Friday, December 1, 2017

L.A. Sartor's Bestselling Christmas Series is on Sale For 99¢ Each

I've decided to put my Christmas Series, Star Light ~ Star Bright, set in snowy Boulder, Colorado on sale for 99¢ each. (ebooks)

It's the perfect time to stock up for you, gift to others, or simply slow down with a book and a cup of cocoa.  




Be Mine This Christmas Night is the book that started it all.  Meet Annie, a children's author, Cole, a brilliant scientist along with the cast of characters that show up throughout the series. I can't wait for you to meet them all.
Winner of the International Digital Award

To Buy: 
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | iBooks | Kobo





Forever Yours This New Year's Night is Jennifer and Brice's story. They have one week to complete their assignment. One week to learn to trust each other. One week to fall in love. 

To Buy: 
Amazon | Barnes & Noble |iBooks | Kobo








Believe In Me This Christmas Morn is Mitch and Belle's story.  You've met Mitch in Book #1 and I couldn't leave him a solitary character. It's the week before Christmas and Belle has won the best gift ever. Mitch also gets the best present by helping Belle with her struggling literacy non-profit. He gets to leave Boulder, and its haunting memories.  Or does he?  

To Buy: 
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | iBooks | Kobo









Wednesday, November 29, 2017

Take Five and Meet Patricia Hale and her book The Church of the Holy Child

Okay, the title surprised me and then I read Patricia's post. WOW.


Welcome to An Indie Adventure, Patricia.  Tell us, what inspired you to write your book, The Church of the Holy Child?

Hi, L.A. Thanks for having me as your guest today. I was watching a movie about a serial killer who found his victims through his job as a volunteer for a suicide hot line. I thought that was really horrible and then began thinking of comparable atrocities. I came up with a killer who targets women escaping domestic violence. It’s a terrible irony to be escaping familial violence only to be killed by an outsider. I’m really not as deranged as this makes me sound, but I thought it was an interesting twist. I’ve left out the graphics so readers won’t be turned away. The story takes the reader on a twisted hunt for the killer.

When you’re brainstorming for a new story, what usually comes first for you, the plot or the characters?

Definitely the plot. And then, depending on what the plot entails I imagine who is right for the job. What kind of character traits would the person need to have? What strengths and weaknesses would allow them to confront the issue, but at the same time, I want their own shortcomings to create obstacles and internal struggles as they pursue their goal.

 What is most difficult for you to write?  Characters, conflict or emotions?  Why?

I enjoy writing a character and getting to know them as the story moves along. Conflict can be very absorbing and intense in a good way. Writing emotions can be challenging because you don’t want to spoon feed the reader what they should feel in any given scene. The characters should bring out emotions in the reader through their behavior, their conflicts, their decisions as well as with their internal and external dialogue. The reader should not be told how to feel. Emotions should be triggered by the behavior of the characters. Making that happen can be challenging.

What is the first thing you do when you begin a new book?

I eat. I keep getting up from the computer and going to the kitchen for a snack because I’m nervous and I eat when I’m nervous. It’s those first few lines… I write them and re-write them until I begin to relax and then I get hooked. Once I have the first paragraph on the page, I’m good and I keep writing until I run out of thoughts. Then I leave it and the next morning re-read it and rewrite it again and keep moving forward in that fashion. I’m a pantser.

If you were a TV, film or book character, apart from one you've created, who would you be?  And why?

I’ve always wished I’d gone into law enforcement so I would be Jennifer Lopez’s character, Harlee Santos, on Shades of Blue. She’s a mom, a detective, she keeps secrets and she’ll go to any extreme to keep her family safe. In another life, I’d leave my computer behind and live the lives of my characters.


Give us a brief summary of The Church of the Holy Child:
When a missing woman is found dead, her husband is charged, but when a second body appears showing the same wounds questions arise and what looked like a slam-dunk becomes anyone’s guess. The bodies are piling up, and one person knows where the killer is. Father Francis, a priest at The Church of the Holy Child, listens to the killer’s disturbed account of each murder and wrestles with the vows that bind him to secrecy.

Buy:

Bio: 
Patricia Hale received her MFA degree from Goddard College. Her essays have appeared in literary magazines and the anthology, My Heart’s First Steps. Her debut novel, In the Shadow of Revenge, was published in 2013. The Church of the Holy Child is the first book in her PI series featuring the team of Griff Cole and Britt Callahan. The second book, Durable Goods, will be released in March 2018. Patricia is a member of Sister’s in Crime, Mystery Writer’s of America, NH Writer’s Project and Maine Writer’s and Publisher’s Alliance. She lives in New Hampshire with her husband and two dogs.

Find Patricia:

Tuesday, November 28, 2017

Author Spotlight Featuring Nancy Haddock's A Crime of Poison

Nancy Haddock is one of my favorite authors, 
and her Silver Six Crafting Mystery series is funny, warm and clever. 
Thanks, L.A. for hosting me on your blog. It's always a joy to be here.

Do you all like art and craft festivals? I love them, and I’m eagerly awaiting the big November event in St. Augustine!
Whether they are small, intimate fairs with twenty or thirty booths, or large, juried festivals with a hundred vendors, I adore browsing and admiring the creativity and variety of goodies being offered. And, okay, I do more than browse. If the price is right, I buy fun things for family and friends. Everything from jewelry to art prints, to garden stones so ornate I hang them in my house!

My love of arts and crafts came from my mother who was a self-taught artist and craftswoman. I didn’t get all her talent, but if I can spend time at a festival – or an antique show or flea market – I’m there.

Watching my mother and her friends age was one of the inspirations for my Silver Six Crafting mysteries. My mother isn’t one of the Silver Six, per se, but her varied talents and general “get-‘er-done” attitude is reflected in both my group of senior characters and in the 30-year-old character, Nixy.  Another driving inspiration was my love of art and craft forms, so the Silver Six had to be crafty.


In the first book, Basket Case, my characters host an arts and crafts fest on their farmhouse grounds. In A Crime of Poison, they’ve moved the festival to the town square.

So, I wondered ….

What if a despised former resident showed up at the festival? What if he were working for an equally hated town bully? And what if someone wanted those men permanently gone from picturesque Lilyvale?

When Nixy stumbles on a crime scene with Amber the dog and T.C. the cat, she and the Silver Six are sure to be on the case!

Excerpt From A Crime of Poison:
The critters and I were fed and out the door by six forty- five for our morning jaunt. We walked up Fairview, one of our customary routes, but instead of crossing at Troost to loop back, we went another three blocks to cross at Moccasin, and then turned left on McKinley headed for home. Amber sniffed everything in sight. The grass, the sidewalk, the gutter, the dirt, every tree, even the air. Nothing escaped her notice. T.C. batted at and pounced on bugs, a fallen leaf, a rock. Entertaining as they were to watch, the start-stop pace sure wasn’t giving me aerobic exercise.

On McKinley I noticed an older- model sedan parked whopperjawed midblock under one of two oak trees. The front angled into the curb while the back stuck out into the street. Not enough to impede traffic, but nowhere near parallel to the curb. The paint might’ve been a cream color at one time, but now the car had more rust spots than not.

Amber and T.C. lifted their heads and sniffed as we approached. The closer we got, the more my critters fidgeted, whining and meowing, all the while testing the air for scents. When we pulled even with the passenger door, they sat at the edge of the sidewalk. Amber bayed her odd barkaroo, and T.C. screeched a reeoow. All the windows were open a few inches, the back windows more so. They weren’t tinted, and I noticed a man in the passenger seat. He looked to be asleep, his head tilted back, resting partly on the window, partly on the headrest.

I tugged gently on the leashes, planning to walk away, but my pets refused to budge. They gave me the big eyes and pitiful whimpers as if to say, Aren’t you going to do something?
I sighed and carefully stepped nearer to the car window for a closer look inside. I didn’t want to touch anything, but now I saw the man clearly.

A white floppy hat sat off- center over thin graying hair. Bruises colored his face. A split lip. White shirt smudged with dirt and blood droplets, and something else.

In spite of the cool morning, I suddenly felt clammy, and my knees shook. I swallowed and bent lower to see his eyes, then clamped my free hand over my nose and mouth as a foul, sour smell seeped from the window. The man wasn’t sleeping; not unless he slept with his eyes open and fixed on something he could no longer see.

Sure enough, Cornell Lewis was dead.

Buy: 

Blurb:
The Silver Six are known for their arts and crafts—but they’re about to be tested in the art of catching a crafty killer.

It's early October, time for the Fall Folk Art Festival and Bake Sale in Lilyvale, Arkansas. Leslee Stanton Nix, known as "Nixy," is in charge of making the event run smoothly. The festival will benefit the Handcraft Emporium, the store Nixy manages with her aunt and her five sassy housemates, collectively known as the Silver Six. Delicious baked goods, beautiful crafts, and time with friends—Nixy is confident that the festival will be a success.

But things become knotty when local troublemaker Cornell Lewis is found dead with a plate of Snickerdoodles from the bake sale. Two members of the Silver Six are accused of cooking up a murder plot, but Nixy knows that the cookies weren’t literally to die for. With time running out, Nixy and company must catch the actual killer... before the Silver Six find their number permanently reduced to four.

Bio: 
Nancy Haddock is the award-winning and national bestselling author of the Silver Six Crafting Mysteries. Basket Case and Paint the Town Dead are her current books in the series, and A Crime of Poison will be released in December 2017.

Nancy draws on historic wealth, southern culture, and the plain old quirkiness of places and people for her books. She lives with her husband and rescue dog Baron. You can reach her via www.nancyhaddock.com

Find Nancy: