Just Wanna Write

I have all these ideas bouncing around in my head about ghosts and mysteries and murders and working a dog or two in a story and trying to figure out who the villains are and what to do to mess with the lives of the protagonists and how many chapters to make a particular work and where to leave the cliffhangers and how many cliffhangers should there be and what about the dialog … and more.

And I can’t write for a few days. I’ve a book coming out July 15, The Dead of Jerusalem Ridge, and I have to set up some ads and send press releases to newspapers I used to write for in towns I used to live in. Stuff like that. Promotion takes a lot of time. Especially online promotion opportunities that have lots of fields to fill in and links to post … and then ’cause I live in the sticks my internet fades and I have to start over when I get back online.

And I’m mulling over whether to set up a Facebook chat, and if I do … when do I schedule it?

My brain wasn’t constructed for this. I just wanna write. But I realize there is much more to publishing a book than simply writing it. That’s the easy part. It’s all the other ingredients that task me. Fortunately I have Mindy and Echo to help with the bulk of the promotion, and my writing buddy Chris Verstraete has been great at finding advertising opportunities that won’t drain my checkbook.

I write this because I got a couple of emails in the past few days, writers asking about pursuing self-publishing. I LOVE SELF-PUBLISHING, Indie Press. I used to be traditionally published, as they call it, until I switched from fantasy and sf to mysteries. A new genre, a new publishing avenue for me. I love it, and I recommend it to other authors. ONLY IF they are willing to spend the money for editing and promotion. Wasting your time if you don’t do either … in my opinion, and in my experience.

My buddy Beth Terrell/Jaden Terrell has live Facebook discussions on various aspects of publishing, usually on Mondays at noon Central.

There are also Facebook writing groups … too many for me to list … that will help folks considering the self-publishing route.

Anyway, The Dead of Jerusalem Ridge is up for ebooks pre-order, and will be released July 15. Paperbacks will be available too. I’m still wrestling with the B&N site and KOBO, but it should be up in those spots, too, eventually. I had a great time writing the book. And I have such amazing blurbs. CHECK THEM OUT:

“Piper Blackwell is a smart and capable small-town sheriff, a thoroughly modern woman who leads a colorful cast of characters in this entertaining read. Well-crafted and suspenseful, THE DEAD OF JERUSALEM RIDGE adroitly threads the needle between Cozy, Procedural, and Action-Thriller. Jean Rabe’s fans⸺both old and new⸺won’t want to miss this one.⸺ Baron R. Birtcher, multi-award winner, and LA Times Bestselling author

“Rabe once again mixes the most colorful parts of a cozy mystery with the grittiness of suspense in THE DEAD OF JERUSALEM RIDGE, launching Piper Blackwell into the most personal, and potentially heartbreaking, intrigue of her career. Don’t start this story if you need to be up early the next morning!”⸺Janet Walden-West, GRW Maggie winner and author of The South Beach series

“Jean Rabe weaves a deceptively staid tempo of a tale in this new Sheriff Piper Blackwell novel that barrels into a starkly taut murder mystery. The main plot, supported by a riveting subplot, is masterly crafted with an intriguing cast of characters, a unique setting, and an ending that feels like a double sucker punch!”⸺Khaled Talib, author of the highly praised thriller, Gun Kiss

THE DEAD OF JERUSALEM RIDGE had me hooked from page 1. The characters were so real it felt like they could walk right off the page. Warning, once you start it’s next to impossible to stop reading until you reach the perfectly-crafted ending.⸺Angela Crook, author of Fat Chance and Chasing Navah