Six Murders? is finished

After a successful trip to Wellington and Martinborough -- where the people were especially friendly and helpful -- I can now say that Six Murders? is finished. I'm now in the process of a final polish after which, in a day or two, I'll be sending out PDFs to a few trusted readers for reaction and comments. Meanwhile I'll have to get the cover designed using the excellent photos I got while in Wellington and Martinborough. Can't wait. Then will begin the long and boring (but necessary) publication process which requires so much attention to detail.  

'Six Murders?' Coming soon.

Murder, mystery and fun in New Zealand's capital city. 

My new book is nearly finished. It is my first 'crime' mystery novel although it's a bit more fun. It's based in Wellington and is titled 'Six Murders?' Sub title, if you want it: The story of the Welly Alley Strangler.

I received a lot of help from my cousin Grant in Wellington, and from the New Zealand Police media centre whose people gave me a lot of excellent information and advice. A research trip to Wellington is now all that's required for me to tidy up a few location ends. I had such a trip planned for February 17 but unfortunately I had to postpone that as I was in hospital then for a few days. The trip has been rescheduled for March 17 after which I'll be able to do the final polish and get it out to readers before publishing. I'll make it available from my website as a local publication as well as internationally through Amazon and Kindle.

Update

I am working on an untitled novel which I started late in twenty-fifteen. I have a friend in America who is exceedingly successful with a series of crime novels which prompted me to try the genre. I started on 3 September, 2015, with a promising plot based on a crime that was somewhat unpleasant (although what crime can ever be deemed ‘pleasant’). However, as I worked I found I didn’t like where the story was going and so abandoned it. But I liked the characters I had created – they had become almost friends –  and so I made a fresh start; that was in December, 2015, more than a year ago.

I continued to work hard on this untitled novel but was never entirely happy with the plot and so put it aside for a while meaning to come back to it with a fresh look. Meanwhile I wrote and finished the short (34,000 words) and humorous crime novel called A Crook in The Café Arcadia (already referred to); I thought it was a lot of fun but it received universally poor reviews from my group of friendly readers and so I put it aside perhaps permanently never to be published.

By that time –  the end of July, 2016 – when I was ready to resume work on the untitled crime novel I was preoccupied with a whole semester of study of Te Reo at the Auckland University of Technology. And then when that was over I contracted pneumonia/Legionnaire disease from which I have only recently fully recovered but for a mild and lingering pain caused by pleurisy.

And so, only now, January, 2017, have I properly and seriously resumed work on my untitled crime novel which, when it is  finished, will be – I hope – a light, interesting and humorous read far from the nasty plot with which I started so long ago.

Meanwhile I am also working on a daily journal of minutiae which I hope to turn into something useful and interesting when 2017 comes to its end. Who know what will happen in the meantime. 

Success at Parnell craft market

I must say I enjoy working at the markets. I'm doing two now -- Mt Eden and Parnell -- and it's refreshing to meet and talk with real readers. I sell my books online and through Amazon and Kindle and although I appreciate every buyer I never get to meet them face to face. If they buy online at least I know their names but I have no idea who buys my books from Amazon and Kindle unless the write a review or send me some feedback (which I always appreciate). So, yes, markets are good and I'll gradually try others. Next, I hope, will be Kingsland. Meanwhile I'll next be at the Mt Eden Village craft market on Saturday 10 September (from 10.00 am to 4.00 pm) and Parnell on Saturday 24 September (8.00 am to 11.45 am). Hope to see you there. 

The Tapu Garden of Eden. FREE Kindle download for a limited time.

The Tapu Garden of Eden -- one of my most popular books by far -- is now available internationally from both Amazon (paperback) and Kindle.

While it was written for adults, and has been favourably compared to The Whalerider, I have discovered that teens, boys and girls, love it and find that they can't put it down. As a result it has become popular in high schools, and with parents and teachers.

I already have four of my books available from Amazon and Kindle and to mark the addition of The Tapu Garden of Eden I have made the Kindle version available as a FREE download from late Sunday night (30 April) (NZT) until 7.00 pm Thursday 4 May (NZT). (The strange times are the result of converting US Pacific time.) 

To download your copy go here. 

FREE HOLIDAY READING FOR YOUR KINDLE

To mark the holiday season, when people like to kick back and enjoy a good read, I'm making Kindle copies of four of my books available FREE to the first twenty people who email me with their choice. I have written and published ten books four of which are available from Amazon (paperback and Kindle). Choose one of these four from my website, email me your choice, and I'll send you a Kindle download voucher by return email. Sorry but I have to limit it to the first twenty (20) responses.

A lovely coincidence

On Saturday, at the Mt Eden Craft Market, I sold a copy of The Boltons of The Little Boltons to a dear lady who bought it because she 'got married in St Mary The Boltons in 1971'. The Boltons is the posh street in Kensington, next to The Little Boltons, and we could see the spire of St Mary The Boltons from our bedroom window. 

A couple of relevant extracts from The Boltons of The Little Boltons follow: 

"The Boltons, running parallel to The Little Boltons, was one of the most elegant avenues of the record reign. Its houses were mansions, on land more generous than the properties in The Little Boltons, with driveways and stables and detached cottages for servants set in spacious gardens. At one end, in the measured middle of its width and within a courtly iron-fenced ellipse, stood Saint Mary The Boltons, the little church whose grey spire we could see from our top-floor room across the ways. There was a chipped and faded sign wired to the church’s black iron fence. This fence was a relatively recent replacement for the original which was removed during the war by churchly patriots as a contribution to the country’s drive for metal. Who knows into what great machine, armament, ordnance, ship, aeroplane, weapon or missile went that iron in the cause of war? And did anyone care, I wonder, that church materials were used for such an awful purpose?

"There was only one window, much smaller than those on the other floors, but it looked down over the back garden — the same garden I had been looking at from the ground floor — from a great height providing a long view across the neighbouring gardens, through a forest of leafless trees, to the sharp needle steeple of Saint Mary The Boltons. I paused there: it was a beautiful and tranquil scene. Beside the window stood a porcelain sink, with old brass taps and exposed plumbing below. But the room was spacious and yet had an intimate and friendly atmosphere, quite different from the other rooms in the house; I felt comfortable in it at once. 

"This was the time, too, when I most appreciated our high position looking out over the garden, and those adjacent, to The Boltons beyond. Although at ground level the garden walls were high, they appeared insignificant from our great height. By ignoring them it was easy to imagine being in the country, looking across and through a lightly wooded coppice to a street of houses in a sleepy but prosperous village. The effect was heightened by the sharp needle of Saint Mary The Boltons which pierced the leafiness of the tall horse chestnuts; on hot still days it looked like a pretty picture of Nutwood from a Rupert Bear book."

The Boltons of The Little Boltons is available on my website here. It's also available from Amazon and Kindle.