I arrived home just two days ago from a fantastic vacation – The 70’s Rock & Romance Cruise on Celebrity Cruises! I won’t bore you with the details just yet, but I did manage a little first hand research for Recurring. Above is a shot I took on Grand Cayman, where Elaine and Trevor Masters honeymooned. The island figures significantly in the book (without going into spoilers), so I thought I’d include it. It’s gorgeous, and far removed from the book’s New Jersey setting – but the story also begins on the island, which you learn toward the end of the book. I hope to have the synopsis in the hands of a few agents by next week. Wish me luck, folks.

Now onto my vacation! Oh My God! The music was fantastic! My cousin and I decided to go for it way back last fall when I saw a commercial for the cruise on Antenna TV. We heard The Guess Who, Air Supply, Badfinger, Ambrosia, War, America, Styx, B.J. Thomas, and my favorite – Michael McDonald. Everyone got older, but these bands and singers still rock. I lost my voice after The Guess Who, for which my cousin was eternally grateful. I sang every song along with them – everyone else did, too – but I didn’t sing when Michael McDonald sang and neither did anyone else. We all wanted to hear him, not ourselves, and we weren’t disappointed.

           Michael McDonald                   The Guess Who  

 

I have always been a music fanatic, so this vacation was the perfect fit for me. Even the tribute bands were great.

On Jamaica I swam with Dolphins! Beautiful experience. What gentle, friendly creatures.

I just noticed I don’t have on any makeup in the pictures (a mortal sin for a Jersey Girl), and my hair went way blonde! Have to change that fast! Anyway, it would be great to fit a nice murder mystery within the music industry for an upcoming book! But not with dolphins. No way!

Have a great night all. Peace be the journey.

 

It’s been such a long time since I last posted here. It’s been an amazing few months for me when it comes to writing. Recurring should be all polished and ready to make the agent rounds by early next week, and Lesser Saints is coming along well enough, thanks to the new critique group I’ve joined.

For those unfamiliar with what is accomplished in a critique group, each person brings a work-in-progress and reads it, with other members of the group scrutinizing every single freaking word. Critique groups are not for the faint of heart. You have to steel yourself for criticism and the shame of having others catch all your stupid errors, forgotten words, and downright bad typing and careless editing skills. I am particularly ashamed of skipping words – being notorious for leaving out “a” and “the” in my haste to fill up a page. Yes, we all do it. No, there’s really no excuse for it after you’ve proof-read the thing six times before printing it out for others to see.

The most useful purpose of a critique group is that it forces those who participate to actually write something – not just think about writing something, or making notes, or doing endless research. I love it and am very comfortable with allowing these other people to see my work in progress, at least so far.

That’s where things stand for now. Not much news, I’m sorry to say. But I have this feeling deep in my gut that Recurring will be snatched up soon by some clever publishing house. I also think Lesser Saints will be a sensation – though what kind of sensation, I can’t say. Maybe I’ll be ostracized, or blacklisted, or even excommunicated!

On a brighter note, it’s 78 degrees here in New Jersey! I can practically taste the spring in the air. If you’re in the area, go outside and enjoy it while you can. Tomorrow the temperature drops to the 40s!

Have a great night everybody, and keep reading.

 

Ho-Ho-Ho everyone!

I know it’s been over a month since my last post and I’m truly sorry. I got so caught up in life that I simply forgot! It happens. And it’s been happening more and more. It could be that I no longer write to-do lists and it slipped my mind, or maybe it’s an early onset of something or other, or perhaps I’ve gotten just plain lazy. Regardless, I’m determined to do better to keep everyone informed of my current works in progress.

As of right now, I’m frantically working on Lesser Saints. The novel is timely considering all the news about sexual harassment. If this book gets finished and can hopefully hit the shelves in the next year or so, it might be viewed as a solid, serious piece of literary fiction. Attitudes toward sexual harassment don’t develop overnight, as you will come to understand if this book is lucky enough to see the light of day. The story centers on a horrific incident that takes place in the 1960s, and shapes the lives of four Catholic grammar school girls who carry on in the aftermath of an assault with a shocking secret.

Recurring, unfortunately, is taking a back seat to Lesser Saints at the moment, though this book also can be considered timely in light of the all the illegal drug stories in the news, as well as the mounting drug addiction crisis in the country.

As for Colleen Caruso and the gang, I haven’t heard anything at all from the publisher. Sales of Another Man’s Poison aren’t what I hoped they would be, and I haven’t seen many reviews either. All this means the probable end of the Jersey Girl series. I love Colleen and the Tranquil Harbor crew, but as the old, annoying saying goes – it is what it is. This is a reality for fiction authors. Many of my author friends have expressed the same view regarding their own cozy mysteries. Bummer, ain’t it? But maybe it’s high time for a change. My writing seems to be going in a totally different direction anyway, so . . .

I hope everyone reading this has a beautiful Christmas, a Happy Hanukah, and an amazing New Year. May all your dreams and wishes come true!

Happy Halloween readers and writers! I love Halloween almost as much as I love the fall.

Pictured above is the most vibrant foliage I’ve seen so far this autumn. The trees changing just aren’t as colorful as in past years. They say (whoever THEY are) it’s because of the weather staying warm far longer than is usual.

I’ve finished the virtual book tour of Another Man’s Poison, which was loads of fun and thankfully attracted the attention of a few new fans of the series. Gotta love that! I know Colleen Caruso is grateful for all the attention.

For the past week, I’ve been re-editing the Recurring manuscript in order to find an agent. I kept this book on the back-burner far too long and haven’t given it the attention it deserves. This book is now my No. 1 priority.  I’ll let you know how it goes, but I think this will be the next book published. As for Lesser Saints, this is proving to be a difficult tale to tell and it will command all my attention to make it a great story. My next series now occupies the vacant back-burner. I wish I could write three things at once. Unfortunately, I’m not talented enough to accomplish this feat of magic, so I have to choose.

I’ll leave you with one other photo taken this morning of the sad state of our under-par autumn trees. Hope the colors are better in your area, guys! Have a great week and don’t steal too much of your kids’ trick-or-treat candy!

And remember, keep reading!

I’m posting this as a reminder to check out the various sites and blogs that will feature Another Man’s Poison (as well as a few reviews and author interviews). I believe the first site, Books, Dreams, Life, on October 2nd will be absent due to a medical emergency in the blog mistress’s family. Wishing them all well and a quick return to good health!!

Once again, here’s the schedule:

Tour Participants

October 2 – Books,Dreams,Life – SPOTLIGHT  

October 3 – Valerie’s Musings – INTERVIEW

October 3 – Cassidy’s Bookshelves – SPOTLIGHT

October 4 – The Pulp and Mystery Shelf – INTERVIEW

October 5 – StoreyBook Reviews – GUEST POST

October 6 – 3 Partners in Shopping, Nana, Mommy, &, Sissy, Too! – SPOTLIGHT

October 7 – Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book – SPOTLIGHT

October 8 – A Holland Reads – GUEST POST

October 9 – Mystery Thrillers and Romantic Suspense Reviews – SPOTLIGHT

October 10 – Cozy Up With Kathy – GUEST POST

October 10 – Celticlady’s Reviews – SPOTLIGHT

October 11 – Back Porchervations – REVIEW

October 12 – My Reading Journeys – REVIEW, INTERVIEW

October 13 – Laura’s Interests – SPOTLIGHT

October 14 – Brooke Blogs – SPOTLIGHT

October 15 – A Blue Million Books – CHARACTER INTERVIEW

Thanks everyone and have an amazing, productive week!

 

 

Finally. We’re in print! Another Man’s Poison was available for pre-order on Amazon for about a week, but now it’s a go and so is the print version.

The link for the paperback on Amazon is:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1939403421/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1503711879&sr=1-4&keywords=another+man%27s+poison

For the Kindle version link just click on: Another Man’s Poison

If you prefer, you can preview this and go right to Amazon from using the tabs directly above. If I’m doing something totally illegal, I guess Amazon will sue my sorry butt! They won’t get much. Either way, leave a comment if it does or doesn’t work – I’m not too skilled about linking up these things and I’m no techie either!

Barnes and Noble is only offering the Nook edition as far as I can tell. Here is that link:

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/another-mans-poison-jo-ann-lamon-reccoppa/1127008297?ean=2940158561641

That’s it for now! Thanks for your patience everyone and I hope you enjoy the book!

Colleen Caruso’s Midas Touch, which is A Day in the Life of Colleen Caruso, is up on Dru’s Book Musings today. If you visit the site and leave a comment, you’ll have a chance to win a print copy of Another Man’s Poison. Good luck to all who enter!

Here’s the link:

https://drusbookmusing.com/2017/08/22/colleen-caruso-3/#comment-75029