We Are Moving

I want to thank everyone who has followed this blog over the years.

I wanted to let you know, this blog will be going away at the end of the year.

The good news is that I moved to https://www.oldbookshanty.com in July and have been working on getting the website up and running and working on services for authors.

For the first 25 authors that contact me, via the contact form on https://www.oldbookshanty.com I will promote one (1) of your books for FREE!

If your book is a New Release, I will promote it at the top of the page for 7 days. Plus do an excerpt on the blog. Plus promote across social media – right now Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

If you have an Upcoming Book, I will promote it in the sidebar of the blog up to 6 weeks prior to book launch day. Plus promote across social media – right now Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

If you do not have a New Release or Upcoming Book, I will do a spotlight and book excerpt on the blog of one of your books. Plus promote across social media – right now Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

For all, I will create a banner mockup with your book cover. Visit https://www.oldbookshanty.com for examples.

I will also create 3 different banner mockups for your book for you to use any way you wish.

If this sounds like something you would like to do, visit https://www.oldbookshanty.com, fill out the contact form, and let me know.

Or send the following to oldbookshanty@gmail.com

Jpg of Book Cover, Title of Book, Publisher of Book, Publication Date, Link to Purchase Book, Book Excerpt

If Upcoming Book, send the book cover, the title of the book, the date it will be published, and the link to preorder the book.

If New Release, send a link to Purchase the book.

I hope to hear from you soon!

Should I continue to promote/market books?

It has been over a year since I posted on this blog. During this time, I have been thinking if I should start promoting/marketing books again.

I have been asking myself:

• Would authors need/want my help in promoting/marketing their books?
• What kind of help do authors need?
• If I continue promoting/marketing books, what would it look like?
• Do I have anything of value to offer authors?

Let me know if you need help and what do you think that help should look like.

$25,000 Grant for Creative Writing Fellowship for Poetry

The National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowships Program offers a $25,000 grant for poetry in 2022 to published creative writers that enable the recipients to set aside time for writing, research, travel, and general career advancement. 

The deadline is March 10, 2022. For more information and to apply visit this link.

London Book Fair Conference 2022

The London Book Fair Conference will be held April 5-7, 2022 at Olympia, London.

From the London Book Fair website:

“The London Book Fair is the global marketplace for rights negotiation and the sale and distribution of content across print, audio, TV, film, and digital channels.

“Staged annually, our in-person event typically welcomes more than 25,000 publishing professionals to London for the week of the fair to learn, network, and kick off their year of business.”

Virtual Conferences for Writers

Writers need to learn too and one way of doing that is attending a conference. In this case, a virtual conference. Here is a list of some upcoming conferences.

January 7-23, 2022 – North Island Writers Conference

January 21-23, 2022 – Writer’s Digest University Novel Writing Virtual Conference

January 28-30, 2022 – Orange County Library System, OCLS Writers Conference

February 10-12, 2022 – Sierra Writers Conference (Virtual and In-person, Lake Tahoe, NV)

March 23-26, 2022 – Association of Writers & Writing Programs (Virtual and In-person, Philadelphia, PA)

April 7-9, 2022 – The Las Vegas Writers Conference (Virtual and In-person, Las Vegas, NV)

April 20-21, 2022 – Independent Book Publishing Association (IBPA)

April 27-May 1, 2022 – The Muse & The Marketplace

April 28-30, 2022 – Chicago Spring Fling 2022

Working the Depths of the Red Light District

The new PI Calvin Watters mystery Finders Keepers is now available at Amazon.

Back Cover Text

To beat the streets…

Calvin Watters spent three hard years on the Vegas streets, working the depths of the red light district. When a string of escort murders surfaces and the LVMPD has no answers, they realize that there is only one man they can turn to for help.

…you have to know the streets.

Calvin vowed to never return to his former life, but this new case pulls him back in. As he hits the streets, his honed survival skills kick in, and the PI must call upon his past experience to outwit a worthy opponent.

Caught in the crosshairs.

When Calvin killed Derek Baxter, he added fuel to an ever-growing fire inside Baxter’s longtime sniper partner, Jackson North. Now North is out for revenge, but how far will the hitman go to leave his mark on Calvin’s life?

Review Blurbs

“When it comes to writing compelling, knife-to-your-throat thrillers, Murphy’s the real deal.”—Rick Mofina, USA Today Bestselling Author of Search For Her

“Murphy ramps up the action to new levels in Finders Keepers, pushing the gambit right to the end.”—Jeff Buick, bestselling author of The Wrong Side of Murder

“Full throttle on page one, and it never lets up. It’s a riveting ride.”—James Thayer, bestselling author of House of Eight Orchids

• 

  LUKE MURPHY

Author Bio

Luke Murphy is the International bestselling author of two series: The Calvin Watters Mysteries and The Charlene Taylor Mysteries.

Murphy played six years of professional hockey before retiring in 2006.

His sports column, “Overtime” (Pontiac Equity), was nominated for the 2007 Best Sports Page in Quebec, and won the award in 2009. He has also worked as a radio journalist (CHIPFM 101.7).

Murphy lives in Shawville, QC with his wife and three daughters. He is a teacher who holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing, and a Bachelor of Education (Magna Cum Laude).

Finders Keepers is the fourth book in the Calvin Watters series, and Murphy’s sixth novel overall.

For more information on Luke and his books, and to sign up for his newsletter, visit: www.authorlukemurphy.com

‘Like’ his Facebook page: www.facebook.com/AuthorLukeMurphy

Follow him on Twitter: www.twitter.com/AuthorLMurphy and Instagram: www.instagram.com/AuthorLukeMurphy

Be the first to know when Luke Murphy’s next book is available!

Follow him at: www.bookbub.com/authors/luke-murphy to receive new release and discount alerts.

Gray Man- What a Ride!

A couple of years ago, I started working with a woman who was just as much an avid reader as myself. We share books and have book discussions. I had not seen her for a while because of the pandemic and the first thing she said when we did meet up was not “How are you?” but “Have you read the Gray Man series?”

I had not so she promptly handed me the first four books in the series. If you have not read this series, head over to Amazon and check it out.

As Lee Child, author of the Jack Reacher series said- “I love the Gray Man!”

The book’s Prologue begins like a fast-paced action movie.

https://markgreaneybooks.com/

“A flash of light in the distant morning sky captured the attention of the Land Rover’s blood-soaked driver. Polarized Oakleys shielded his eyes from the burnt of the sun’s rays; still, he squinted through his windshield’s glare, desperate to identify the burning aircraft that now spun and hurtled towards earth, a smoldering comet’s tail of black smoke left hanging above it.

“It was a helicopter, a large Army Chinook, and horrific though the situation must have been for those on board, the driver of the Land Rover breathed a subdued sigh of relief. His extraction transport was to be a Russian-built KA-32T, crewed by Polish mercenaries and flown in from over the border in Turkey. The driver found the dying Chinook regrettable but preferable to a dying KA-32T…”

“The Chinook sank off to his left and disappeared behind a brown ridge in the distance.

“The driver fixed his eyes on the road ahead. Not my problem, he told himself. He was not trained to search and to rescue, he was not trained to give aid, and he certainly was not trained to negotiate for hostages.

“He was trained to kill.”

Author Mark Greaney is the #1 New York Times bestselling author. He is the coauthor of seven Tom Clancy novels, and he collaborated with Clancy on three Jack Ryan novels. Greaney lives in Memphis, Tennessee.

The Gray Man is scheduled to hit Netflix in 2022 with Ryan Gosling in the leading role as Court Gentry-The Gray Man.

Pre-Order Finders Keeper by Luke Murphy Today!

Available on Amazon.

To beat the streets…

Calvin Watters spent three hard years on the Vegas streets, working the depths of the red light district. When a string of escort murders surfaces and the LVMPD has no answers, they realize that there is only one man they can turn to for help.

…you have to know the streets.

Calvin vowed to never return to his former life, but this new case pulls him back in. As he hits the streets, his honed survival skills kick in, and the PI must call upon his past experience to outwit a worthy opponent.

Caught in the crosshairs.

When Calvin killed Derek Baxter, he added fuel to an ever-growing fire inside Baxter’s longtime sniper partner, Jackson North. Now North is out for revenge, but how far will the hitman go to leave his mark on Calvin’s life?

Order Today!

Happy New Year!

This past year has been a hard one for all of us. We have had to learn a lot of new norms – lockdown, social distance, no handshakes, no hugs, work remotely, Zoom meetings, etc.

While I did not do much blogging in 2020, I did read a lot of books. It is my hope (fingers crossed) to get several book reviews written in 2021.

The Whole Town’s Talking and Some at the Cemetery Are Too

The Whole Town’s Talking

By: Fannie Flagg
Publisher: Random House
Publication Date: 2016

Forrest Gump said, “Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get.” And this story is like that. It is an easy and fun read.

If you are a fan of the movie Fried Green Tomatoes, well Fannie Flagg is the author of that book.  And you will love this one!

The story follows the town from the date it is established, 1880 to the year 2016, followed by an Epilogue of 2021. Characters live and characters die. Children grow up, get married, and have children of their own. Some folks are happy and some are miserable.

The Whole Town’s Talking takes place in the small town of Elmwood Springs, Missouri. It begins in 1880 with the founder, Lordor Nordstrom.  At age twenty-eight, Nordstrom left Sweden to travel to the United States. He settled in Missouri and cleared land for a farm.  Soon he advertised in the Swedish-American newspapers for young farmers to come and help him start a community.

By 1889, the community was growing and known as Swede Town, even though two Germans and one Norwegian lived there. It was this year that Nordstorm donated land for a cemetery. The cemetery was on top of a hill that overlooked the town and Nordstorm named it Still Meadows.

Nordstorm decided he needed a wife and with the lack of unmarried women in the community, he advertised for a mail-order bride. Katrina Olsen, a Swede living in Chicago, answered the advertisement and in 1890, the two got married.

While Nordstorm is a main character in the book, he and Katrina are by means the only ones. After all, there is a whole town!

As the years go by, the name of the town is changed to Elmwood Springs. Children are born and a school is built. In 1901, Miss Lucille Beemer is hired as the first school teacher.

Flagg’s colorful description of the small bucolic town puts the reader right there on the spot. She draws the reader into the lives of each character and shows how their lives are intertwined. Some characters are very likable and others not so much. Flagg keeps you guessing as to what is going to happen and to whom it will happen.

Some of my favorite scenes in this story take place at Still Meadows, the cemetery.

I invite you to read The Whole Town’s Talking and meet the Lordor and Katrina Nordstorm and their children. Get to know folks by the name of Swensen, Knott, Eggstrom, Tildholme, Shimfissle, Hendersen, Warren, and others. Meet Miss Beemer and Sweet Potato, the pig.

The book has sections titled such as, “And So It Begins…,” “The 1900s, a New Era,” “The Twenties, All the Wonderful Things in Store,” “The Thirties, The Show Must Go On,” and other amusing titles for each decade.

Chapter titles are just as much fun such as “A Change of Address,” “Reunited,” “More Good Friends,” “Fun at Still Meadows,” and “It Don’t Mean a Thing if It Ain’t Got That Swing.”

Read this book to learn who goes off to war, who marries whom, who gets murdered and how the murder gets solved, and which colorful character meets Bonnie and Clyde and Harry and Bess Truman.

You will be pleasantly surprised as to how this story develops and ends.

 

Some other books by Fannie Flagg:

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café (1987)

Welcome to the World, Baby Girl (1998)

A Redbird Christmas (2004)

Can’t Wait to Get to Heaven (2006)

The All-Girl Filling Station’s Last Reunion (2013)