Author Awakening by Evelyn David

The author of Murder Off the Books, Murder Takes the Cake, and The Brianna Sullivan Mysteries e-book series, Evelyn David is the pseudonym for Marian Edelman Borden and Rhonda Dossett.  Marian lives in New York and is the author of eleven nonfiction books on a wide variety of topics ranging from veterans benefits to playgroups for toddlers! For more information on these books, please visit her web site at http://www.marianedelmanborden.com   Rhonda lives in Muskogee, Oklahoma, is the director of the coal program for the state, and in her spare time enjoys imagining and writing funny, scary mysteries. Marian and Rhonda write their mystery series via the internet. While many fans who attend mystery conventions have now chatted with both halves of Evelyn David, Marian and Rhonda have yet to meet in person. 

Please check out Evelyn's website at  http://www.evelyndavid.com  and their blog – The Stiletto Gang - http://www.thestilettogang.blogspot.com/  for information about Evelyn David's appearance schedule and writing projects.

Murder Off the Books and Murder Takes the Cake have been printed in a 2nd Edition with Wolfmont Publishing. Trade paperback and all e-reader formats of both books are available.

The Brianna Sullivan Mysteries include: I Try Not to Drive Past Cemeteries, The Dog Days of Summer in Lottawatah, The Holiday Spirit(s) of Lottawatah, Undying Love in Lottawatah, and A Haunting in Lottawatah. All e-reader formats of these books are available.

Evelyn David has also written an ebook collection of short romantic stories - Love Lessons

 

Author Awakening 

by Evelyn David

The topic of authors and how much, when, and by whom they will be paid for their literary efforts has always been part of the creative conversation. Lately we've seen much Internet chatter about major mystery authors boldly walking away from traditional publishers offering bucketloads of money (we definitely consider$500,000 one big sandpail of cash) in order to self-publish their own ebooks.  Joe Konrath and Barry Eisler discuss the long-term financial implications far better than we can (http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/).

Also helpful in understanding the history and the future of e-book publishing is Mike Shatzkin's blog (http://www.idealog.com/blog/). He gives the long-view of the biggest change in publishing since Johannes Guttenberg printed the Bible on a moveable type printing press (and wanted to be paid for it, by the way).

And then there's the story of 26-year-old Amanda Hocking, who made her first million dollars by self-publishing her paranormal romance tales, and now has elected to sign with the same traditional publisher that Barry Eisler rejected.  But she got a tractor trailer full of cash for her next four books, $2 million in all.

As it happens, the collective Evelyn David has not been late to this particular party. Last October we decided to get on the self-publishing bandwagon and began releasing The Brianna Sullivan Mysteries. The stories feature a psychic who inexplicably ends up in Lottawatah, Oklahoma. It's a small town with a population of 1482 and an unknown number of ghosts wanting to move on, but who need Brianna's help to solve the mysteries that are keeping them tethered to this world. These tales are intriguing, funny, romantic, and have captured our imaginations and stirred our creative juices. Bottom Line: We're having a blast writing this series.

But as every self-published author will tell you, there's work in them thar hills. All of a sudden, we're not only authors, but cover designers, editors, marketing execs, tech wizards, and a myriad of other tasks formerly handled by publisher's staffs.

And the funny thing is: that's more than okay with us. Because what we've discovered about self-publishing is that it feeds directly into our Type-A personalities. In some ways, authors are consummate control freaks.  Who else beside an author (and God) gets to fashion man any which way she wants? We decide who lives and who dies. With a stroke of the keyboard, we can make a character filthy rich – or just filthy.

The payoff has been pleasantly surprising. While neither of us can give up our day jobs, we weren't able to do that with traditional publishers either. But from our self-publishing "empire," we are getting steady monthly checks, rather than waiting for twice-a-year royalty checks. Our cut of the sale price is bigger. The books are released when we are ready – not when the publisher slots us into a schedule.

Lori L. Lake argues convincingly that this self-publishing ebook craze will wane as the market becomes glutted with some good, but many bad books (http://www.sisters-in-crime-sinc.blogspot.com/). But frankly that's always been the case with traditional publishers as well. Cream rises to the top, so to speak. Readers figure out who they want to read – and who was a waste of $2.99.  And it's a lot easier to forgive a bad book if it hasn't set you back $25.

We're not giving up on traditional publishers. Though perhaps a tad late, they too have discovered that they need to figure out a new business model that works for both the author and the publisher. The third book of our Sullivan Investigations Series will be published in print and ebook version by the incomparable Tony Burton of Wolfmont Press. We don't see this as an either/or situation. Sales of our print books helped develop for us an audience who are willing to try our ebooks. The synergy is working.

Special thanks to Kaye who has supported and encouraged Evelyn David from our very first book. We invite all her fans to visit us at our website http://www.evelyndavid.com or stop by our Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/evelyn.david1

Any of Kaye's readers who email us the correct answers to the following questions will receive a coupon equal to the purchase price of any one of our e-books at Smashwords (http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/evelyndavid )  To qualify to win we must receive the emailed answers by 5 pm Eastern time on May 31, 2011. Send your emails to evelyn@evelyndavid.com

1. Name the Irish Wolfhound in the Sullivan Investigations Mystery series.
2. Name the English Bulldog in the Brianna Sullivan Mysteries series.

Special bonus question worth a second coupon – Name the towns and the states where the two mystery series are set. 

A New Ride by Evelyn David

The author of Murder Off the Books and Murder Takes the Cake, Evelyn David is the pseudonym for Marian Edelman Borden and Rhonda Dossett.  Marian lives in New York and is the author of ten nonfiction books on a wide variety of topics ranging from veterans benefits to playgroups for toddlers! For more information on these books, please visit her web site at http://www.marianedelmanborden.com.  Rhonda lives in Muskogee, Oklahoma, is the director of the coal program for the state, and in her spare time enjoys imagining and writing funny, scary mysteries. Marian and Rhonda write their mystery series via the internet. While many fans who attend mystery conventions have now chatted with both halves of Evelyn David, Marian and Rhonda have yet to meet in person. 

A New Ride
by Evelyn David

We're Back: Bigger, Badder, and hopefully Wiser. Well, maybe two out of the three.

Change ain't easy. At least for the collective Evelyn David. You're looking at two people who often insist that "if it ain't broke, don't fix it," which is a great excuse for not changing anything at all. Our once fervent hope was to keep things "just the way they are." So sometimes kicking and screaming, sometimes holding our collective breath, and sometimes with open arms, both halves of Evelyn David have confronted challenging situations over the last twelve months and, in spite of ourselves, have undergone a whole lot of change. And much to our surprise, if we say so ourselves, we've emerged the better for it. As that famous writer, anonymous, once said, "If nothing ever changed, there'd be no butterflies."

There were health crises, family crises, work crises, but thank God, those are behind us (poo, poo, as the original Evelyn would add to ward off the evil eye.) But the net effect is that there were months when the only writing we were doing as collaborators were e-mails to check on one another.

We had to pause and reevaluate where we wanted to go with our fiction writing - where we wanted to be in five or ten years. We also had to deal with the insecurities that most writers face when the last book has been out a few months and the new one isn't on the horizon yet. For us, taking a break, even an enforced one, wasn't a good thing. Writing, like riding a bicycle, is much easier to accomplish if you keep pedaling. If you stop, you lose momentum, fall, and worse yet, may never get going again.

But spring finally arrived and with it came renewal: physically, spiritually, and emotionally. Maybe things weren't normal as we had known them, but now there was a "new normal," and we were stronger and ready to tackle it. We decided to recommit ourselves to growing as mystery writers. Stagnation wasn't an option. There were new stories to be written–and the ideas, some crazy, some not, started flying back and forth between New York and Oklahoma. We refocused and rather than be reactive to circumstances, made conscious decisions about our professional future.

With great respect and appreciation for the opportunities afforded us by our original publisher, we made the decision to move on. We are proud, excited, heck downright giddy, to announce that Wolfmont Press (http://www.wolfmont.com) helmed by the incredible Tony Burton, is reissuing in print and e-book formats the first two books of the Sullivan Investigations Series. *Murder Off the Books*, with a new cover and one significant detail changed, will be published at the end of this month. It's already available in Kindle and for the i-Pad. The trade paperback edition of *Murder Takes the Cake* will be released in November. It too is already available in e-book format. And finally, we can scarcely contain our delight to tell you that plans are in the works for book three, *Murder Drops the Ball*, to be published in all formats in spring, 2011. Mac Sullivan, Rachel Brenner, Whiskey and the whole crazy cast of characters are back investigating, squabbling, and dancing around the new year and new relationships. It has a story to die for, humor to make you laugh out loud, characters you know and love, and the gentle giant, Whiskey, the Irish wolfhound.

Robert C. Gallagher said, "Change is inevitable - except from a vending machine." So things are changing and so are we. Hope you'll join us on the ride. Fasten your seatbelts, it may be bumpy, but it's going to be fun! Check our website at http://www.evelyndavid.com for more details and our appearance schedule.

Rhonda's work space - Marian says hers looks the same but with a diet coke on the desk

Gumshoe Moms by Evelyn David

Evelyn David is the pseudonym for Marian Edelman Borden and Rhonda Dossett.

Marian, who lives in New York, is delighted to be attending her third Malice.

Rhonda, who lives in Oklahoma, attends vicariously. They are the authors of the Sullivan Investigations series.


Murder Off the Books was published in 2007.


Murder Takes the Cake made its debut at Malice on May 1, 2009. Please visit their website at http://www.evelyndavid.com


Gumshoe Moms

In honor of Mother’s Day, we thought we’d pay tribute to those fictional amateur sleuths who are Moms. We’d send each a virtual breakfast in bed, some roses, maybe a hand-made card or two from their offspring.

But as the two halves of Evelyn David went through the list of popular female protagonists, it became abundantly clear that parenthood and sleuthing don’t mix. Yes, our own protagonist, Rachel Brenner, has Sam, a freshman in college.

But sad to say, Sam’s not a particularly attentive son, so we wouldn’t bet on him calling 1-800-Flowers anytime soon.

But then we got stuck trying to find Moms who are detectives. Miss Marple, the darling, was most decidedly childless. So too are Jessica Fletcher, Pam North, Nora Charles, Stephanie Plum, Kinsey Millhone, and Annie Darling. The list goes on and on. These women may have significant others, perhaps share home and hearth with dogs and cats, but no kids.

To be fair, it’s not that there are many detective Dads either.

Playing detective means following the clues – whenever and wherever they lead.

But if you have to worry about finding a sitter before you can confront a suspect or track down what turns out to be a red herring – then the story may go off into different directions. We’ve yet to hear a detective on a stakeout agonize over getting two dozen cupcakes ready for the PTA bake sale (although word to the wise: Dunkin’ Donuts Munchkins are a perfectly fine substitute for homemade goodies).

And yet, motherhood is probably the best training for being a detective short of going to the FBI Training Academy at Quantico. Think about it. A good mother is:

(1) A master at noticing details.

a. Personal grooming defects: She knows exactly the number of hours since last tooth brushing and whether or not a shirt was worn one day or three.

b. Odd odors: The super sniffer can detect a soiled diaper and 10-day-old leftover pizza under the bed without entering the room.

c. Identifying physical characteristics and clothing: She can accurately estimate the height, to the quarter inch, of the subject, as well as the exact color, style, and price of the criminals' outfits.

(2) Great at detecting lies and interrogating suspects.

a. Moms can find the inconsistencies in a subject's retelling of events with laser-like accuracy.

b. With a well-practiced stare and guilt-infusing declarations, experienced mothers can elicit confessions ranging from minor transgressions to multiple counts of murder.

c. Mothers have a wide-ranging social network with lots of "snitches" from which they can obtain rebuttal evidence.

(3) Appreciative of long, quiet, hours spent alone on stakeouts.

a. After creating Halloween costumes for multiple kids, most moms have plenty of outfits for disguises.

b. After years of staying up with sick babies, mothers have enough patience to maintain a 24-hour surveillance without getting bored or nodding off.

c. After filling day planners with detailed school events, music lesson schedules, and overlapping medical appointments for the brood, keeping good, legible stakeout notes with timelines on one suspect is a breeze.

Happy Mother's Day to all the fictional and real mothers out there. Maybe next year you'll be wearing gumshoes and a dark trenchcoat in a whodunit of your own.