Our trip to Nashville was a lot of fun. Kim and I had a great time, though it was exhausting. I did lots of events starting Thursday, going through Sunday, including sitting on two panels. When possible, we did some sight-seeing, walking up and down Main Street in Franklin Tennessee and then on Sunday visiting the Country Music Hall of Fame in downtown Nashville. And oh my…the humidity! Don’t get me started. It was brutal at around 90 percent and temps in the 90’s. All and all a fabulous time, topped off by the award ceremony on Saturday night, with my book The Divine Devils up for Best Thriller of 2021 against 9 other books.
And low and behold I won the Killer Nashville 2021 Silver Falchion Award for Best Thriller. One of the biggest highlights of my author career. To be recognized as the best book by such a prestigious organization is a great honor. Clay Stafford and his team put on a great event. Kim and I are already thinking about going again next year.
As I mentioned we visited the Country Music Hall of Fame and all great history to see, with lots of cool items donated by many of the greatest Country Artists, young and old. Below are a couple of pictures and you can see more on our visit to Nashville on my website via the following link.
Before I left for Nashville, I got a new tattoo. One I’ve been planning to get for a while now. It was my Divine Devils logo, added to my right bicep, the design turning out great. And it was the hit of Killer Nashville, with many people commenting on it, with other authors liking the idea of getting a tattoo related to their books for marketing reasons. I even mentioned it when giving my speech after getting my award. Wondering if I needed to get a tattoo before each award ceremony going forward to guarantee a win!
One more award for The Divine Devils. It was named a Finalist by Readers Favorite in the Suspense Category, ranking as one of the top 5 Suspense books of 2021. A great honor from another prestigious book organization.
As reward, I got myself a new Sit-to-Stand desk. My previous unit sat on top of another desk, and I wanted an all-in-one unit. My daughter found one for herself, and it works great. So I went and bought the same one. I generally always stand when writing, but this unit easily moves up and down and holds my dual monitors with no issue. For those of you working at home, or authors writing that next great novel, this type of setup is great to have and gets you off your feet. For we all sit too much these days.
I have some discouraging news on the next book in the Divine Devils series, Fallen Star. Unfortunately, my editor, whom I’ve used for several books, quit responding to me about the work she did, only editing half of the book. Which means I had to find a new editor and start all over. My new editor is a fellow author and friend, who says she can be done in 5 weeks. This means the book now will be delayed until the end of the year. I’m hoping to get it finalized and out before Xmas, barring any other problems I encounter. I don’t want to rush out an uncompleted book and want to make sure it’s the best it can be. In the meantime you can check out Chapters One and Two of Fallen Star on my website. I will be doing a reveal eventually on the book cover, though this will be delayed a little longer as well. Hopefully I’ll have news on this in October.
I have three weeks straight of events coming up. The first is the GoodGuys Car Show in Loveland Colorado. They have a Vendor Fair which is being held for three days, September 10th, 11th and 12th. There will be lots of slick cars to check out and vendors including myself selling their wares. I purchased a cool 1/18th model of a 1969 Mustang 302 Boss painted yellow with black stripes. This is the exact car my private eye Jarvis Mann drives. I will have it at my table for everyone to check out. Hopefully to draw potential readers to my snarky tough private eye book series.
Two other events will be Broomfield Days on September 18th. This will be an outdoor event at Midway Park in Broomfield so we’re hoping for great weather. And then September 25th and 26th I’ll be at the Eastridge Recreation Center in Highlands Ranch for their Fall Craft Fair, which will be indoors. I expect large crowds at all these events and I’m looking forward to chatting with those who stop by my table.
Last month I talked about all the different scams out there, and I ran into one relating to a Vendor Show. The person claiming to be holding an Oktoberfest event at the Adam’s County Fairgrounds. Since I hadn’t heard of it, I did some research and found no such event listed anywhere on the web. The person running it doing their best to convince me to fork over money, which I didn’t fall for. Which goes to show you always be cautious about anything these days. There are plenty of people providing good services for a fair price, but many others looking to rip people off of their hard-earned money.
Only one Prolific Works eBook giveaway this month. Dangerous Waters – Mystery and Thriller GG has 57 free eBooks to check out via this link. Time is short as it runs only through September 7th.
That will wrap up another newsletter. If you haven’t already be sure to check out all my books. There are the boxsets for the Jarvis Mann PI Series, Vol. One and Two available on Amazon at a bargain price. And the award-winning book, The Divine Devils, available on Amazon. If you’d like a signed copy of any of my paperbacks and you can’t make it to any of my events, send me an email. We’ll work out the cost and I’ll mail it to your right away.
Stay Safe, Happy and Healthy!!
R Weir