A Ruthless Good by Susan Kelley

Read this great review for the third book in my Solonian Chronicles.

A Ruthless Good by Susan Kelley

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One Good Woman Released in Print

Woohoo! My publisher released One Good Woman in print two days before Christmas. I'm thrilled to have it out so soon after the e-book releases. Even more, I hope there's hundreds of thousands of new owners of e-readers out there.

One Good Woman is the culminating novel of The Chronicles of Solonia, a futuristic series published by New Concepts Publishing. Two recurring but much loved characters from the first three novels, The Greater Good, The Lesser Evil and A Ruthless Good find their own happiness in a destiny determined from when they first met. I think readers of the first three books will be completely satisfied with the answering of questions raised by the first three tales.

I know of several of my readers who always wait for the print book but I'm really hoping some of the lucky people received their new Sony or other reader for Christmas decide to give one of my books a try.

How about you? Did you receive an e-reader for Christmas or did one of your friends? Did you buy one for someone? If you did get one, are you going to purchase some authors you might not have tried on print?

Book Event Snowed Under

I spent hours preparing promotional material but Mother Nature had other ideas. We're at about 10 inches of snow and it's still falling. I'm sure it will be lovely in the morning but I would have liked to see it arrive tomorrow night.
Catherine at The Midtown Scholar Bookstore made the wise decision to postpone the huge author event she had arranged for today. She's going to put it together again in the spring. I'll be reminding everyone then and depending upon the date, I'll have another new book to sell.
Everyone be safe and don't let those men shovel snow.

Book Signing Event!

I believe book signings are helpful for authors to get their name out there to the public and perhaps more importantly for making friends with booksellers. But for an author, signings can be hours of sitting, talking and selling oneself without moving a single book. I've sat, stood, paced around at numerous book events and wondered if my time wouldn't have been better spent sitting at my desk at home and writing.

But this Saturday I'll be part of the biggest signing event I've yet to attend. The Midtown Scholar Bookstore-Cafe in Harrisburg, PA., is hosting a varied and talented panel of authors for readings and promoting their works. There will be poets, literary fiction writers, nonfiction authors, one YA author, and closest to my heart, romance writers. Cate Masters will be joining me in promoting our published novels along with fellow Susquehanna Writer, Don Helin selling his suspense novel.

Catherine, owner of the Midtown Scholar has put together a terrific holiday affair including a free holiday concert.

I am a bit nervous about reading from my work and have yet to select the passages I will use. I hope those of you local to Harrisburg will consider stopping by sometime between 2:00 and 5:00 this Saturday afternoon.

Another Book Contract!!!

I'm floating on air around the house, trying not to knock down the Christmas decorations. Medallion Press (Gosh, I love them!) has offered me a contract for Book #3 of The Futhark Chronicles. Beneath the Mountain continues the epic fantasy started on The Keepers of Sulbreth and Beyond the Gate.

The Keepers of Sulbreth is scheduled for release on January 1st of 2010, Beyond the Gate in 2011 and Beneath the Mountain in 2012. The yet unnamed fourth and final book in circling around in my head with the outline sketched out on paper.

To top off a truly wonderful week, I found another review for The Keepers of Sulbreth on Publishers Weekly. This time the reviewer was a teenager reading for PW. I can only say Bekah is a very insightful young woman with excellent taste.

Now if only I could get the manager of my local Borders to talk with me about a booksigning. Yeah, yeah, I know he's kind of busy now with lines to the back of the store for the holidays but this is important. LOL. I really want a signing early in January to catch all my former students before they head back to college. And so many people will be walking around with those wonderful gift cards from Christmas.

Later this week I'll be talking about the booksigning I have coming up next week at The Midtown Scholar Bookstore in Harrisburg, PA. Hope I see some of you there.

Gift Giving

I remember when Christmas was easy. My boys were little and begged for the newest Power Rangers or GIJoe toys. The lego castle system provided a lot of pricey entertainment but still fit in the budget. We enjoyed shopping for our baby girl and all those doll things we'd never purchased before. Things have changed.

The boys are in college and one of them already out and working. My little girl is in high school. Gift requests now range to things like $60 games for Xbox 360 for the boys and a list of gift cards. The girl wanted a new indoor hockey stick, not too bad at $85 and driving four hours to pick it out. Oh, and the class ring of which we won't mention the price. But by far the worse gift list is from the oldest. A single guy working at a pretty good job, he doesn't want anything in particular. I'd rather he ask for something expensive.

I guess all mothers hold onto those memories of Christmas morning when your child opens that special surprise with a squeal of delight and joy. So every year I waste hours prying and pondering the perfect gift. And every year it becomes more difficult. So I'm busy worrying about it and haven't come up with more than one idea for one child so far.

Do you do this? How difficult are those adult children to delight? Maybe I should just wait for those grandchildren to come along and rediscover the magic of Christmas with them.