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Book Spotlight: A Stone's Throw by Debbie De Louise


A Stone’s Throw: the first book in the Cobble Cove mystery series

Welcome to book one of the Cobble Cove cozy mystery series. In this book, you will meet widowed librarian, Alicia, and follow her through the mystery that brings her to Cobble Cove and her meeting with John McKinney, the small town newspaper publisher with whom she becomes romantically involved before realizing that he may play a part in the death of her first husband. This book is a second edition that includes a new chapter and cover.

A Stone’s Throw releases March 8, 2017

By Solstice Publishing

Universal Purchase Link: myBook.to/Stonesthrow2

Blurb

Widowed librarian Alicia Fairmont needs answers …

After her husband is killed in a hit and run accident, Alicia travels upstate to his hometown of Cobble Cove, New York, hoping to locate his estranged family and shed light on his mysterious past. Anticipating staying only a weekend, her visit is extended when she accepts a job at the town’s library.

Secrets stretch decades into the past…

Assisted by handsome newspaper publisher and aspiring novelist, John McKinney, Alicia discovers a connection between her absent in-laws and a secret John’s father has kept for over sixty years. But her investigation is interrupted when she receives word her house has burned and arson is suspected, sending her rushing back to Long Island, accompanied by John.

Back in Cobble Cove, cryptic clues are uncovered …

When Alicia returns, she finds a strange diary, confiscated letters, and a digital audio device containing a recording made the day her husband was killed. Anonymous notes warn Alicia to leave town, but she can’t turn her back on the mystery—or her attraction to John. As the pieces begin to fall into place, evidence points to John’s involvement in her husband’s accident. The past and present threaten to collide, and Alicia confronts her fears…

Has she fallen in love with her husband’s killer?

About the Author:

Debbie De Louise is an award-winning author and a reference librarian at a public library on Long Island. She is a member of Sisters-in-Crime, International Thriller Writers, and the Cat Writer’s Association. She has a BA in English and an MLS in Library Science from Long Island University. Her three published novels include Cloudy Rainbow, A Stone's Throw, and Between a Rock and a Hard Place (Solstice Publishing, 2016) that has been on the Amazon bestseller list for cozy mysteries. Her romantic comedy novella, When Jack Trumps Ace, was published in February 2017. Debbie has also written articles and short stories for several anthologies of various genres. Her third Cobble Cove mystery, Written in Stone, will be published in Spring 2017. She lives on Long Island with her husband, daughter, and two cats.

Social Media Links:

Website/Blog/Newsletter Sign-Up: https://debbiedelouise.com

Cobble Cove Facebook Chat Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/748912598599469/

Sneaky the Library Cat’s Blog: https://sneakylibrarycat.wordpress.com

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Guest Blogger: Leah Hamrick


The final guest blogger for this week is Leak. Take over girl.

Hello, everyone! My name is Leah Hamrick, and I’m the author of Frost on my Pillow, numerous short stories of all genres...amongst other unpublished novels that I have yet to grace the world with. (He-he)

I live in Michigan with my husband, daughter, and plethora or turtles, fish, and a spoiled tree frog named Sticky.

I decided to start writing one day because I was bored… yes, I had nothing better to do than sit at the computer all day and tyw off of this nonsense that was spilling out of my little mind.

Well, I’m going to tell you about my novel, Frost on my Pillow, book one of the Fire Bringer series.

The story is about a girl named Lyla Hall, who lives an abusive life in her home, the Summer Solstice. Everyone in her little town is blessed with the ability to use Fire.

After she gets beat for the last time by her stupid step-dad, she makes a run for it, leaving her home, the only place she has ever known, behind.

She then finds herself in the real world, Toledo Ohio.

A young man named Rylan finds her, and takes her into his home for her safety.

When she starts school, she finds a book about her kind in her new school’s library, and she steals it. When she finally gets around to reading it, she discovers that her necklace holds the power to end the world if fallen into the wrong hands.

When she meets Ethan Killman, an Ice Bringer, things are going to change… forever.

Demons start harassing them, and they will stop at nothing to get the necklace and the power it holds.

When secrets from the ones she loves comes out, nothing will ever be the same again.

I know that is a bad description, but me trying to explain something? Yeah, right. You’d get a better explanation from a dog watching you throw away that cheese wrapper… I mean, I am so bad at descriptions that it’s a struggle for me to even get a blurb put together that even tells the reader half of what they will be reading…

Okay, I’ve taken up enough of your time… maybe you will join Lyla and Ethan in their adventures…?

Thank you♥

....

Leah, I think you did a wonderful job describing your book. Until next time, Folks. -K.A.

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How to Create a Teaser Image for FREE

Updated: May 5, 2020

As a newbie author I would love to shell out money to have my own marketing team. It would be a nice dream. Millions of people becoming hooked and buying my book. My novel being made into a movie or TV show. Not only can't I afford a marketing team, but it isn't realistic to have one just for me.

I decided to show you how I created my own teaser images for free instead. This won't be step by step. You can search google to find instructions on some of the things I talk about.

The first thing you need to decide is what do you want the teaser to say.

I recommend either a quote or a line from your book or a few lines from your book. You can also tell us what your book is about. I'm going to build my own right here for you to see. Mine will be a line from my book:

I turned on the lights to my dorm room. My whole world shattered. Karen Bakke’s bed was stripped clean. I threw open her closet doors and checked her dresser, but everything she owned was gone. (Superior Species Book 2: Finding Karen)

Now that I've decided my line, I need to be able to edit an image.

I recommend getting GIMP 2. It's a free photo editing software. It reminds me a lot of Adobe Photoshop. You can also search online for other free photo editing software or you can use paint. My computers has Windows so I'm not sure what will work for Apple.

Finding an image.

There are plenty of website with images out there for you to use and pay for. I've found a few websites which give use for free under complete Creative Commons CC0 license. You can do almost whatever you want with them. You can read about it more here. If you know anymore, drop me an email, and I'll add to this tutorial.

https://www.pexels.com/ - each picture will say if it is part of the CC0

https://pixabay.com/ - each picture will say if it is part of the CC0 (This one you have to join.)

https://www.ukwebhostreview.com/free-stock-photo-sites - a website that has several places to go for free pictures and rates them. Check it out!

You don't necessarily need an image. You can use your book cover and paste it into a background. Play with the background behind the cover.

I searched for three images which might fit. Simple as that. Do the same for your teaser. Don't use naked images.

I think everyone can guess two of the words I used. World and Bed. I found a picture of Earth which I liked. I didn't use bed because that is more for romance.

Making your teaser.

You need to decide what size to use. Mine are 800 pixels by 800 pixels. You can also do a rectangle image. I wouldn't recommend anything with strange shapes.

Depending on what image you decide will depend on how the text is written. Mine has a lot of black in it so I can either lighten the image or add an accent. I did the later. To lighten it "opacity", you click on the image and change the percentage. I recommend you do this after you have your words written. You need to be able to read the words.

Play around with the photo editor until you figure out what you like. Create layers so you use them later for other teasers. You want to make sure your can read everything and it doesn't hurt your eyes.

This is mine:

The one thing bad about GIMP is you can't save the images as a jpg. I recommend copying an image with the name you want. Export the final image and save over it.

Have fun with it, and don't over think anything. If your books aren't selling make more teasers. I usually do four teasers and a few before the book comes out.

After the book is out I throw in the amazon logo for sales.

-K.A.

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