Proud Papa

          When you give birth to a new book, it's not unusual for the baby to get all the attention. Recently when I was invited by Schuler Books to participate in a local author panel, I was asked to provide the store with 15 copies of my latest book, Full Moon Friday. The third book in the Jordan Daily News Mystery Series, it's about a day when everything goes wrong.
          Full Moon Friday sold well, but we failed to realize that many fans of a mystery series want to start at the beginning. We didn't have enough copies on hand of the first book -- Great News Town -- and quickly sold out.
        Great News Town is the papa of the series, the story that had to be told. It was inspired by a series of murders that happened near Joliet, Il., when I worked for the Joliet Herald-News in 1983. The whole series grows out of recreating a spunky newspaper staff that solves mysteries in the pre-DNA, low-tech world before you could hold the internet in your hand. 
       Although the books don't need to be read in order, Great News Town is the perfect introduction to the fictional Chicago suburb that seems to attract more than its share of big news stories.
       In April, Writers' Digest Magazine gave  Great News Town an honorable mention in its Self-Published Book Awards. Recently Windy City Reviews published  this review. I didn't realize until I read the review, that the reviewer actually grew up in Joliet during the events that inspired the story.
        All my books are available on Kindle, but Great News Town is also available for Nook, Itunes, Kobo, you name it.
        Full Moon Friday garners all the ooos and ahhs of a "cute" newborn, but Great News Town is the proud papa passing out the cigars!