businesses, exposes an audience to new wines and gives everyone a chance to enjoy a fun fall outing. It’s also a large crowd with people going every which way, no one is really paying attention, and half the crowd is a wee bit tipsy. That seems like a great place for a murder!
Could I slip something in their tasting glass? Could I stab them quietly in pop them in a business’s back room while no one was looking? Leave the body in their car apparently “sleeping it off”? Or is it better to kill them and then stick around as a surprise witness. Oh my God! Someone’s killed Kenny! And… surprised face.
It’s a bold move to go for a public murder, which makes it probably unpremeditated. My motivation would have to be strong. Lots of money or a truly horrible victim. And then, perhaps the small town police chief could solve the mystery? And bam, we’ve got a novel plot. Although, in general, I should probably not tell anyone what I think about at these events. I’m going to end up on someone’s list…
Promo Blues
Yesterday, AB Plum talked about the woes of promoting. She’s not alone in finding that the grind of “getting yourself out there” is not fun. Most authors find that to be the hardest part of the job. We’re the kind of people who invent people to talk to. Talking to real people is just so, so, so much harder. Real people rarely say what we tell them to say for one thing. She also mentioned that she’s working on her marketing plan.
I see your hands coming up. “What is a marketing plan?” you ask. Excellent question.
A marketing plan is a comprehensive document or blueprint that outlines a business advertising and marketing efforts for the coming year. It describes business activities involved in accomplishing specific marketing objectives within a set time frame.
So for an author a marketing objective would be something like get more people to sign up for a mailing list, or have more people review your book. (Side note / Public service Announcement: if you love an author, review their books. It’s the nicest thing you can do!) To accomplish those goals, you have to take steps like advertise, blog, and/or hound your friends. A marketing plan collates these steps, ads assigned dates, and at least takes a stab at figuring out how much they’ll cost so that a budget can be created.
I don’t know how AB feels about marketing plans, but my thoughts are two-fold. My first thought, upon completion of a plan, is incredibly smug. I’m soooo organized. Who wouldn’t want to be as organized as me. My second thought is usually about two seconds later. How did I miss that deadline? Why is this going down in flames? What do you mean the cost of that ad went up? Ahhhhhhhh!!!!
All of which is to say that behind every successful book there is an author who is using a wet blanket to try and put out the dumpster fire of her marketing plan.
COMING FEBRUARY 13: Galactic Dreams – When Stars Take Flight
When Stars Take Flight takes the story of Thumbelina into space and reimagines the fairy tale for a new age—the future.
Kidnapped by the To’Andans, tortured by the Moliter, and rescued by Sparrow Pandion—a spy who hides a secret pain—Alliance Ambassador Lina Tum-Bel is up against a galaxy full of trouble as she attempts to rebuild the Interstellar Alliance. Her training says that she can’t trust her handsome rescuer, but maybe together, she and Sparrow can learn to fly.
Free Turkey
Over Thanksgiving, my grocery store was giving away free turkeys for those who spent over $100. Thinking that it would be a small turkey, my husband who was shopping at the time, said, “Sure! Who doesn’t want a free turkey!”
And really, who wouldn’t?
And then he came home with a 23-pound turkey. That didn’t fit in our freezer.
We tried shoving it in six different ways from Sunday and then called up my mom and said, “Guess what? We’re providing the turkey!” And she said, “Guess what? I’m cooking a roast!” So we agreed to try it again for Christmas and I called around and found a friend with spare freezer space. Only Christmas arrived and mom declared that Christmas dinner was going to be small and simple. As in… no turkey. But I had sworn to my friend that her freezer would be hers again after Christmas. So now I’m looking up how to cook turkey and inviting my in-laws over.
They say that New Years is a time for trying new things and I guess I’ll be starting early with turkey cooking. Wish me luck as I enter the world of large scale cooking.
SALE ALERT:
Smashwords, the independent e-book store, is having it’s annual year end sale featuring site wide deals, including some from me.
Check out all the deals at: SMASHWORDS
Check out my deals at: SMASHWORDS/BETHANYMAINES
Crunch Time!
Ack! I should be baking. Or possibly cleaning my filthy office. Or writing any of the multiple stories I’m supposed to be completing. It’s crunch time for me. I’ve got a sci-fi novella that is due back from the editor at any second (more info to come after the holidays!), a Christmas short story that needs completing ASAP, and mystery novel that is supposed to be way more underway than it is. And my business partner at my day job is about to go on maternity leave at any moment. I could use a holiday. Oh, wait, one has just turned up. Now I get to add baking to the list. So excuse me, if I just complain for a minute and then dash off to put a pie in the oven.
But in the spirit of the holidays, how about a chance to win a print copy of Shark’s Instinct? Reviewers are calling it an “amazing mystery with loads of action.” Click the link below to enter!
Goodreads Book Giveaway
Shark’s Instinct
by Bethany Maines
Giveaway ends November 30, 2017.
See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.