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1920s, Books, fantasy, fiction, goals, mystery, publishing, writing

Magic Most Deadly Redux

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Ten years ago this September, I published my first novel. It was a pretty good debut novel! But … it suffered from quite a lot of the issues that can plague first-time novelists. Such as trying to cram way too much story into one book. And not really being sure what genre it was and so veering wildly between a novel of manners, a cozy mystery, a thriller, a fantasy, and a coming-of-age novel. And trying to force the characters to conform to what the author thought should happen rather than letting them be themselves. And being about 30,000 words too long.

I’m still proud of that novel, my Magic Most Deadly. Even all of the above problems came from aiming too high rather than too low. I’m proud of the world I created, the characters and the way they came to life (despite the occasional attempt to force them into boxes they refused to fit inside), and the way that novel set the stage for the rest of the series.

But because I learned so much from that first novel and then applied it to the next one, and then learned from that and applied it to the next one, not to mention the short stories, novella, and the other books I wrote over the last ten years that also developed my abilities, I am faced with the reality that Book 1 of the Whitney and Davies series is not really a good match for Books 2 & 3 (and eventually 4), or even the supplemental stories.

So this summer I started tackling the job of rewriting Magic Most Deadly in order to tighten the story and bring it more in line with the rest of the series. The overall story will be the same, but the way in which it is written will be vastly different. It will also be getting a new cover, which will also fit better with the rest of the series (I’ll be honest, it was getting a new cover that pushed me from only thinking that one of these days I ought to rewrite MMD, to actually doing it). I’ll be sorry to say goodbye to the original cover, because I do love it, but I am also excited to see MMD look like it belongs with Glamours & Gunshots and Death by Disguise rather than being their awkward stepsister.

I am a couple thousand words into the rewrite and already pretty excited over the way subtle shadings in Maia and Len’s characters are starting to show through, and the way the story is being set up. There are a lot of challenges involved in being a self-published author, but having the ability to say, “that book I published ten years ago? Yeah, I can make that better,” and then DOING it without having to regain rights or persuade anyone that it’s worth doing is AMAZING.

I am so excited for when I can share the new-and-improved Magic Most Deadly with you all!

1920s, Books, fantasy, mystery

Praise for Death by Disguise

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I wanted to share some quotes from the jurors who read Death by Disguise for the Maine Literary Awards.

“Bates delivers an absolutely worthy read that blends its dual genres of fantasy and cozy mystery well while taking readers on an adventure that is simply good fun from start to finish.”

“I really enjoyed the setting of this cozy mystery with a dash of magic – a secret college of magic operating inside Cambridge University. The detective team was delightful, as they scoured the college to solve one mystery, uncovering others along the way. As a cozy mystery, it seemed especially subtle, yet this book clearly merits the win, based on its well-executed elements of story and craft.”

Now, doesn’t that make you want to go read it? Get your copy here so that you can join in the fun of Whitney & Davies’ world!

1920s, Books, fantasy, fiction, mystery, publishing, writing

Death by Disguise, MLA Winner

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I am honored and delighted to be able to share that Death by Disguise won the 2023 Maine Literary Award for Speculative Fiction. I was not expecting that at all! I was honored enough to be named as a finalist; actually winning the award was not on my radar at all.

The ceremony was held at Bates College (a very nice touch–I think I managed to work a joke about that into my acceptance speech, though I was so dazed I can’t really remember much that I said), and was absolutely lovely. I was pleased to be able to meet and cheer for so many wonderful Maine writers in every category. Our family settled in Maine just as the pandemic was starting to shut everything down in the state–not a good time to try to build or join a preexisting writing community! I joined the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance anyway, and spent a lot of time hoping that eventually they’d move back to doing in-person events rather than Zoom (which gives me a migraine if I use it for long). Now that they have, I am looking forward to participating in more events and workshops, and hope to get better acquainted with my fellow Maine writers. This award has certainly helped me feel more like I belong here!

This award has also helped push me into a project I’d been contemplating for some time but hadn’t gotten around to yet: rebranding Magic Most Deadly so that its cover matches the style and feel of the others in the series. When I wrote and published MMD (ten years ago this September!) I didn’t really know much about branding or how to choose a cover design. While I loved, and still love, the cover that my designer and I eventually came up with, it doesn’t really give off quite the right vibe for the “cozy fantasy-mystery” genre this series has, nor does it carry the Whitney & Davies logo that we developed by the time Glamours and Gunshots was published, and which has been on every subsequent book in the series.

My goal is to have the new edition available by the end of September, to celebrate the ten-year anniversary of MMD’s publication. We’ll see if I make it! I am also making some substantial edits to the story, as that was my first published book and honestly, it shows. I won’t be changing anything about the heart of the story or the characters, but I will be tightening it up, eliminating some unnecessary bits, bringing the characters into better focus, all that sort of thing. Using the skills I’ve learned through writing 3 more novels, many short stories, and four novellas in the ten years since publishing MMD to make it the story it was always meant to be!

I’m also going to be switching over print distribution for the Whitney & Davies novels from Amazon to IngramSpark over the course of the summer, so if you are a bookseller and have been wanting to carry these books but have been unable to due to the difficulties of buying wholesale through Amazon–good news! It will soon be much easier for you.

And hey, if you haven’t read the award-winning Death by Disguise yet, you can click here to buy. (You can buy the other books, too, but I might recommend waiting for Magic Most Deadly until the new edition comes out–unless you’d like to own both and compare them, in which case, have at it!)

1920s, Books, fantasy, fiction, writing

Death by Disguise 2023 Maine Literary Awards Finalist

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I’m so pleased to be able to announce that DEATH BY DISGUISE has been chosen as a finalist for the 2023 Maine Literary Awards!

https://www.mainewriters.org/events/2023-finalists

The Maine Literary Awards are sponsored by the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance. They are open to all writers who call Maine home and who have published a book in the most recent calendar year. For Death by Disguise to have made it to the final three in the Speculative Fiction category is a tremendous honor! The winners in each category will be announced May 18 at an awards ceremony. I am looking forward to attending that and getting a chance to meet some of my fellow Maine authors! (And yes, one of my first thoughts after sending in my RSVP was, “Ooh, what am I going to wear?”)

For newcomers to this blog, or in case you have forgotten about Whitney and Davies in the excitement of the recent Pauline Gray omnibus, a brief synopsis:

Whitney and Davies: the series

Death by Disguise is the third novel in the WHITNEY AND DAVIES fantasy-detective series set in 1920s England, a world where magic lies beneath the surface of everyday life and mysteries and intrigue lurk around every corner. In an England still recovering from the trauma of WWI, hidden magicians work to rebuild their world and make it a better place. Enter Maia Whitney and Len Davies, two magicians who team up to use their magic and their wits to bring justice to those who cannot find it for themselves. If you have a mystery that no one else can or will solve, you can call on Whitney & Davies to come to your aid, and they will bring all their formidable abilities to bring you justice, peace, and hope.

Death by Disguise: the book

In DEATH BY DISGUISE, Maia and Len travel to Cambridge to search for a missing secretary at the magical college of Saint Dorothea’s hidden inside Cambridge University. What begins as a simple missing person investigation soon turns grimmer when murder strikes at the college. Maia and Len are in a race against time to catch the murderer and find the missing secretary before she too is killed. In the midst of all this, their friendship faces new challenges as differences in values and perspectives come to light and cause strain between them. Will they be able to solve the mystery and maintain their partnership, or will this mark the end of Whitney & Davies … for good?

Pick up your copy of DEATH BY DISGUISE today and find out the answer for yourself!

(We here at StarDance Press highly recommend drinking a fine cup of tea along with reading the book. Daffodils are optional.)

Books, fiction, mystery, publishing, writing

Announcing Pauline Gray Investigates

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Death Comes to the North Country


Welcome to Canton, NY, a small farming town nestled in the northern foothills of the Adirondack mountains. It’s the 1930s, and to an outsider’s eye, this looks like an idyllic village mostly untouched by the Great Depression that is ravaging so much of the nation. But even the most idyllic towns and villages have their dark sides. When trouble comes to Canton, the folk there rely on each other to help out. And that includes one young woman in particular …


Meet Pauline Gray. A graduate of the prestigious St. Lawrence University in Canton, she fell in love with the town while in college and has never left. A journalist by day and a secret novelist by night, Pauline’s compassion and drive for justice pull her into mysteries that are too small or too peculiar for the police. She would really prefer a quieter life, but when people need her help, she can’t turn them away, no matter what the danger to herself might be.

Announcing … Pauline Gray Investigates, a collection of the three Pauline Gray novellas into one beautiful book! This omnibus contains Candles in the Dark, Diamonds to Dust, and Secrets of the Past, previously published separately and now conveniently gathered into one edition.

This book is available to purchase in ebook or paperback here, but even better than buying it online would be asking your local bookstore to order it for you. The heart and soul of the Pauline Gray stories is the importance of communities, and in that spirit I would love to see this book in as many local bookstores as possible, celebrating the importance of place.

If you do purchase this at your local bookstore, send me an email at stardancepress@gmail.com and include a photo so that I can see just how many bookstores Pauline has made it into! I’d love to feature your photos and your local bookstores in my next newsletter. (Which, by the way, you can sign up for here):

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Enjoy this beautiful omnibus, my friends! I certainly am.

Books, fiction, heroines, mystery, writing

All the News That’s Fit to … Type

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This blog has been pretty silent for a while, but that’s mostly been because there hasn’t been much to say. (Admittedly, it’s also been because the little there has been to say has gone in the newsletter rather than on here. Have you signed up for the newsletter yet? It goes out once a month generally, more frequently if there’s exciting book news or sales to announce.)

(Also, would you mind letting me know if the signup form is showing up properly for you? It’s either not showing up at all on one browser or telling me the link has expired on the other browser, and I’m not sure if that’s just me of if it’s misbehaving for all you readers as well. Sigh … technology is great, until it isn’t.)

Anyway, the news. It’s exciting! But I can’t tell you what it is yet. Argh. I know, I know! Suffice to say, I thought I was finished with Pauline Gray, but something new may—just may—be in the works after all.

If you are new here, Pauline Gray is my non-fantasy mystery series consisting of three novellas (I suppose that’s more of a trilogy than a series, but each book stands alone, so it feels more like a series to me … sigh. Classifying things is hard. Thus says the librarian-in-training.)

The series description on my book page goes thus:

Welcome to Canton, NY, a small farming town nestled in the northern foothills of the Adirondack mountains. It’s the 1930s, and to an outsider’s eye, this looks like an idyllic village mostly untouched by the Great Depression that is ravaging so much of the nation. But even the most idyllic towns and villages have their dark sides. When trouble comes to Canton, the folk there rely on each other to help out. And that includes one young woman in particular …

Meet Pauline Gray. A graduate of the prestigious St. Lawrence University, she fell in love with the town while in college and has never left. A journalist by day and a secret novelist by night, Pauline’s compassion and drive for justice pull her into mysteries that are too small or too peculiar for the police. She would really prefer a quieter life, but when people need her help, she can’t turn them away.

I grew to be very fond of Pauline, and the community of friends and neighbors that grew around her as her stories progressed, but by the time I came to the third novella, the strain of trying to keep up three series (Whitney & Davies, Pauline Gray, and From the Shadows—yes, that book is getting a sequel if I ever manage to finish writing the first draft), got to be too much for me. The third novella was a good stopping place, and so I bid farewell to Pauline and her friends.

Or did I?

Well, as I said, I can’t share anything specific yet, but stay tuned—news should be coming very soon!

Books, fiction, publishing

Paperback Book Options (Besides Amazon)

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I know many of us prefer not to shop for books on Amazon, so I wanted to offer an online option that some readers might not be aware of. Bookshop.org not only distributes all the StarDance Press paperbacks (the Whitney & Davies series, From the Shadows, the Pauline Gray novellas), they also give a portion of the price to the independent bookstore of your choosing.

Nothing quite beats going into a physical bookstore and browsing through their physical books, but that can be more and more challenging these days–there are fewer local indie bookstores in general, and most of them can’t afford to give shelf space to all the authors they might wish they could. It’s especially challenging for independent authors like myself, who are not supported by a marketing team from one of the “Big Five” traditional publishers (e.g. Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, Hatchette Livre, and Macmillan).

So I am thankful for options such as bookshop.org, who are able to support local independent bookstores, small independent authors, and the reading community, all at the same time!

Life Talk, seasons

Christmas Trees, Allergies, Thyme, and Patient Husbands

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I discovered after moving to Maine two and a half years ago that I am allergic to pine pollen (the irony of living in the Pine Tree State and being allergic to our state symbol is not lost on me). When I had some difficulties breathing around our Christmas tree last year, even though it was a balsam, I assumed it was related. It was a mild nuisance, but nothing too terrible, and so I figured I could live with a month of a Christmas tree again this year.

Well. What seemed like a good idea at the end of last month quickly deteriorated, as within two weeks of having it set up I couldn’t even be in the same room before my chest tightened and I started wheezing. This was likely exacerbated by my allergies to the dust our pellet stove in the dining room puts out, but between the two, I was having to spend 90% of my time upstairs in the sitting corner I created in the master bedroom (which was very cozy, I will admit, though not enough to make up for having to sequester myself away from everyone).

When my brain started to fog and I was struggling to complete various school and editing projects I had on hand, we knew we had to do something. I started doing some deeper research, and learned that the issue with the Christmas tree was most likely due to mold spores in the wood, as pollen is of course not an issue this time of year and with a cut tree. One of my friends had been dealing with mold in her living space (which she just moved out of because of how bad the mold was!), and thanks to her, I knew what to do. We mixed up a batch of thyme oil (thymol), rubbing alcohol, and water, and my wonderfully caring and patient husband took all the ornaments off the tree (with the help of our elder daughter, who kept saying it felt really really weird to be taking ornaments OFF the tree less than a week after they were put on) and sprayed down the tree thoroughly with the mixture.

I hadn’t realized before this that thymol is the equivalent to bleach, or even better, when it comes to disinfecting and killing bacteria, but wow, it really does work. Our house reeked of concentrated thyme overnight (luckily it was a warm enough night we could keep the bedroom windows all open a crack), but by this morning it had dissipated enough that we could bear going into the living room again. And guess what? I can breathe in there now! I haven’t tried sitting near the tree for any length of time yet, but that will be the next step. Still, the fact that I can be in there at all is reassuring. Now, if only the pellet stove issues had such an easy solution …

As a bonus, even though the thyme concentrate scent has dissipated considerably, our house still smells somewhat like an Italian restaurant. Pizza for supper, anyone?

Maybe for next Christmas I should write a story of Maia and Len attempting to solve the mystery of the Christmas tree allergies … slightly anachronistic, but hey, it would amuse me, if nothing else. For this year, we’ll continue to make do with While Shepherds Watch as our Christmas story! It may not have allergies, but it does have a rumored ghost, Christmas lambs, and a cad who needs a lesson in manners taught to him!

Let me know some of your wacky holiday stories in the comments! Have any of you ever had to dismantle and then redecorate your tree for any reason? Ever have a balsam tree that smells like thyme? Any tips on getting rid of dust from a pellet stove? (Yes, we do dust the house regularly, but it just isn’t enough. Every time my husband fills the hopper I start to wheeze again.)

Merry two-and-a-half weeks before Christmas, everyone!

Books, fantasy, fiction, reading list, stories

Christmas Eve Book Flood Shopping

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https://books2read.com/u/4D6jae

I suspect many people by now have heard of “Jolabokaflod,” or “Christmas Book Flood.” It’s the Icelandic tradition of giving books on Christmas Eve and spending the evening reading. Whether you have an Icelandic heritage or not, this is a lovely tradition, and one I suspect many families would enjoy implementing as part of their own holiday practices! In our family, we’ve always given books as part of the main Christmas event (we do Christmas Eve gifts, but those are always either special Christmassy pajamas or a new ornament for the tree), and I’m not sure my crew would welcome a change now, but there is something so cozy about the idea of spending the night before Christmas curled up with a good book.

https://books2read.com/b/4ApPrq

And luckily for fans of StarDance Press, we have two separate series to choose from for books to give–or keep!–for reading on Christmas Eve, or any time during the holidays.

In Whitney and Davies, we have magic, mystery, the Roaring Twenties, Britain, friendship and witty banter, and a slow-burn romance that has been building through three books and one novella (and a couple of short stories!). Maia Whitney and Len Davies use their wits and their magical abilities to solve mysteries as they gradually learn to rely on each other and build a relationship on a foundation of trust and friendship. Fans have likened this series to “Agatha Christie with magic,” “Downton Abbey, The Dresden Files, and Right Ho, Jeeves,” and a blend of Dorothy L Sayers and Patricia C Wrede.

Not a fan of magic? Prefer a shorter read or a completed series? Try Pauline Gray, a collection of three mystery novellas set in the 1930s in the small town of Canton, NY, in the foothills of the Adirondacks. Pauline is a young career woman whose sense of justice keeps drawing her reluctantly into solving mysteries and becoming more tightly interwoven into the small town community as she does so. Fans say, “Recommended for fans of Patricia Wentworth novels, Jimmy Stewart movies, and fans of 1930s Americana.”

https://books2read.com/b/bzggJD

Rather not commit to any series at all, preferring a stand-alone work? A fan of Star Wars, Star Trek, or other sci-fi that focuses on the human condition? From the Shadows is perfect for you! This gentle sci-fi story follows Riss Waldron on a journey through space and time, yes, but also through the struggles of her own heart and sense of self-worth. Fans have related it to Jane Austen, LM Montgomery, or the Mitford series (in space!).

So whatever your taste in books, StarDance Press has something to offer. All our books are available in ebook and paperback format, and you can access them through any of the links in this post.

So what are you waiting for? The only trouble now might be waiting to give them (and read them!) until Christmas Eve!

Oh, and don’t forget one very special book–

https://books2read.com/b/4A5eMe

Part of the Whitney and Davies series, but able to be read and enjoyed all on its own without any knowledge of the rest of the books, While Shepherds Watch is a delightfully lighthearted Christmas mystery. A crumbling Yorkshire manor, rumors of a ghost wandering the halls, a young girl with a deep secret, and a cad who needs to be taught a lesson. Only Maia and Len can smooth out these tangles to make a Happy Christmas for all! If you like your Christmas books to be, well, Christmassy, than this is definitely the book for you!

1920s, Books, publishing, writing

Available Now: Death by Disguise, Whitney & Davies Book 3

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Purchase your copy here

“The walls of Saint Dorothea’s College in Cambridge hide more secrets than simply the existence of magic …

Lennox Davies couldn’t be happier when the detective agency of Whitney and Davies receives a summons to investigate a missing secretary at the magical college of Saint Dorothea’s in Cambridge.  He envisions a charming locked room puzzle, to be followed by strolling the streets of the ancient and beautiful university city with his friend and partner in detection Maia Whitney. What could be better?

But delight soon turns to dismay when a man is murdered. Not only that, the missing secretary seems to have vanished into the morning mists off the River Cam. Will Maia and Len be able to catch the killer before the secretary’s dead body turns up as well? Or is it already too late? Before long even the bond between partners is strained as Len and Maia find themselves at odds over their values.

What began as a clever exercise in deduction turns into their most challenging mystery yet, and one that could result in the end of Whitney and Davies … forever.”

Be swept away by the world of Whitney and Davies … England in 1926, with magic lurking just beneath the surface of everyday life, and secrets hidden around every corner. Let your imagination carry you to the university city of Cambridge and unravel the puzzle of the missing secretary alongside Maia and Len. Can you spot the culprit before they do? The only way to find out is by reading!

If you prefer the tactile experience of a paperback book, click here.

If you enjoy the convenience and immediacy of an e-book, click here.

Whichever way you choose to read, you are sure to fall in love with Maia and Len and their world!

(And if you’re interested in discovering more of their world, this page has links to purchase the rest of the books in the series.)