Starting Over with No. 1

I entered the ranks of published authors in 2002 with Secret of the Scroll, which became the first in my Greg McKenzie mystery series. I had a three-book contract with Durban House Publishing Company, now deceased. They published my first three McKenzie books and then let them go out of print. I bought the publisher's remaining inventory of a couple of hundred books and sold them over the years at non-bookstore venues. A lot of readers want the first book in a series.

With my supply depleted, I turned to my current publisher, Night Shadows Press. As a result, Secret of the Scroll will be available to bookstores in the next few days. The text is identical with the first edition, but there's a new cover, shown here. It closely resembles the original, with the addition of a blurb identifying the book as "An International Thriller, Greg McKenzie Mystery No. 1."

One of the problems I've had since the book first came out is that just glancing at the cover, people presumed it was about the Dead Sea Scrolls. The novel involves a fictional parchment similar to those famous documents, but it's hardly a religious book. It won second place for Thrillers/Horror in the 2003 Bloody Dagger Awards and was a finalist for the ForeWord Magazine Mystery Book of the Year.

The book has been available for more than a year on Amazon for the Kindle and Smashwords for other e-readers, and it will now be on sale in a new paperback edition for those who like to hold a real live book in their hands.

Chester Campbell

Visit me at Mystery Mania