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!

Two hearts with dangerous pasts are twisted up into complex schemes in this 10th book of the Hearts in Hazard series ~ The Hazard of Secrets.

The Hazard of Secrets

Can these two hearts 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?

  1. Read the first chapter at this link.
  2. Here’s the second chapter of the newest release by M. A. Lee, The Hazard of Secrets, historical mystery set in 1814 Liverpool, England, with just a dash of romance. Find it at this link.
  3. Writers will tell you that sometimes characters take control of a story, and writers are just along for the write. That’s the case with Vic, a boy on the streets of 1814 Liverpool in M.A. Lee’s newest historical mystery. I liked Vic so much I might even ask him to write another story with me. Find Vic’s introduction at this link.

And watch the trailer: 

 

This is the book that became ever-expanding, blowing past the original length of 55,000 words, climbing on to 78,000 words, and then achieving 109,000 words.

I kept thinking about dividing it out, but events at the beginning cause events in the middle and connect to events at the end.

And I hate to read cliff-hangers which require two separate books. Better to have the cliff-hangers at the end of chapters!

 

Available Worldwide as an ebook https://books2read.com/u/4DWRJr

 

Available ebook and paperback on Amazon

 

 

All through September ~

stories Out of Wild Sherwood, from Edie Roones.

Beware the Vengeance of Outlaws and Faeries.

Fall begins with Medieval Fantasy!

Join the wrestler Dav, Tall Brigit and Arthur a Bland, Irishman Finn Callum, Much the Miller’s son, and the Faerie sentinel Fenric as they battle corruption, injustice, and pure evil, all lurking outside Sherwood Forest.

 

5 Stories of Medieval Fantasy & Crime

“Dangerous Gold” / Sept. 1

Strong Temptation for Two Young Thieves

Two young outlaws decide to steal the Nottingham mayor’s gold as revenge for a false accusation. Haunted by misgivings, Dav of Doncaster keeps a wary eye on them … only to discover a lethal trap is closing fast.

 

“Keen-Edged Dagger” / Sept. 4

Murder needs a Tricky Vengeance

Orphans learn early that life is a precarious balance and justice has a keen edge. When Brigit is falsely accused of murder, how can she reveal her innocence?

 

“Silver Dreams” / Sept. 8

A Double Twist for a Double Theft

Finn Callum is guilty of much but never a blood crime. The Irishman thinks Nottingham is ready for prime plucking.

Quick of fingers and fleet of foot, he’s always escaped any hue and cry. To wake with a knife aimed between his eyes is a shock.

 

“Poisoned Roots” / Sept. 12

A Deadly Sin caused Dishonor

Envy is a deadly sin, and it killed Much’s good name and honor. That loss still aches like an unhealed wound. Cast from his family, he carved a place in Robin Hood’s band. Will a dying wish rip open that old wound?

 

“Memory of Magic” / Sept. 16

A Faerie Confronts Human Evil

After a visit to Robin Hood’s camp, the hunter Fenric stumbles upon slaughtered deer, killed for neither food nor sport. The trail leads this Faerie beyond Sherwood’s border and to a freehold stinking of evil.

 

Out of Wild Sherwood / Sept. 2

Beware the Vengeance of Outlaws and Faeries.

A Collection of Medieval Fantasy, crime and magic, foul sins and eldritch deeds.

 

Buy the individual short stories or the collection.

Short stories are ebook only.

The collection will be available as ebook, paperback, and audiobook.

For the Collection:

Amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DCLQKTGT

Worldwide Distributors https://books2read.com/u/mlQvM7

View the Trailer https://youtu.be/ENKYL_Qi9u4

The Individual Short Stories:

“Dangerous Gold”

Amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DCR3969H

Worldwide Books to Read https://books2read.com/u/4E9rNM

“Keen-Edged Dagger”

Amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DCGT1FQQ

Worldwide Books to Read https://books2read.com/u/bw0Gyv

“Silver Dreams”

Amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DCG29ZTV

Worldwide Books to Read https://books2read.com/u/baRMd6

“Poisoned Roots”

Amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DCW7KQ7F

Books to Read https://books2read.com/u/bM0L2B

“Memory of Magic”

Amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DCW8JCK4

Books to Read https://books2read.com/u/47PKva

Out of Wild Sherwood

Amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DCLQKTGT

Books to Read https://books2read.com/u/mlQvM7

 

Backstabbing double-crosses.

False accusation of murder.

Double-twist on a heist.

A hidden murder concealed in a Evil deed.

Blood magic and a foul enchanter.

View the Trailer Here.

https://youtu.be/ENKYL_Qi9u4

 

Enjoy your FALL READING!

 

Free Fiction

Take a W.Ink with a First Chapter Glimpse.

Edie Roones’ fantasy Summer Sieges,  ordinary people battling extraordinary odds and foul sorcery.   

 

              Chapter 1
Summer Sieges by Edie Roones

Her body jerked.

Beren muddled her way up.  Slowly.  Into the pain.

Another jerk.

Return was . . . sluggish.  A great darkness.  A lesser one.  She wanted to retreat from waking, crawl back into the deep blackness, but pain pulsed in her head and throbbed along her arm, denying any escape.

Her body jerked again.

Hands were on her.  At her hips.  Metal clinking.  A lift.  She groaned.

The hands stilled then gave another jerk that peeled something from beneath her.

And then a growl, deep, predatory.  As black as the darkness.  Danger as old as time.

Whoever had pulled at her scrambled away.  She tried to open her eyes then realized they were open, to night-black.  The dancing lights weren’t in her throbbing head.  They were torches bobbing, some bigger and brighter, others distant, like the will o’wisps that hovered over deepest springs and in magickal glades.

Continue reading “Free Fiction: Summer Sieges”

The first book in the alternate medieval fantasy by Edie Roones:  Seasons in Sansward

& Edie Roones’ First Book

& the First Book Published by Writers’ Ink Books

Summer Sieges

Honor and death? Or cowardice and life?  Stark choices, and not that easy.

Beren, a warder at Caldew Keep, swore an oath to defend her lord and lady.  The

Summer Sieges by Edie Roones

arrival of the Watrani horde, allied with the Gitane Witches, changes the world she has known.  The Witches are sorcerers who have been exiled from Sansward for generations.

Beren’s keep lady orders her to protect the Eye, a magical crystal that increases a wielder’s power.

Besides the magnification of power, the Eye has two other important purposes: 1)  It can remove the curse that transformed the fighting Prica warriors into wolves.  2) It will free sorcerers who were trapped in stone at the end of the Great War between the mages and the witches.

And the Gitane Witches are searching for the Eye.

Lady Treasache intends to steal away with the Eye in a desperate bid to keep it from the Gitane.  The Prica Storr thinks to use the Eye to shift back into man.

Will Beren sacrifice herself in a futile attempt to guard the Eye?  With only a sword as defense against sorcery, can she survive a battle against the Gitane?  Or will she discover that the road to death is littered with people who chose honor over life?

Available now