NO LONGER GREEN AS GRASS

Three years, and what a ride, though it seems like yesterday when my author friend, Linda Nance, hosted a Facebook event for the launch of The Tangled Web. As far as I remember, my only involvement was making the book free for the event – which was a disaster – for 37 terrifying hours.

Every author’s nightmare

The event was planned for a Friday and Saturday. Early Friday morning, (3:00 a.m. on the dot) I dashed to my computer to see if the price change was in effect. It wasn’t. I was concerned, but who was I going to message at 3:00 a.m.? I went back to bed and woke at around 6:00. Still no price change. I began to have a bad feeling.

Linda surfaced at around 9:00. She didn’t think there was any reason to panic – yet. When afternoon rolled around and the book still wasn't free, she conceded there might be some cause for concern. By this time, guests were pouring onto the event page on Facebook. I was cringing while making futile calls to Amazon. Linda kept posting, “Check back in an hour.” I can't count how many times she did that.

Being green as grass back then, I didn’t know anything about the workings of Facebook, but those comments, which would have showed up on news feeds, must have made a few people curious. By mid-afternoon the event page was crowded with comments as more and more guests arrived. By nightfall I was drained. The book still wasn't free. Saturday dawned and the situation remained the same, but still guests kept coming back.

And then it happened

It was shortly after 4:00 on Saturday afternoon when the good news came all the way from Scotland in the form of a post on the event page by author Jon Magee. “It’s free in the UK!” OMG, it was free – finally! I rushed to Amazon. To my dismay, it still wasn’t free in the U.S.

I’m not sure when the U.S. finally made it to the free line, but it wasn’t long after the U.K. Linda had virtually taken over the event by this. My mind had turned to mush. I’m not sure when she started posting the rankings either. I just remember messaging her to ask what all that stuff she was posting meant. I never knew there was such a thing as an Amazon ranking. “It’s a free bestseller in its genre!” she explained in a very excited voice. “It’s #14 in Romantic Suspense in the U.S. and #17 in the UK." Armed with this knew knowledge, I checked all the Amazon stores myself. Surprise of surprises, it was #15 in Germany. To cut this long story short, the two-day event turned into a three-day event which took me about as many days to recover from.

43 Kindle Reviews Later

Oprah never did invite me to be a guest on her show, and The Tangled Web never made it to the New York Times bestseller list, but I have a lot to be thankful for. The Kindle edition of The Tangled Web has 43 reviews (Amazon U.S. and U.K. combined) with a 4.5-star average ranking in U.S. and 4.6-stars in the U.K. It also has 75 ratings/32 reviews on Goodreads. My heartfelt thanks to everyone who has read the Tangled Web and to those who took the time to review it. And many thanks to Linda Nance for being such a great friend, and for my first interview back in 2012. Read it here.

Comments from reviewers

"Loved it."
"Absolutely brilliant book/read."
"Captivating, enthralling, intriguing.”

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TANGLED WEB

US http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007Z5Y3ZQ

UK http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B007Z5Y3ZQ?*Version*=1&*entries*=0

CA http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B007Z5Y3ZQ?*Version*=1&*entries*=0

AU http://www.amazon.com.au/gp/product/B007Z5Y3ZQ?*Version*=1&*entries*=0

Please don't rush off to download The Tangled Web just yet. There's one more thing. I'd like to dedicate this Beatles song to all the wonderful authors who have supported me. Thank you, dear friends. I couldn't have got by without your help. 

ALASKA

If anyone should be celebrating International Poetry Month it's me. My writing career was launched because of a poem. Were it not for that poem, I probably wouldn't have become a writer. But that's a long story, so I'll save it for another time. I haven't written much poetry since that poem that changed my life. Here's one of the few...it's about Alaska...a place that would inspire anyone to wax poetic.

Alaska…raw, rare, primeval, other-worldly…a vast white wonderland of jagged mountains carved from the heated rage of Earth during a time we can no longer remember.

Alaska…where through a misted sky the eagle soars in search of some morsel from the bounty offered up by a sea made chill by ice cast off from gemstone-blue glaciers that have had their fill of earth and rock and sand.

Alaska… where time hangs suspended in endless day that becomes endless night until it becomes endless day once more to cast its spell upon your body and mind.

Was that a mountain peak, snow-capped, cast adrift on a sea of clouds and ice, or was it the ghost of something that bewitched the eyes to become a memory so vivid that memory and reality become one in a limitless, breathtaking landscape?

Alaska…bodies bundled from the wind and drizzle, a red parka stark against the flint-grey cold of a pebbled beach where the sea makes certain that fishers, casting their lines shoulder to shoulder, do not wait long for their catch.

Alaska…you are too awesome to paint, even in words. Your landscape escapes capture, making mockery of the camera’s lens just as the Orca diving to arctic depths scorns the curiosity seeker, offering him, at very best, a mere glimpse of its grandeur.