I hope everyone had a marvelous Christmas. I spent a quiet holiday weekend with the family, staying warm by our electric fireplace, all of us enjoying many holiday movies. My personal favorite is National Lampoon’s Christman Vacation. With some of the scenes filmed here in Colorado. A movie that never fails to make me laugh. Others we enjoy are Elf, Home Alone, The Santa Clause, and Polar Express. I’d love to hear about your favorite holiday movies to watch.

I made it through all my events and Christmas by the skin of my teeth. I, unfortunately, got COVID right after my November 27th event in Douglas County. The virus knocked me down for about 10 days, so I had to miss the December 3rd Event in Adams County. This was the first time I’d missed an event due to illness. Disappointing, but unavoidable. If you had gone to the event hoping to buy books, I apologize for not being there. And if you couldn’t get to my last two events and are still interested in books, read down further, as I have a few great offers on paperbacks.

With all the events I did, going nearly non-stop since August, I had to order many paperback books so I wouldn’t run short. For those who don’t know, my paperbacks come from Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), which is tied to Amazon. With all those orders, I had a lot of quality issues with books, many of which I had to return to Amazon. Whether it be poor quality of the print, the books getting put together with pages upside down, and even instances where the cut on the pages and covers were crooked. This has been an ongoing issue with KDP. One I’ve tried to get resolved to no avail. Many times the books are shipped in too small a box, with little packing and poor tape to seal the box, the tape breaking during shipment. Many shipping companies when handling boxes will often throw them onto conveyors and into the back of trucks when loading, causing the boxes to be damaged or break open. I had one box of 18 Divine Devils books that was repackaged by someone before it was delivered to my house, the broken pieces of the box inside and the books themselves all damaged. My anger with KDP/Amazon led them to refund me the money on the books and I didn’t have to return them. If you ordered books from Amazon and the quality was poor as I mentioned above, please don’t hesitate to return them and get a refund and/or a replacement. I do check all the books I sell, but occasionally one could slip through with issues. If I sold you a book that had any of the issues I mentioned above, then don’t hesitate to reach out and I’ll get the issue resolved free of charge. I’ve included a couple of pictures below of the issues I’ve experienced.

Because I didn’t need to return the 18 Divine Devils books, Amazon told me to do with them as I pleased. Many of the books are pretty well damaged, with bent pages and covers, and dirt on the ends, ones I certainly don’t want to sell to people. What I decided to do is offer them up for free to anyone who is interested. If you live within the Denver Metro area, I can bring them to you or you can come to me to get the book. If you live outside Denver, I will mail the book out for only the cost of shipping, so long as it’s in the US. The cost runs around $4 to ship the book but varies on where you live. If you’re interested you can email me, and we can work out the details. And yes I will sign the book, and pick out one that is in the best shape, while supplies last.

Unfortunately for me, I ordered more books than I needed for all the events I did. Losing one week hurt me, and the last several events hadn’t been as big as many of my earlier ones. This though is good for you, as I will offer up any of my paperbacks for their normal price and I’ll pay the shipping cost (US Only). This goes for all the books in both the Jarvis Mann and Divine Devils series. Depending on the book, costs run from $5-$15 per book. I will be able to take payment via Paypal or Venmo. All you need to do is email me and we can work out all the details.

Though the later events were slower, I still sold a good number of books, including several who bought an entire series. Here is Tom and his lovely wife (whose name I forgot to get), who bought all 7 of the Jarvis Mann PI books. And there were many more who bought one or the other of my series. Darn it all, I wished I had taken more pictures. If you bought any of my books now or in the past, please send me a photo of you with the books and I’ll be sure to share it.

Many more people signed up for my newsletter this past month. Welcome to all of you. Those who sign-up are offered a free eBook of Tracking A Shadow, the first novel in the Jarvis Mann PI series. If you didn’t see the offer in your inbox, check your spam folder or send me an email and I’ll get the ebook sent out to you right away. And congratulations to two more winners of the $10 Amazon Gift Card, Merlinda and Kristina. Thanks to everyone who stopped by my table at all the events this year. It was a lot of fun meeting and talking with all of you.

I’m close to sending my new book, Lethal Blues off to my editor. And my cover artist Mia will be working on the cover starting this week. Getting the book to the point over the next month where I can start looking at setting a release date, which I know many of you are anxious to learn. While I’m waiting for my editor, I’ll be continuing on the next Divine Devils book, which already has been started. The working title: Divine Retribution. A long road ahead to getting the book done, with my hopes of it being released by end of the year. In the meantime, as promised here is a preview of Chapter 1 of Lethal Blues. This is still a rough draft and not the final version, but will give you a small taste of private eye Jarvis Mann’s return.

With the new year on the horizon, I can take a short breath after doing 23 events. Still, I can’t rest for too long, as I must start planning for 2023. Many events require me to schedule and pay for them 6-9 months in advance. My plans are to search for a few new events to do in hopes of hitting a few different areas in town and even out of state. I already have two scheduled, one a new author event down at the Denver Convention Center, Readers Take Denver. This one runs for 4 days with lots of authors from all over the country coming. More information can be found on their website, including purchasing tickets.

I’ve added a couple more menus under my Fun Stuff page on my website. This includes Wildlife Videos and Family Time. With more photos and videos being added all the time. So stop by and check it out!

This month there are several more Prolific Works free eBook giveaways. Starting with Make your Newsletter Subscribers take off like Santa this Christmas which runs through December 31st with 36 great books you access via this link.

Mystery Reads runs until December 31st with 39 great eBooks you can access via this link.

Hidden Clues – Mystery and Thriller GG runs until January 17th with 23 books you can find via this link.

The Woman in the Library – Thriller & Crime Giveaway runs until February 28th with 8 books to check out via this link.

I will close off the last newsletter of 2022, with a hardy thank you to you all. I love hearing back from readers who enjoy the newsletter and my books. It’s been a great 2022 for me, thanks to all of you. I hope you all have a blessed, prosperous, safe, and peaceful New Year.

R Weir