Writing The Key with Hearts was pure pleasure.  The words just poured onto the page, a flood of ideas that I barely could keep up with.

The trailer is here.

Available here.

Snail Speed in Summer

Hi all! It’s Summertime. Is your living easy?

My summer living is better than this past spring when I had a lingering sickness for a solid month which continued as the doldrums until mid-May.

Needless to say, my writing schedule exploded and rained the fragments upon me.

publications to announce for Summer

Even with all of the problems, the ideas never stopped, just the time and energy for the writing of those ideas. Here’s what has developed —

Sailing with Mystery ~ a short story collection that follows artist Isabella Newcombe Tarrant on her ocean voyage from England. She sails on a passenger ship to join her husband Madoc in India.

Four of the five stories are currently available in e-book.

“Amber Dreams” ~ Blackmail threatens a young bride. Can Isabella recover a stolen diary before the bride loses all hope?

“Purple Poison” ~ Poison pen letters filled with vicious invective attack the passengers on the ship Nomadic. Will Isabella discover the culprit before tragedy occurs?

“Black Heart” ~ A trickster targets the passengers aboard ship. When one prank causes injury, can Isabella locate the trickster before the next mishap turns deadly?

“Silver Web” ~ Accusations fly when passengers discover a jewel thief at work. When the thief dies, proof of theft in his hand, will Isabella locate his accomplice and the missing jewelry before they reach the next port?

Here are links to the first story.

Worldwide Distribution:   https://books2read.com/u/3yWAAl

Amazon:

The fifth and final story for Summer is “Red Mask”.

Isabella receives a disturbing letter—only for it to be stolen before she deciphers it. The letter claims that a spy is aboard, but is that the only person hiding their true identity on the passenger ship?

. ~. ~ . ~ .

Sailing with Mystery, the collection, will publish very soon after the final short story. The ebook will be up very quickly, with the paperback and the audiobook in the following weeks.

After Summer Fun, Autumn Mystery

These short stories injected themselves, wholly unexpectedly, into my writing schedule. I thought I waved goodbye to Isabella when I published Portrait with Death. Imagine my surprise when she demanded this ocean voyage while my writing brain was telling me to write something else.

That something else is the next novella in the series Miss Beale Writes: a Touch of Mystery, a Touch of Gothic, a Touch of Romance.

The Bride in Ghostly White is a Victorian gothic, and I can’t wait to see this mystery develop.

The Bride will pair with The Dark Lord, which came out in Winter 2022.

Following in the Miss Beale Writes series are medieval / renaissance and cavalier / Georgian novella.

All of these stories will definitely keep me busy.

And that’s a good thing!

Visit the Writers’ Ink website ~ www.writersinkbooks.com or https://maleebooks.blogspot.com/ for updates about the publication of “Red Mask” and Sailing with Mystery.

Survive the Heat!

M.A. Lee

Summer with The Write Focus

How’s Summer with you?

At The Write Focus, we are wincing whenever we step outdoors. After a wettish June with moderate temperatures, July brought the sudden onslaught of high temperatures and dry days. That means fine mornings in the shade until the sun and steam of summer drives us inside.

The best way to beat the summer’s heat is with distractions. The best distractions give us an incentive to achieve more and more. How do we achieve more and more? We set and pursue our writing goals: Write More, Learn More.

Write More this Summer

The Write Focus featured the June Writing Challenge. Host M.A. Lee set a goal of 1,000 words per day, starting on the 1^st and continuing to the 30^th.

In addition to the weekly check-in for the Challenge, each of June’s Wednesday episodes offered information about writing.

1^st, the Stages of Writing, original idea to proof-plus & publish.

2^nd, the age-old writer question of Plotter / Pantster / Puzzler and the 7 Steps of a Perfect Scene.

3^rd, Writers and their Ideas

4^th, Vaccine against the Writing Doldrums and commentary on an excerpt from Phyllis A. Whitney’s Guide to Fiction Writing.

The final Writing Challenge Check-in occurred at the first of the July 5 episode.

You can replay this challenge anytime, to receive ideas for your own craft and productivity.

Learn More this Summer

All through July and August is a series on Branding: the Way Writers Reach Readers. We talk brand creation for a book, a series, and a writer’s business.

Successful examples from previous bestselling series and authors focus on Ellis Peters’ Cadfael series, Tony Hillerman’s Leaphorn & Chee Navajo mysteries, and Elizabeth Peters’ Amelia Peabody series.

We capture browsing readers with 3 Glances and 6 Keys, all to develop the best cover, titles and taglines, and market copy (blurbs) for our books.

The series closes out with developing a short video script. The advertising world tells us that buyers need 7 sights of a product before they commit. Short videos are an active and interesting method to snag the readers’ attention for a couple of those “sights”.

Coming at Summer’s End

September starts a series on story structure: Plot ~ the foundation for every story.

Start with character, the writing gurus say [which we did, last January 🙂 and Discovering Characters concluded in May]. The gurus are right about writing. Now we the best plot structure for our characters. To improve story craft and flow / pacing, we must focus on Discovering Plot.

Autumn’s Coming

Our next newsletter update will be in October.

Don’t sweat the Summer heat and humidity too much!

As always, thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com  .

Listen on your favorite podcast site: from Apple to YouTube, Spotify and Podbean (my favs), Google Play, Amazon Music / Audible, Samsung and Player FM, Podcaster, the rivals iHeart and Tune-in, and too many to list.

Here are links to the easiest:

My favorite podcast is Podbean. https://eden5695.podbean.com/

YouTube direct link to the Mixed Miscellany playlist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Na5LXb-83iM&list=PLXi3M_aM-d7ISCaEcoK4JV5wSUkGCmx_Z

Apple https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-write-focus/id1546738740%20

Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/4fMwknmfJhkJxQvaaLQ3Gm?si=ffeb71ed17c3409d

Amazon/Audible https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/062ecc60-d61c-432a-ad99-8234c1044ef1

ListenNotes https://lnns.co/y_Jg5rpaMNo

Google https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkLnBvZGJlYW4uY29tL2VkZW41Njk1L2ZlZWQueG1s