Your blog category
I’ve had a lovely new review for Acting Like A Killer. If you’d like to see if you agree with Bookworm and live in the UK, you can get either the paperback or ebook for £2.53. That unusual price has been set by Amazon – no doubt they have their reasons. Sorry, I don’t know how long it will stay like that (they did it for a few days last wek, then out the paperback back to the usual £10 before dropping it again) and I don’t know if a similar discount has been applied in other countries.
Today is launch day for the first novel in my Little Mallow cosy mystery series! It’s currently at the introductory price of £1.99 / $2.99 (usual price of my novels is £2.99 / $3.99).
Two murders, a whole party of suspects wearing disguises, hundreds of questions, and a seaside village full of cake. Community spirit is strong in Little Mallow and everyone seems to be involved – either as one of many witnesses and suspects, an extremely unofficial sidekick, or a supplier of far-fetched theories. But there’s only one Student Police Officer Crystal Clere to make sense of it all.
It doesn’t help that Crystal is the only person who thinks the crimes are linked, all the main suspects have alibis and Crystal isn’t excused cake baking duties. She’s being asked questions by everyone from precocious schoolboy Adam to Arnold the enigmatic verger, and nobody is giving her answers. Then there’s Crystal’s crush on the DI, a sergeant‘s crush on her and unfinished business with her former neighbour. Oh, and great Aunt Agnes’s hip and friend Ellie’s romantic problems.
Can Crystal bring love and justice to Little Mallow?
Here are the first two reviews –
“Loved this book. A vey enjoyable cosy mystery. Well written as all Patsy’s novels are. Kept me guessing right until the murderer was revealed. I look forward to the next in the series.”
“Disguised Murder and Community Spirit in Little Mallow introduces an interesting and likeable cast of characters in a quintessential village setting. Student Police Officer and budding detective, Crystal Clere, is keen as mustard to solve two recent murders – and, despite plenty of false clues and the challenage of having to deal with witnesses wearing party disguises, she is determined to prove herself up to the task.
This was an enjoyable and amusing cosy crime, with plenty of twists to keep you guessing. I’m looking forward to reading more in the Little Mallow series.”
Available as a paperback, ebook, or through kindle unlimited here. The paperback can also be ordered through your local bookshop, or requested from the library.
Here’s what the local paper has to say about it.
When I was learning to swim in the sea at the start of last year my coach who calls herself The Sunny* Mermaid kept telling me to ‘just try’. I did my best to follow that advice, and I can now swim. Not brilliantly, but those few lessons were a big help to my ability and confidence.
Being me, I then wrote a story, very loosely, based on the experience. (If you’re thinking of taking lessons with Deb, I promise that she only has my character’s good points, and is most definitely not intimidating.) That story is in the current (1st January) issue of Take A Break’s Fiction Feast.
Coincidentally I saw her walking her dog this morning. I didn’t know then that the story was published, or I’d have told her.
We can’t achieve everything we’d like to do just by trying, but there’s not a lot that’s worth doing which doesn’t require a bit of time or effort, or both. If there’s anything you’d like to do, whether it’s swimming, having a story published in a magazine or something else entirely my advice is to give it a go!
*It may have been sunny on a couple of the lessons, but being April it was also VERY cold!
I’d never heard of the word until my friend Anne Rainbow sent me the definition, saying she thought I might like it for this blog. She was right!
As futurity means ‘time to come’ the start of a new year seems the perfect moment to mention it.
There’s also a plural form of the word – futurities – which refers to future events or prospects.
I do hope that 2024 holds many wonderful futurities for us all. With luck, some of mine will involve travelling to interesting historical sights.
I read and enjoyed these books in December. I particularly recommend The Twyford Code. Don’t let the way it’s presented put you off – it’s very clever, original, engaging and kind of uplifting.
The Twyford Code by Janice Hallett
Telling Tales by Ann Cleeves
After The Funeral by Agatha Christie
My new book, the first in the Little Mallow cosy mystery series has been written, re-written, edited, formatted, proofread and uploaded to to Amazon and Ingram Spark (who distribute to bookshops and libraries). The official launch date is January 19th (it was my Grandma’s birthday, and she loved reading cosy crime stories) but very soon it should be possible to place orders.
If you’d like to read it before that, for free, you could join my ARC team. For that you need a kindle, or other way to read the ebook file and an Amazon account which allows you to leave reviews – and to commit to reading the (80,000 word) book and leaving an honest review on the launch date (19th January). If you’re interested, please email me at patsy@patsycolins.uk
Next year I’ll be releasing the first book in my cosy mystery series – Disguised Murder And Community Spirit In Little Mallow. Today, I’m revealing the cover!
As part of the marketing plan I’m trying to build up my newsletter mailing list. To help do that I’m taking part in a joint promotion with other authors of mystery, thriller and suspense books. Around 70 of us are offering a free book (some samples. some full novels) to those who join our lists. If you’re interested in reading that genre, take a look here and pick up some freebies. You can take part whether or not you’re on my mailing list and can sign up for as many, or few, as you wish – and of course you can unsubscribe from any of them at any time.
Campervanners often have to rummage. It can mean to search untidily and unsystematically. It doesn’t matter how tidily and systematically you pack your van, that kind of approach never works when it comes to finding the corkscrew and chocolate.
A rummage can be a confused miscellaneous collection. A rummager is someone who rummages. Once you’ve finished rummaging you will have rummaged for long enough.
To rummage out is to find amongst other things. To rummage about is to disarrange. (That’s another good word)
Rummage also refers to the arrangement of casks in the hold of a ship. That definitely needs to be done tidily and systematically or the ship will become unstable. Also it’ll mean the sailors have to rummage about to find their rum.
My story Stop Thief, which is in the current issue of Take a Break’s Fiction Feast is based on a true story. At least, it’s based on a true story to the extent that many historical films and TV programmes seem to be – extremely loosely!
I once worked somewhere which had security on the entrance/exit. One day a random* search revealed a member of staff had stolen some toilet rolls. It wasn’t even good stuff, but that awful tracing paper type stuff. They got the sack.
This was thirty years. Nothing I’ve ever witnessed is safe from being turned into a story!
Naturally I’m pleased the story has been published. Fortunately one of the illustrations provides a suggestion of how to celebrate.
*We were told it was random, but I’m not sure. Almost every random search seemed to reveal someone was up to no good, so I expect there were a few tip offs.
A crag is a steep or rugged rock. Craggy can refer to a human face or the landscape and means rugged or rough textured. There are other versions of the word, for example in Scotland* the scenery got craggier as we approached the highlands, it was craggiest on Skye where the landscape is craggily magnificent.
Btw the pictures are all to illustrate craggy landscapes. It’s purely coincidental that the same photographer just happens to be in all of them not long after remarking on the size of my bum.
*yes I have been to Scotland. I have some pictures if you’d like to see them …
