A Very Private High School

I wish I felt more enthusiasm for the launch of my new Dave Mason mystery. For me, once I’m finished a book, that is, the revised revised final final version, I’m really done with it. And by then I’m onto to the next book and all its problems and challenges.

I want to leave behind the elitist world of private education, car theft, and hit-and-run tragedy.

A Very Private High School, coming soon, is the fourth in the Detective Dave Mason series. Dave Mason, my fictional homicide detective with the Santa Monica Police Department, has been living inside my head for fifteen years and we know each other well.

I want to see him make a splash and get some attention but oh, the work that lies ahead. The only reason I wish I were 25 again is all the energy I had then. I marvel at Marilyn Meredith and her pace of accomplishment.

Coupled with a natural shyness is the realization that I can’t do it all anymore, and need to portion out my energies in a sensible fashion. I wish I could also say that writing is the only thing I do and I beaver away at it eight productive hours a day. But life is interesting.

I’m working in a small group spearheading the startup of a community radio station in the area where I live. I’m on the board of the LA chapter of Sisters-in-Crime, and meeting next week to discuss the startup of a chapter of Sisters-in-Crime in Bakersfield. And next week is the California Crime Writers Conference in Los Angeles where I’m heading a panel on blogging.

I love Dave Mason, and A Very Private High School is a good book, but I’m daunted I must admit. Any other mystery writers who have felt this way?

Where do you draw your energies from at this point in the launch of a new book?

Changing The Covers on My Books by Mar Preston

I liked the previous covers of my four books. But a smooth-talking Irishman, who presented as a social media expert at a conference I recently attended, persuaded me the covers looked amateur. I fell under his spell and found myself agreeing I needed to update them.

What do I know about covers? I read advice from the same marketing whizzes that you do probably. I know that it’s not an original idea to change a cover on a book that’s not selling well and promoting it as a new title.

I can’t claim that my earlier books are selling well. Don’t know about you.

So the Irishman connected me to a New York City cover designer and I browsed through his website. My previous cover designer is a hard-working, competent web developer and designer who has put up with me for years now and I feel a loyalty to him. However, the covers that I saw by the NYC designer dazzled me. His terms were affordable and I decided to give it a try with new covers.

On Behalf of the Family is a police procedural about an honor killing that takes place in glitzy Santa Monica. It’s long on characterization, short on car chases and explosions. My series detective is with the Santa Monica Police Department.

I am asking your opinion. Do you like the cover change?

So far the Buy Button hasn’t been clicking in huge numbers but I wouldn’t be a writer, would I,  if I weren’t hopelessly optimistic. 

What do you think?

                                      

Original Cover

                The Buy Button

             

                http://www.amazon.com/ebook/dp/B00I82BFVK 

 The New Cover 

                                             

Mar Preston's Rip-Off

About Mar Preston

I grew up in northern Ontario and love its lakes and forests. But I lived in Santa Monica for decades watching big money, land development, and politics clash.

Getting a good murder mystery novel out of what goes on behind the scenes in grassroots politics, glitzy businesses, and developer skullduggery makes all those dreary Santa Monica city council meetings worthwhile.

I live now in a village in the California mountains, not that far from the edge of the Los Angeles sprawl. There's too much to do here: I'm writing crime fiction seriously, but I can't get away from the SPCA, local environmental politics, and the writing community.
Life is good.

Mar's website: http://marpreston.com/
Blog: http://marpreston.com/blog

Mar's new book, Rip-Off, featuring Detective Dave Mason of the Santa Monica Police Department was just released June 15, 2012. Today, she's sharing something about its journey to publication.

Print Link: http://amzn.com/1475295367
Kindle Link: http://amzn.com/B007WTYGI4






Here's What Mar Has to Say:

So what the world says? Well, so what is that one phase of hard work ends and another begins.

Looking back now, writing the book was the easiest and most pleasant work. I got to live in the heads of two people I like a lot—Dave and Ginger—the major characters. Dave’s a cop. Ginger is Dave’s community activist girlfriend, a troublemaker in the first book, No Dice.

A lot of people liked both characters and I made a decision in Rip-Off to make what happened to Ginger the way it would be in real life. In the first book she is abducted by a psychopath and the threat of torture and death is danced in front of her eyes. Only by using her wits does she manage to escape, and no, it’s not by leading him on a chase through the mean streets of Santa Monica where both novels are set. It’s a unique escape, growing out of the character’s resources and the context of the story.

I like realism and characters I might want to know in real life. Once I see a character shot in the shoulder who then rappels down the side of a building to chase the villain in a car speeding away, I’m likely to just clap the book closed. Sometimes I read for escape, like a delicious Maeve Binchy novel, but I know what I’m getting and that’s what I want.

But if I pick up a book to find the protagonist is a hard-bodied intellectual who is a martial artist, speaks Chinese and is a chess champion, un uh. Nope, I don’t know anybody like that. And he’s a sharp shooter too, you say, and a retired millionaire? Oh, yeah, not interested.

In Rip-Off, Ginger is suffering the effects of PTSD knowing how close she came to being tortured to death. She reacts as you and I would. She got the stuffing knocked out of her and becomes less of the breezy, community activist who is a thorn in Dave’s side. She discovers how hard it is to find a new job.

I’m hoping that seeing a likeable character grow and change and adapt themselves to life as we know it will interest readers as well.

Print Link: http://amzn.com/1475295367
Kindle Link: http://amzn.com/B007WTYGI4

Mar's website: http://marpreston.com/
Blog: http://marpreston.com/blog

Please leave a comment to welcome Mar Preston to Make Mine Mystery.