Good day to everyone. My big news is Murder by a Hundred Cuts is in my editor’s hands. Tina already telling me, “Wow she loved it!” She says she’ll have the edits to me by the end of next week and when I get it, I’ll need to go through all the changes and tighten up the story. Once that is done, it’s back to Tina for one final read-through. When I get to that point, I will set a release date. Right now I’m thinking it will fall sometime in May. My graphic artist is working on three concepts for the cover for me to decide on. I will have a sneak peek of the cover in the next couple of months.

While I’m waiting for the edit on the new book, I started the first story in my new series I’ve been teasing about over the last couple of months. I currently have 9 chapters written, which I’ve had Alpha Readers scrutinizing over with positive feedback provided. I plan on submitting the beginning of this new book for the prestigious Claymore Award which is given for the best first 50 pages of an unpublished manuscript in several categories. I submitted the first 50 pages of The Divine Devils a few years back. It wasn’t nominated for the Claymore, but did win a year later The Silver Falchion Award for Best Thriller. Maybe I can recreate the magic!

There has been a lot of talk about AI (Artificial Intelligence) in the book industry. Especially when it comes to writing books. Authors who are using software to create their stories instead of their own imagination. When setting up a new book on Amazon to sell, there is a box you must check if you use AI in any manner to create your book. I can guarantee you, I will never use AI for any aspect of creating any of my works. If I can’t do it myself, I will stop writing. To me, that is cheating. All authors have their own voice and style when they write. AI would only be the voice of the software and the programmer who created it. When doing my work, I only use real humans to provide feedback, whether it be Alpha/Beta Readers or my editor. The only aspect I might use AI for would be the marketing of my books. A writer who doesn’t create the works themselves can’t be branded as an author in my eyes.

Don’t forget if you love audiobooks, I have three available, with a fourth coming later this year. The Case of the Missing Bubble Gum Card, Tracking A Shadow and The Divine Devils. Here is another wonderful review posted for The Divine Devils audiobook.

The Divine Devils kept me completely off my game as far as being able to predict what was around the corner and this was refreshing. One thing I will say, if you are one of those listeners/readers that looks to find fault in the tactical accuracy you will, but I’m not sure what a book like this is written for. Also the character development is much more engaging because even those characters that are just spotlighted have enough build up to want to see them more. Excited to read the next book in this series – Jarvis

With the coming release of the next book in the Jarvis Mann PI Series, if you haven’t read all the previous books, now is a good time to add them to your reading list. There are currently 9 books total in the series, all available in eBook, Paperback, and on Kindle Unlimited. The first 8 books in the series are also available in two Jarvis Mann Boxsets at a great price. If you like paperbacks and want a signed copy, you can order them directly on my website. Just submit the form and I’ll have them shipped out the next business day.

And there are 4 books in the Divine Devils Series. They are also available in eBook, Paperback, and on Kindle Unlimited. And you can get signed paperbacks of this series through my website.

I was at Broomfield High School this past weekend. I talked to a lot of people and sold a few books. From the pictures you can see The Front Range Butcher was quite popular. Thanks to everyone who stopped by to chat about books.

I just added this event to my schedule for March. I hope to see a lot of new faces at this senior assisted living facility.

I hope everyone has been checking out the fellow authors I’ve been featuring each month. A lot of new books to explore. This month Bruce W. Most is the featured author. Bruce lives in Denver, Colorado, and was raised in Iowa, just like I was. While Bruce doesn’t write a series, his mysteries share one thing in common: each is what he likes to call classic whodunits, where the reader gets a fair crack at figuring out the killer before his sleuth does. His first published mystery, Bonded for Murder, featuring a woman bail bond agent, was nominated for a Colorado Book Award. Rope Burn (cattle rustling and murder in modern-day Wyoming) and Murder on the Tracks (1949 Denver) won Colorado Authors’ League awards for best genre novels. CAL awarded him a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2022. His crime short stories have been published in Mystery Magazine. His latest whodunit is No Time for Murder.

For a free ebook of his crime novella, Harrington’s Game (A PI is hired to solve the perfect crime . . . by the man who committed it), go to this link. You can check out his books at his website via this link.

This month there are two Prolific Works free eBook giveaways to check out. The first is Gone Missing – Mystery and Thriller G.G. with 27 free eBooks you can download via this link until March 15th.

Check out Mysteries Your Mother Never Told… with 54 free eBooks via this link until December 31st.

Please give a listen to these two recent podcasts. My Interview with Phillip Polite, which I hosted. The other I was a guest, Meet The Author with hosts Rob and Joan. And speaking of podcasts, I’m going to try my hand at hosting my own podcast, probably once or twice a month. I’m still working out the details, but I hope to have the first one recorded in the next couple of weeks. I have a working title of Bringing Life to Characters with R Weir. Users will be able to watch live on YouTube and Facebook, and there will be recorded versions to watch on YouTube and on my website. It will be interesting to see how it goes, but I’m looking forward to the challenge.

Time to return to my new book series and get more writing done, with the editing of Murder by a Hundred Cuts waiting in the wings. Thanks to everyone for reading and sharing this newsletter. If you have any questions don’t hesitate to send me an email.

All the best!!

R Weir