Category: M.A. Lee

mysteries and romantic suspense

*A Game of Spies* & Indie Trials with Tribulations

Posted on by writer35_bg

First Off:  a new cover for A Game of Spies,

the second book in the Hearts in Hazard series

by M.A. Lee. 

Originally published in November 2015, the cover needed updating after M.A. Lee’s HnH books 4, 5, and 6 came out in Spring 2017.  Here’s a first look at the new cover.

Giles Hargreaves is hunting a French spy who somehow manages to steal government documents.  Josette amuses herself playing whist at salons hosted by her sister-in-law.  When Giles and Josette met, they are attracted immediately. 

But he believes she is connected to the French spy.

And she thinks he will break her heart.

Giles and Josette have their first serious conversation on a settee under a stairway in the Sourantine house.  The cover models perfectly capture that scene from the book.

The cover designer at Deranged Doctor Design combined the old cover with the new in a clever way.  The playing cards and the sealed letters from the old cover along with the dominant color image transfer from the old to the new while the focus is on the couple.

Here’s the former cover image.  I still love it, but I love the new one more.

A Game of Spies by M. A. Lee

After Publishing, What’s Next?

For a writer, it’s freaky hard to go to a site that has THE BOOK for sale, type in the name of the author, and nothing comes up for three or four pages.

A writer with part of my name shows up first in the Amazon Kindle store.  And then, oh the ignominy, the other writer with exactly my name shows up before my books do . . . and this after I did research before my first published book to ensure that no other Amazon writer was using my name.

Oh well.

Okay, all is not lost.  We can do a search for the title.

Digging into Death . . . Bam!  Got it in one.

A Game of Secrets . . . not on the first three pages.

A Game of Spies . . . 2nd page!  Yippee!

A Game of Hearts . . . Wow! 1st page.

The Danger of Secrets . . . 1st page.  Yippee!  Yippee!

The Danger for Spies . . . Success!  1st page, second one listed.  Wait, the first book doesn’t even have The Danger for Spies as a title.  🙁

The Danger to Hearts . . . 1st page, first one listed.  2nd Coming of Happiness!  Bliss Again!

But my author page doesn’t come up quickly unless you find one of my books and then click on my name.

And you can find the Hearts in Hazard series just by typing “Hearts in Hazard”.

Indie Challenges

Indie Writers face many challenges long after they have a story they believe is ready for print.

We want to present the best manuscript, one that is polished and as error free as possible.  100% perfection is not possible . . . so we strive for the highest level that is.

Then we can make a cover for ourselves or find someone who can do it at a cost we can afford.

I knew I couldn’t make a good cover.  I am artistically creative as well as verbally so, but a professional designer knows to look for things and add things in and use balance and proportion in ways that I never thought.

Plus, a professional designer knows the photoshop program they are using.  I would have a huge learning curve.  Shouldn’t I spend my time writing?

It took me 18 months to find a cover designer that fit my aesthetic.  I found Deranged Doctor Design by sheer luck . . . for a “God wink”.  They are life savers, believe me.  During my 18-month search, I worked on other books, which enabled me to put out three books back to back, all on one day in October of 2015: my first three books, the first three in the Hearts in Hazard trilogy, a one-two-three punch.

DDD is the BEST!  I love working with them.  Their covers are lovely, no matter in which genre they are working.  They provide options and previews, and they are willing to switch things around.  They are clear in what they can and cannot do.  DDD works within a time frame that I understand.  They have a great template that pulls from the author the information they need to work with.  DDD is brave for working with Indie Writers.

Discoverability

After the writing and the editing and the cover designer, the job of an Indie Writer is not over.  Marketing comes next.  I am still working on this one.

Discoverability is now on my bookshelf.  By Kristine Kathryn Rusch, it discusses what a writer needs to know about getting their works to the audience in the current state of the reading marketplace.

Getting the book out there, getting the name out there, attracting attention with the right cover and the right blurb and the right audience, these are the five essentials for all Indie Writers.

But I’ll keep writing, and hopefully the discoverability will happen soon. 😉

I did drink the water in Greenville, MS!

~ M.A. Lee

 

A Game of Spies

Posted on by Emily Dunn

A Game of Spies

A Card-Sharp in Skirts

With a talent for whist, Josette Sourantine has charge of the card room at every Sourantine salon.

She flirts with the cynical rake Tobias Kennit and the handsome society prize Lord Gordon Musgrove.  Yet it is the mysterious Giles Hargreaves who intrigues her.

The Hidden Spycatcher

Col. Giles Hargreaves, son of the Marquess of Grasmere, has found the émigré spying for Napoleon, but he cannot arrest her until he locates the source feeding her vital government secrets.

He attends the Sourantine salons hoping to locate the man stealing the information for Celeste which she then smuggles to France.  He decides to dally with Celeste only to be distracted by the lovely Josette.

Can a Spycatcher love a Spy?

Has Giles blinded himself to the extent of the spy ring?  As sister to the French spy, Josette must be embroiled in the betrayal of England.

Is Josette giving her heart to a rake who merely dallies with her?  How can Giles love her when they have known each other so briefly?

A Net Closes, but Giles didn’t cast it!

When Josette is caught in a net designed to tangle up the English as the French spies escape, will Giles lose her just when he’s given his heart to her?

 

To the Reader:  A Game of Spies follows A Game of Secrets, which is a complete novel with no cliff-hangers.  While readers may find that reading the first novel creates a fuller experience, it is not necessary to read it in order to enjoy this book.  And while the trilogy concludes with A Game of Hearts, another novel that stands on its own, A Game of Spies does not end with a cliff-hanger.

The Trailer

How to Purchase: Ebook or Paperback.

 

A Game of Secrets

Posted on by Emily Dunn

A Game of Secrets

No Damsel in Distress

Kate Charteris never expected to become a damsel in distress, yet she becomes just that when she must flee her cousin’s unwanted attentions.

While she might be alone in Regency England, her parents deceased and family friends still with Wellington’s army in Portugal and Spain, she is no damsel who faints at the first sight of a dragon-like trouble.

Seeking a Spy

On the hunt for the lair of smugglers and spies for Napoleon, Tony Farraday never expected to fall hard for a damsel not quite in distress.  He collides with Kate on a city street and feels instant attraction.

Yet Kate must catch the mail coach before it leaves, and Tony still needs orders from the spycatcher Giles Hargreaves.

Re-United in a Nest of Smugglers

Neither expects to meet again at a run-down inn on the English coast.  On a crumbling cliffside, they vow to keep each other’s secrets and pretend to be strangers.  Yet that initial spark of attraction catches flame strongly and obviously, jeopardizing their pretense.

The French spy arrives, demanding immediate passage across the Channel to take vital information to Napoleon.  Kate befriends the spy, but she is playing a dangerous game.

  Tony hopes to delay the spy long enough for Giles Hargreaves to arrest her and the smugglers—only to be caught in a trap.

Yet More Trouble Arrives

When Kate’s cousin arrives, can she evade him long enough to help Tony escape?  Or have they both lost this Game of Secrets?

A Game of Secrets is a complete novel without a cliff-hanger, but the danger continues in A Game of Spies.

The Trailer

 

The Purchase? in Ebook or Paperback.

 

Free Fiction: ch 1 of Digging into Death

Posted on by writer35_bg

The Wednesday W.Ink offers a glimpse of Digging into Death, a post-WW I mystery set on the island of Crete.

Chapter 1 :: Saturday, October 4, 1919

If ever a maiden needed a hero, Isabella did.

Crete was the famed birthplace of Zeus, the god who granted supplicants’ prayers. Standing on the steps of the Heraklion Hotel, Isabella hoped her hero appeared before a blood sacrifice was necessary.

She plunked down her suitcase on the hotel steps and fanned her wide-brimmed straw hat.  In ancient Crete the rulers had offered shelter and protection to strangers.  Yet in the closed faces of the passers-by, intent on their errands, she did not see any hospitality offered to a foreign woman alone.  She needed a recognizable and friendly face.  She didn’t see one.

Men talking, engines sputtering, horns blaring, dogs barking, donkeys braying:  after the hotel’s quiet, the cacophony assaulted her ears.  Men poured past the steps with scarcely a glance at her.  Most wore the dark Cretan jacket and loose breeches, although a few suits testified to modern Europe’s inroads on island culture.  A few women in unrelieved black walked along the dusty road, but they ignored the lone foreigner on the hotel steps.

Isabella saw no one familiar and definitely no one who looked like the reincarnation of a protective god and certainly no one who could rescue a stranded governess.

Continue reading “Free Fiction: ch 1 of Digging into Death” →

Celebrate 5 for September, All from M.A. Lee

Posted on by writer35_bg

M.A. Lee has 5 books to Celebrate in September

Celebrate on the Second of September with The Hazard of Secrets

We celebrate not just the original publication of The Hazard of Secrets but also the fact that we completed a book that just kept expanding and expanding. The word count was intended to be around 70,000. M.A. Lee blew past 70,000 then 80,000 then 95,000 and kept going. The final book topped out at nearly 109,000 words when I published it on September 2, 2019.

original cover by Deranged Doctor Design for Writers Ink
Jem and Clarey face press gangs and murderers.

Two hearts with dangerous pasts ~ Can they keep their secrets, or will murder force them to reveal all?

Clarey Parton crosses the Atlantic to steal an inheritance. She hopes that no one discovers the rightful heir lies in a cold grave.

Jem Baxter returns to the England he fled three years before. He assumes the name James Axminster to conceal his past, one littered with misdeeds.

When a press gang sees two people traveling alone, they seize the opportunity for quick cash: they plan to sell Clarey to a brothel and impress Jem on a merchant ship. Fate brings these two lonely souls together. Chance helps them escape.

Yet escape traps them in another secret—one with murder as a bloody solution.

The Hazard of Secrets offers twists and turns as tight as knots. Can Clarey and Jem keep their secrets, or will murder force them to reveal all?

Fetch it here: https://books2read.com/u/4DWRJr

 

 

Celebrate Three Novels On the 10th of September

With A Trio of Hazards

Three novels bundled together, to help Survive in plague year 2020.

Book 1 in the Bundle, The Hazard of Secrets,details above.

View the trailer at this link: https://youtu.be/I1hb4d9wCOg

Coming Soon

Book 2 in the Bundle, The Hazard for Spies

Can Conrad discover the identity of the French spy mastermind? Will Phinney’s single-minded pursuit lead her into the murderer’s snare? Will three children be caught and sold into London’s underworld?

Can Conrad and Phinney discover the connection between past and present murders?

Or will two bullets allow the murderer and the French master spy to continue their work against the British government?

This book did exactly what it was supposed to do: story, length, everything. It concludes the spy narrative in the Hearts in Hazard trilogy, which also includes

  1. A Game of Secrets ~ Lee’s first published book.

2. A Game of Spies ~ her second published book.

3. A Game of Hearts ~ 3rd in publication order.

4. The Danger for Spies

and 5. The Key for Spies

The three children introduced in The Hazard of Secrets above are secondary characters in this novel.

Hector Evans, first introduced in The Danger to Hearts  and receiving his own story in The Key to Secrets, also makes an appearance in The Hazard of Secrets and The Hazard for Spies.

The Hazard for Spies originally published April 30 of 2020. For this ebook alone, try this link to purchase: https://books2read.com/u/4j2JEl

The Hazard with Hearts completes the bundle, with the original Novel published August 24, 2020.

Vivienne Northrup agreed to a marriage of convenience to reap the benefits of becoming the Countess of Sheldrake. While she explores the ruins of Sheldrake Castle, a falling stone dislodged from a tower nearly kills her.

Only then does Vivienne discover that the earl’s previous two wives died tragically. The first had jumped to her death from that very tower.

Or had the woman been pushed? The way the stone nearly killed Vivienne?

I loved this book. At first I struggled with the heroine … until I changed her name. Then she came alive! To purchase this ebook alone, try this link: https://books2read.com/u/boEVg1

When I finished this novel and knew I was finished with the entire Hearts in Hazard series, I was saddened. The characters became part of my family, and moving on from the series was like moving far away from family. I know that I will want to return.

The bundle makes it look like we have more books available … and we do!

A Trio of Hazards can be purchased at this link: 

Individual novels are available in ebook and paperback. The bundles are only available on Amazon and in ebook format–although the bundles are a bargain!

 

We celebrate two More books for September: nonfiction guidebooks for writers.

In the summer of the Plague Year, 2020, M.A. Lee was highly prolific. These two guidebooks along with The Hazard with Hearts are the evidence. We can’t really count the bundle above. Bundling books together is actually very simple, requiring little creativity. Writing the books, whether fiction or nonfiction, that requires LOTS of creativity.

On September 22, We celebrate Discovering Characters.

Our job as writers is to find every detail of our characters then use snippets so our readers will see our characters as they drive through our books. We hint at the foundations while opening doors to their plans and purposes.

Discovering Characters is designed to help writers find the exteriors and interiors, public and private. We’ll dig around the foundations and climb to the roof. We’ll explore the open rooms and the storage closets. And we’ll peek into rooms inhabited by such characters as diverse as Elizabeth and Darcy, the Iron Man, Aragorn and Frodo, Travis McGee, Medea, Macbeth, and Nanny McPhee.

Five areas comprise this guidebook. Just as characters—and houses—are individual, this info is individual. You won’t need every bit. Dip in and out, skim around. When you reach locked rooms, come back and explore to discover the keys to your characters.

  1. Starting Points ~ offering templates and character interviews
  2. Classifications ~ common and uncommon ways of discovering characters
  3. Relationships ~ couples, teams, allies, enemies, mentors, etc.
  4. Special Touches ~ progressions, transgressions, and transitions for character arcs
  5. Significant Lists ~ archetypal characters and much more

Discovering Characters, with 44,000-plus words, is the second book in the Discovering set, part of the Think like a Pro Writer series for writers new to the game as well as those wanting to up their game.

Fetch it here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Y7LYK19

Finally this month, on the very last day, we Celebrate Discovering Your Author Brand.

Discovering Your Author Brand understands that the browsing readers will only give a few nanoseconds to our books.

So, we explain the three main glances that hook the readers before they swim down the river. We also look at the keys to unlock those glances. With the right keys, the brand is revealed, and the door to the reader opens.

To help with the keys and glances, we have worksheets (charts!) to help you discover the brand for book, series, and your author persona—because the first leads to the last.

In addition to analyzing successful brands by writing greats from the last of the 20th century, we have information on how to develop a video book trailer. You can watch our own trailer for our book on Branding at this link: https://youtu.be/uthI5gEWic8

Fetch this guidebook at this link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07YL8GBM1

Coming later this Fall

We have the paperback version of Discovering Your Writing, which combines our books on Plot, Characters, Branding, and Sentence Craft, a real deal!

TAFN!