IN THE WORKS

 Finally biting the bullet and getting a new, fully functional website where people should be able to find everything they need, including my blog. Blogger has been a giant pain in the butt for me for many years. Not sure why, but I've never been able to get this page to sync with my Google profile, which means I have to log out and in to post.  So anyway, look for a new blog and website announcement around January 1!

 People have been asking about upcoming books, etc., so here's  the scoop:

January 2016: New Anne Frasier website and blog

June 2016: New police procedural crime fiction set in Minneapolis, Minnesota

2017: Elise Sandburg, book four

I want to thank everybody for their continued support of the Elise Sandburg series. The popularity seems to increase with each new book, which thrills me because whenever anyone asks me to name my favorite book child, it's hands down the Sandburg series.

The series had an odd beginning

Play Dead was originally written over ten years ago as a stand-alone title for Penguin Putnam. My editor at Penguin loathed it. It made her extremely angry. She called David Gould "despicable, with no redeeming qualities". I'll never forget those words. I was told that if I did not drastically change his character they would pull all backing for the book and might not sign me for any future work—and future work would not get in-house support (this makes or breaks a traditionally published book). Normally I do what I'm "asked" because basically I work for the publishing house. 

Now, I cherish a good editor. A good editor can take a book to another level.  But I loved the David Gould character, and I refused to change him, and all backing was pulled. As threats continued, I held my ground under what I now consider extreme abuse of the creative spirit.  I'll never regret standing up for my work even though that decision set back my crime fiction career, and Anne Frasier disappeared for several years. 


 Flash forward: The Amazon imprint Thomas & Mercer reissued Play Dead and a series was born.  And I'm able to write what I want to write.  I've never had anyone at T&M try to tell me what to write or how to write it.

The Minneapolis book is finished and, because of reader response to Pretty Dead,  I'm back with Elise and David. It feels good. 

If you're reading this and haven't bought all of the Sandburg books, they're on sale through November. $2.00 each, or grab them all for $6.00.

 ELISE SANDBURG SERIES

NEW RELEASE ALERT

Haven't signed up for my new release alert emails? Here's the latest and the freshest. Format could be a bit wonky since it's a cut and paste.

New Release Announcement

Hello gang!

 I have a few things to talk about, and I'll get right to them. I'm all about the facts with very little gab. :)  Three books to tell you about, three different genres.

 BOOK ONE —ROMANCE

Out now!

He's Come Undone

New Adult romance

 Penniless and behind on rent, college student and once famous child actress Ellie Barlow takes on the role of a lifetime when she's hired by a group of young women to break the heart of the campus player who cruelly dumped them.

 Transformed from slob slacker to jaw-dropping beauty, Ellie is dressed, styled, bleached and waxed, her chunky glasses exchanged for violet contacts. Along with physical prepping, she's coached on Julian's obsessions, which include long-distance running, Doctor Who, and J.D. Salinger.

 In no time, Julian is in pursuit of his custom-made next victim, but when Ellie goes off script and begins to fall for her target, the newest broken heart in this risky game could be her own.

 Warning: This book is kinda hot.

Special new release price of .99! 

Amazon purchase link

B&N purchase link

Soon to be available through iTunes and Kobo.

Soon to be available in print through Amazon.

 ~~~

 BOOK TWO — SCIENCE FICTION, DYSTOPIA, PHANTASMAGORIA

 Out now!

 From the Indie Side

 About this anthology

 Featuring Michael Bunker, Peter Cawdron, Kate Danley, Anne Frasier, Sara Foster, Jason Gurley, Mel Hearse, Kev Heritage, Hugh Howey, Ernie Lindsey, Susan May, and Brian Spangler; and edited by David Gatewood. Includes a foreword by Hugh Howey, New York Times bestselling author of WOOL.

 A man who remembers the future and a veteran haunted by his past. A witch ignorant of her powers and a vampire achingly aware of his emptiness. An unmaimed man, a cursed queen, a troubled marriage, a family just trying to survive.

 From an abandoned convent to a Martian classroom, an open-mic reading to a New Mexico mountaintop, these fantastical and imaginative tales will take you on a journey through impossible worlds, all-too-possible futures, and disquieting glimpses into the other side of reality.

 Packed with original short stories ranging from sci-fi to thriller to the supernatural, "From the Indie Side" brings together some of the biggest authors in independent publishing today. Be prepared for a great ride--and don't be surprised if you discover your new favorite author in these pages.

 "When I read indie fiction, authenticity oozes from the page. Sample some unique and talented voices . . . sit back and enjoy the ride." - Hugh Howey

 ". . . it is a great book. It is one that you will want laying in the stack next to your bed or chair or sofa or desk--wherever you read--because you will want to read it over and over throughout the years." - Michael Bunker, bestselling author ofWICK and Pennsylvania

 In order to generate buzz about the book, we're giving away free download codes to newsletter subscribers via Smashwords.  If you enjoy the book (and I think you will) please consider leaving a review on Amazon or Goodreads.

(FYI: I removed the codes since they're just for newsletter/email alert subscribers.)

 Link to Smashwords

 From the Indie Side on Amazon

From the Indie Side on B&N

BOOK THREE—THRILLER

 Okay, this is an old title, Play Dead, but it's been released by Thomas & Mercer with a beautiful new cover.  The second book in the Elise Sandberg series, Stay Dead, comes out April 22 and is now available for pre-order.  Both books are set in Savannah and feature homicide detectives Elise Sandberg and David Gould. For those suspense readers who like a little romance with their suspense – these books might appeal to you. Especially Stay Dead, where we witness the growth of the relationship between Elise and David.   Will they do it???  Ah, that's the big mystery.

Play Dead

 No one is more familiar with Savannah's dark side than homicide detective and native resident Elise Sandburg. She's been haunted for years by her own mysterious past: she was abandoned as a baby in one of the city's ancient cemeteries, and it's rumored that she is the illegitimate daughter of an infamous Savannah root doctor. The local Gullah culture of voodoo and magic is one that few outsiders can understand, least of all Elise's new partner. Now someone is terrorizing the city, creating real-life zombies by poisoning victims into a conscious paralysis that mimics death. As the chilling case unfolds, Elise is drawn back into the haunted past she's tried so hard to leave behind.

 Purchase Play Dead

Stay Dead

 New York Times bestselling author Anne Frasier takes readers back to her dark, enchanting Savannah—a place as terrifying as it is mesmerizing.

 Homicide detective Elise Sandburg is traumatized after her run-in with a madman the press has dubbed “The Organ Thief.” As Elise takes refuge in her deceased aunt Anastasia’s abandoned plantation to investigate and recover from her ordeal, she begins to question everything—from her dangerous line of work to her complex relationship with her handsome, tortured partner, David Gould. But with a madman on the loose, and her mother’s claims to still hear from Aunt Anastasia, she may have more immediate problems on her hands. In Elise’s world, where cold hard crime mixes with the local Gullah culture, nothing is ever what it seems, and no one is above suspicion—not even the dead.

 Pre-order Stay Dead

But wait! That's not all!  Top of the page to the right you can go to Goodreads and enter for a chance to win a paperback copy of Stay Dead. FYI: This book as the coolest back-cover design.

 There you go. I'm done bugging you, but I'll be back in April with a reminder of the Stay Dead release!

 Take care and stay warm,

 Theresa/Anne

Want to subscribe to my new release email alerts? 

Go to this joint: EMAIL ALERTS

HOPPING THE CRAZY BRAIN

Hopping the crazy brain.

Sleep writing.

Dream writing.

Whatever you want to call it. I usually say tapping into that dream state, but I'm sure there's a scientific term for it.

But anyhoo, this might be my most important writing tool. Dream writing. I use it ALL THE TIME. At events, whenever the question of writing method comes up, I speak with great enthusiasm about tapping into the dream state to solve plot problems. Some people look puzzled, but most nod in agreement. But I'm never sure if they realize the extent I go to in order to use this tool. I never get out of bed. For three months straight.

 Kidding. 

I can say this: It does not work if I'm not actually working on the book. What I mean is that I need to be actively producing material and pages for the sleeping-prophet thing to work.

Right now I'm working on a sequel to Play Dead, and I'm excited because I've never had dream-state writing work so well. Ever.

I normally wake up in the morning, and, before getting out of bed, I think about whatever plot issue I'm dealing with at the moment. Often in that half-awake state I can solve it.  But I wanted to share what happened with this current book, something I've never experienced before. I got up in the middle of the night. Bathroom break, then went back to bed. My brain started thinking about the book, and, before I knew it, I had ten pages of plot written.  And the next morning, it didn't suck.  I always think of little snatches of things in the middle of the night, usually dialog and description, but never what amounted to almost an entire plot. So I got to wondering… what would happen if you set the alarm for 3:00 a.m. and wrote for a half hour or whatever.  I'm too lazy to do this, so please report back if you try it.  

But anyway… This morning I woke up and was doing my lying in bed thing, this time not even thinking of my book AT ALL. Thinking about Christmas, and an application, and weather, and would roads be bad on Saturday. Sometimes drifting back into a weird dream I'd had where I broke into someone's house because I thought I was Mary Poppins, and suddenly the coolest major plot point for the Play Dead sequel came into my head, something that would never, ever, ever have follow-the-dots evolved from my current plot. It just came out of nowhere. Nowhere. And now I can't wait to write it.  It's unique. I don't think it's been done before, but it's not so far-fetched that it would turn off readers.  And it meshes perfectly with the existing plot.

 I don't know where it came from. Yes, writers are always saying that, but this was like a bolt of lightning.  "Where do you get your ideas?"  Not a clue.  It seems like magic.

ADVENTURE PUBLICATIONS OPEN FOR SUBMISSIONS

I wanted to let writers know that my friend Pat Dennis has taken a position as acquisitions editor for Adventure Publications. They will be publishing four wilderness/outdoor mysteries per year, and they are now officially open for submissions.

 Here's a bit from Pat and Adventure Publications:

"My new job is the fiction acquisition editor for Adventure Publications! Please feel free to share the following. “Adventure Publications, an award-winning publisher of outdoor guides  is accepting fiction manuscripts for its new series of outdoor/wilderness mysteries. We are looking for mystery fiction that will appeal to both the mystery reader and the outdoor enthusiast. The books will be produced in both print and e-book format. Example of authors we love are: Nevada Barr, Victoria Houston, C.J. Box, William Kent Krueger and Beth Groundwater. Currently, we are seeking novels set in the Midwest, Southwest, Northwest, Northeast and Rocky Mountains. Email your submission to: fiction@adventurepublications.net. Email queries sent to any other address will not be read. We do not open email attachments, unless we request them. Your entire submission must appear in the body of the email and not as an attachment. The subject line should be “QUERY” along with the title of your manuscript. Please email the first chapter and a synopsis along with a cover letter. Also, in your email, please include the number of words in your completed manuscript, as well as a bio, and pertinent writing and/or outdoor wilderness experience. If you prefer, you may snail-mail your query, along with your first chapter and bio to Fiction, Adventure Publications, 820 Cleveland St S, Cambridge, MN 55008.”

ADVENTURE PUBLICATIONS

Personal note:

I must confess that I flaked out on Nanowrimo due to some unforeseen circumstances, but I'm back working on the sequel to Play Dead and am about 1/3 of the way done with the first draft. ( 

You can see by my little tracking thingy up on the right that I'm just over 20,000. Will probably hit 25,000 by the end of the Nano. Half of my goal.) I should have the whole first draft completed by the end of February.  I'm enjoying the process so much that I've decided to write a sequel to Hush once Play Dead is finished. Hush is still my bestselling title, and I keep getting requests for a sequel, so it only makes sense since there's a demand. Plus I do love writing sequels because the characters are already developed. There is no question about what a character would say or do or think.  Both books will feature the same characters and settings. 

Wait, that's not all!

A new indie press called Forty Press is going to be reissuing Before I Wake.  The trade paperback will come out this March. More on Forty Press and the reissue later.

NANO NANO

I'm doing it!  First time ever, but this November I'm joining the writing frenzy known as National Novel Writing Month. That time in November when crazy writers try to write 50,000 words in a single month. I'm starting off at a disadvantage because I have book events through November 7. So I'm not sure what I'll accomplish, but I think it will still be a good catalyst for my Play Dead sequel, which is due to the publisher on September 1, 2013.  Which means it won't hit shelves until 2014. Just in case anybody is keeping track. 

If you are doing nanowrimo and want to look me up, my URL is:

MY HOME AT NANO

I'm not sure what friends do there. Roast marshmallows over a virtual fire? Get drunk? Swap war stories?  Give shoulder pats?  

I've done some one-day group writing events with other writers, and I've learned that the group thing works. It's fun. Not sure about the VIRTUAL group thing, but I'm going to give it a go. The old NaNo try.