Many years ago I was having lunch at a Chinese restaurant in New Jersey, while on a business trip, and I found what I thought was an unusual fortune in my post-meal crunchy cookie.  It read:

Ancient Chinese Curse:  May you live in interesting times.

Over the ten+ years since that day, I have joked about that fortune many times.  Now, I have decided to use it as the title for the third book in the Mountain Majesty Series, Interesting Times.

Out of curiosity, I recently googled that saying to see if it is indeed considered an "ancient Chinese curse".  Surprisingly, there is an entire Wikipedia page and a number of articles dedicated to this "curse".  The "experts" do not seem to agree that it was ever an ancient curse, and even have some evidence that the saying originated around the early 1900s.  Interesting, indeed!

What do you think about the idea of curses?  Personally, I don't believe in them, but I think the concept fits in well and makes a great title for my next book.

I'm still working on finishing the story, but here's a little hint:  Maj and Daniel travel to the Bahamas for a restful vacation, but get more than they bargained for.  Murders, muggings, and general mayhem, both in the Bahamas and back in Colorado, make for a lot of Interesting Times.

Oops!  Yes, that's right.  I'm sure everyone who read "Mine and Mines: Book 1, Mountain Majesty Series" noticed a few typos and mixed up names in there.  For some reason (probably because I was tired and not paying enough attention at the time), I managed to mix up the names for Daniel and Jake about four times throughout the book. 

I want to take the opportunity to thank everyone for downloading my first book, "Mine and Mines:  Book 1, Mountain Majesty Series" while it was available for free download from Amazon.com.  Over four hundred readers downloaded the book during that time period, more than I could have imagined.  

I am thankful to each of you, and I hope you will download Book 2, "Lucky Girl: Book 2, Mountain Majesty Series" and enjoy it as well.

If you have already had time to read Book 1, I would greatly appreciate it if you would go to the book's purchase page on Amazon.com and leave a nice review for me.  

I have already started on Book 3, and the plan is to have it published around the first of September.  I will continue to keep you updated.  

Again, thank each and every one of you from the bottom of my heart!

I finally decided to get my behind busy and write some books.  I've been wondering to myself what took me so long to get around to doing something that I have wanted to do since I remember, and it all boils down to the one thing I see and hear so often:  FEAR.  Fear of failure.

I love that Amazon allows for self-publishing of authored works for Kindle.  I probably would never have gotten the courage to send in a manuscript to a traditional publisher.  It was hard enough to pluck up the nerve to  write and publish a book (now two books) by myself.

I will admit to it being a little scary to publish a book and then wait for someone else to want to read it.  I had a little strategy though that I will share with everyone, so maybe it will help someone else.  Of course, it still remains to be seen whether or not it will be successful for me, but so far it's bearing some small fruits.  I figure I've got to start some where.  Here's what my plan was:  1)  I would publish my first work, and if it got some attention by accident, that would be great.  2)  I would publish my second work, THEN put the first work on sale for FREE for several days, while at the same time using social media (primarily Facebook, because that's the one I deal with the most) to get the word out and get people to read the FREE book, hoping they would then purchase or borrow the second book.  Today is the first day that the first book is on Amazon.com for free, but there have already been several copies downloaded for free.  I even got a handful of people to buy it before it was free.

Here's a link to the free book, "Mine and Mines: Book 1, Mountain Majesty Series":  
http://www.amazon.com/Mine-Mines-1-Mountain-Majesty-ebook/dp/B00JEMXB6A/

I'm so excited, and THANKFUL, for all of those who are supporting me in this endeavor.  If you downloaded and are reading my book(s), I am grateful for your support.  I hope you are enjoying reading them, and if you have time, please write a review for me on Amazon and/or Goodreads.

I will add more to this blog periodically.  Thanks again for the support!