Semifinalist in Kindle Book Review Best Indie Books of 2012/mystery
My last book, The Facepainter Murders was a semifinalist in the Kindle Book Review Best Indie Book of 2012, mystery/thriller. It is available at amazon.com, writewordsinc.com, Barnes&Noble and can be ordered through your local bookstore.
Book two in my Dangerous Journeys series
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Third novel in Virginia Winters’ Dangerous Journeys series released by Write Words Inc., publisher.
Lindsay— Dr. Virginia Winters’ new book, “No Motive for Murder”, just released by Write Words Inc., available online at http://www.writewordsinc.com
Anne McPhail is on holiday in Bermuda, visiting her sister. She stumbles upon a murder in progress and this time, she is more than just a witness, she is a suspect, dealing with a police officer who decides Anne is guilty, and sticks to it in face of the evidence or lack of it. But more is going on than a random murder. Anne is caught in the middle an assassination plot. When she inadvertently upsets the killer’s plan, he turns his attention to her. The risk spreads to her family and friends and then Thomas Beauchamp arrives on Bermuda. When his role is revealed, Anne’s life takes a dangerous turn.
“I’m so pleased to have this novel published by Write Words Inc. of Cambridge, Maryland. Anne’s travels have become a series, Dangerous Journeys.”
“We are very proud to have published No Motive for Murder by Virginia Winters said Arline Chase, publisher.
“We are a small company and choose our books carefully. We only publish work from writers we feel are talented and have a lot to offer.”
Dr. Winters’ two previous novels are:
Murderous Roots
The Facepainter Murders
Both published by Write Words Inc. Arline Chase, publisher, and available at:
Write Words Inc.
Barnes&Noble
Kent Bookstore, Lindsay, Ontario
Amazon
Other works have appeared online at Pine Tree Mysteries, Six Sentences and the Camroc Press Review, as well as in the Gumshoe Review, and The Other Herald.
She enjoys meeting readers at book-signings, speaking to local groups (at the library, community college, clubs, etc.) about her work, and may be contacted through her website at http://www.virginiawinters.ca or by e-mail at mailto:vwinters@bell.net
Quest for a wonder drug started with shrew bait – The Globe and Mail.
An article in this morning’s Globe and Mail tells the story of a researcher, Dr. Jack Stewart who started to look at the pain-killing possibilities in shrew saliva. Sounds unlikely doesn’t it? But that is the nature of science. It was known, the article tells us that shrew saliva had paralytic properties. Dr. Irwin G. Martin had published a paper on the subject in the Journal of Mammalogy in 1981. Dr. Stewart’s research into the chemical that caused the paralysis led him to his recent discovery. A typical chain in science: primary research in an area as unlikely as shrew saliva at one end and a potential treatment for not one but three major cancers— ovarian, breast and prostate— at the other.
This is the chain that politicians, businessmen and other non-scientists don’t seem to understand. Much of medical discovery comes by happenstance. Vincristine and Vinblastine are potent anti-cancer agents derived from the periwinkle plant, common now in many of our gardens. The plant searchers, funded by amateur botanists and Royal Societies, brought plants and seeds from all over the globe, often to London. From there the seeds were shared, first to Paris, according to Michael F. Brown, writing in Who Owns Native Culture, 2003. Folk medicine revealed that many plants were in common use as treatments for disease. Anthropology, botany, chemistry, medicine, all studying these plants, often a considerable remove from any thought of practical application, but all leading through the cross-pollination of publication, to the drug that brought hope at last to childhood victims of acute leukaemia. I first met the drug while I was working as a resident at the Hospital for Sick Children in 1972, treating those children, mostly under five years, who now had a chance, not just for survival, but for a cure.
This won’t happen, can’t happen without the funding of primary research, research without a known outcome. How can you predict that shrew saliva might cure human cancers? But you can fund the inquiring minds, let them talk to one another, and wonderful things can happen from that cross-pollination.
We deny funding to universities and basic science at our peril.
The printer finally shipped a book to me. A book, not my book, so I’m back to waiting. Strange business, publishing.
While I’ve been waiting, I’m polishing another novel, and have it almost ready to go. It is set in Toronto, with side trips to Rome, Venice, Florence and Dubrovnik. A lot of fun to write. It’s working title is HIDDEN.
I’ve started planning another, which occupies my thoughts much of the day. This one will require more research, especially into the world of art restoration.
Sakineh Ashtiani still sits in that Iranian jail, awaiting her stoning sentence to be carried out. Latest news is at this link:
http://preview.tinyurl.com/d5bpwvs
The proof copy is in the mail! Now I’m waiting on Canada Post. In the meantime, I’m sending out a few queries to Canadian agents for another novel, HIDDEN. This one isn’t in the Dangerous Journeys series although the protagonist is well-travelled by book’s end. Below is a very short synopsis:
Bella, a young Toronto doctor, leaves her narrow life, bounded by her condo, her addiction meetings and her volunteer work at a refugee centre, to save her immigrant clients from a gang of imported thugs from Chechnya. The next three weeks take her from Toronto to Rome to Venice to Dubrovnik, finally bringing her face to face with a killer in a toolshed in Toronto.
Writing synopses is one of the more difficult tasks for a novelist. One needs to write more than one: one for the jacket and then a series for different agents and different publishers. There isn’t uniformity in the publishing world.
And then there is something else called the “pitch”. This is a very short, 20 second sentence that can be blurted out to agents or publishers at conferences, at lunch or in the elevator. It seems strange to me that a decision on whose work to read can depend on a practiced sentence, possibly not even written by the speaker.
Another item is “the hook”, a brief description of some aspect of the work that sets it aside from others and can capture the reader.
All this for the business of writing.
I heard from the publisher a couple of days ago, well, two, that No Motive for Murder, the proof copy is on its way to me. Now the waiting depends on the USA post office, Canada Post and customs.
In the meantime, I’m working on the press release and trying to solve a strange problem. For some reason, Word for Mac can’t connect with Amazon from a hyperlink in a document. It connects with Barnes&Nobel, my local bookstore, the publisher, but not Amazon.
I joined a site called Blogtour.org which puts together bloggers and people who want to promote a book. Kersten L. Kelly is touring for her new book Ec*o*nom*ics: A Simple Twist on Normalcy. I’ll be hosting her on Sept. 5/2012 for a guest post and an author interview.
I’ve been away from the blog for two weeks or so, correcting proofs of my latest book in the Dangerous Journeys Series. When the manuscript is finished and sent to the publisher, in my case electronically, time passes, and then it is returned, or at least the files are, downloaded to some vast internet cloud, and then to me. Line by line, error by error, recorded first on legal pads and then into Excel, and finally it is ready to return to the publisher. The process repeats itself, she corrects, then I correct again, and finally we both agree that we can find no more errors, omissions or outright howlers. After that, I wait, and wait and wait, while mysterious manipulations go on to convert the files to e-book format and prepare for the paper press as well.
In the meantime, I write and then of course, rewrite, a press release, find multiple free services that could disperse the press release across the internet, and read books about marketing and the importance of an author platform. So I sign up for twitter, post more books at Goodreads, expand my Linkedin network and ask friends and relatives to post my press release when the book is ready. And then I wait some more. A problem with the files at the printer, I’m told, is delaying the appearance of NO MOTIVE FOR MURDER.
I return to writing, now a rewrite of a book that has been hanging around in a virtual drawer. It was fun to write and now even in rewrite, mostly because of the settings, besides Toronto, my protagonist travels to Rome and Venice, Bari and Dubrovnik.
I’m still waiting.
Clock ticking down for renowned environmental research station – The Globe and Mail.
A line in a “budget” and a world-renowned research facility, the one that taught us about phosphates and acid rain and would have taught us how to deal with the oil sands is closing because of some politician’s scientific illiteracy and inability to face hard facts. Not everything in this world of ours can be reduced to a line in a profit and loss statement, but the members of the Harper government seem to think it can. But even it that was the way it worked, the knowledge produced by the experiments at the Experiment Lakes is far more valuable than any minimal decrease in budgetary expense.
Even if other sectors could pick up the cost, the time line imposed by the Omnibus bill is too short. I suppose the Harperites like to see people who are so much smarter than they are twisting in the wind.
It is shameful decision and a disgrace to this country.
Budget cuts put rescue teams in peril long before Elliot Lake – The Globe and Mail
Teams such as these cost a great deal of money. The Harper government, which is cancelling the funding, claims that 90% of disasters are handled locally. Whether or not that is true, and who knows about statistics released by this government, the 10% are those such as the disaster at Elliott Lake or future terrorist attacks, or crumbling urban infrastructure collapses that take heroic effort by well-trained teams with advanced equipment to save lives. Without funding, Public Safety Canada said that some or all of the teams would not survive.
The funding cut was another of those buried in the Omnibus Bill, just passed with much high-fiving and cheering by the Harper party stalwarts. Perhaps they will come to dig out the survivors when the next building collapses.
What so these guys think federal governments are meant to do? Oh, I remember. Build bridges for the Americans.
Save the Experimental Lakes Area petition | Ontario Chapter.
Please go to this website, download a petition and send it to join your voice to the many others from many countries who feel this priceless resource must not be lost.
It is difficult to understand why this project, after 50 years of productive scientific experimentation was chosen by the federal government to be closed. I don’t believe it was a financial decision, but rather one to discourage voices from the environmental community who deliver unpalatable facts to the politicians.
The lakes, the land, are irreplaceable and only ours for a short time. We don’t own them, we are charged with caring for them. We need the information the scientists bring from the ELA in order to do that.
The decision to stop funding is narrow-minded and damaging and should be reversed.
writingthoughts 