Peg Herring, Mystery Author

  People often ask authors, "Where do your ideas comefrom?" Answers will vary. Ideas come from the present. The past. The news. Local gossip. Ancient stories. Out of nowhere. I hit a kind of hiatus this week. The next Maggie Pill book is done, at least until my eagle-eyed beta readers get their hands on the author copies and make their corrections. The next Peg Herring book, tentatively called Aunt Marge, needs time to rest. I believe that, like a roast just out of the oven, a book requires "sitting time," a period where the author puts it away and thinks about something else. In a month or six weeks or whatever, it will read differently, which will bring about all kinds of tweaks and improvements. At least, that's what I preach and practice. Those two things mean, however, that I have nothing to write at present, and nothing to edit either. I had told myself I'd concentrate on reminding readers about my older books as well as helping "Maggie" pus

Readers are aware that I'm making the Loser Mysteries mine by getting new covers, re-editing (which I shouldn't do but can't stop myself from), and re-releasing them. That's enough to keep me busy...sort of. The problem is there's lots of wait time. Wait for proof copies. Wait for beta readers to comb through for those last few niggling mistakes. Wait for more proofs. Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Because I can't stand to be idle, I took up a side project: the sequel to SHAKESPEARE'S BLOOD. I blame this on a reader who claims it's the best book she's read in years--how's that for incentive? When I had an agent for SHAKESPEARE'S BLOOD, she told me to work on the sequel while she shopped the book to publishers. Being the good girl I am, I did that. Then after a year, I got a letter saying she couldn't sell the book (though she said she still loved it) and she was dropping me as a client. That's how it goes in the biz. Anyway, I

My first published books were with Five Star Publishing, which went out of the mystery business a while back. They were very good to me, but my Simon & Elizabeth Mystery series is now mine again. When an author gets her rights back, it means she can do what she likes with books that were once under someone else's control. It also means that she has to re-do everything: covers, formatting, setup, and publishing. Amazon and Draft2Digital make this less painless, but that doesn't mean it's easy. Still, there are advantages for me and for my readers. First, I get more of the profits. That might not matter to you, but the man in my life approves! Second , I can release the books in paperback. Over the years people mentioned that hardcovers, though nice, are expensive, and I agree. I just didn't have any say in the matter. Third , prices are better. Because I'm doing this as an indie, I set the price for both paperback and e-books. (Haven't looked into audio

I've been a little scattered for the last few months, so my workday jumps from book to book. I was stalled on the sequel to KIDNAP.org, but I think the breakthrough is close. I got the audio files (Authors have to listen to the whole thing and okay it before it's released.) and as I listened, I got inspired to continue the story of Robin and her gang of non-hoods. The narrator, Megan Scharlau, is excellent, and that's what I needed to get busy and finish the half-done manuscript from last summer. Audio will be available by the end of January Maggie has another Sleuth Sisters going (release date is March 23 if I recall correctly and it's up for pre-order on Amazon). It's been sent out to beta readers who'll tell her what needs tweaking. A fan wrote to say that Maggie missed a book when she published to the non-Amazon sites, which meant only Amazon had Sleuthing at Sweet Springs . A day was spent last week getting that fixed. I did a boxed set of The Dead

The big summer holiday is over in our little town, so we go back to doing what we do. In my case that's reading and writing. The writing was in the final phases for several pieces over the last few months and the promotion that's ongoing when a book is newly released. First it was the last Dead Detective mystery, then the fourth Sleuth Sisters (by Maggie Pill, but I'm heavily involved). After that it was finalizing the audio books for MACBETH'S NIECE (after years and years it will finally be on Audible) and the second Dead Detective mystery, DEAD FOR THE MONEY. I had to listen to them to be sure they're correct, which takes hours and hours but made me pretty happy. JoBe Cerny reads Seamus very well, and both he and the narrator for MN, Caitlin O'Connor, are great readers, especially when it comes to presenting characters with different accents, which makes their readings interesting and easy to listen to. While I was doing all that, I was still reading--I

Note: I was going to call this post "Old Readers," but I was afraid it might bring to mind the original Kindle. I'm looking at those of us who've read all our lives: Old Readers. My husband started reading in his fifties. My father started even later than that. That isn't me. I can't remember when I didn't have my nose in a book. Reading is wonderful, but a lifetime of reading leads to a problem: What to read next. When I was a kid, my choices were limited to what books our school library had, though I eventually moved on to reading my mom's mystery novels (MacDonald, Carr, Christie, etc.), and gothics (Stewart, duMaurier, and the like). As a young adult I read historical pot-boilers from Frank Yerby (lots of rape threat) to Rosemary Rodgers (lots of actual rape). I also read a lot of biographies back then, mostly movie stars like David Niven and John Wayne. Now I'm pretty old, and I've read a lot of stuff. When people gush about the ne

The weekend was great. Lots of people come "home" to our tiny town for the Fourth festivities, so we ran into old friends everywhere. The question often came up, "What are you working on now?" Short answer: the 4th Dead Detective Mystery, but it's been interrupted a lot by the other three in the series. The first book The Dead Detective Agency, was published in 2011, the second, Dead for the Money , in 2012. Then the publisher got overwhelmed and didn't move forward with Book 3, even though it was edited and ready to release. At the beginning of this year, I asked for the rights back (the contracted time was up) and went about re-releasing the books with new covers, which you learned about last week if you're a regular reader. (I don't want people to re-buy the books, thinking they're new.) Now it's time to finish Seamus' story, so my first priority is Dead to Get Ready--and Go , in which he will investigate his own murder. Its rele

Almost everyone liked the cover with the two figures on it best. I can't show it to you yet in final form, because I asked the cover artist to do a little touching up, which she confided this morning is driving her crazy. (Better her than me!) I don't like the messiness around the girl's left hand, and since I have no idea how much work it is to smooth that out, I asked. Apparently it's a lot. Anyway, I should have that cover soon, so the first two Dead Detective books can be re-issued by the end of June. Don't buy them again if you've already read them. I mean, you can if you want to...   :) I talked to a fan who thought she liked Book #3 (DEAD FOR THE SHOW) better than Book #1, so she went back and re-read the first one. Now that's dedication! I almost never re-read books, except of course for editing and re-editing and re-re-editing. By the time mine are published, I'm tired of them. It was interesting, therefore, to read the first 2 DD books se