Cover Reveal for Disk of Death by Kim Smith

Disk of Death is almost here!

Hello and welcome to cover reveal day! I am very excited about this reprisal of my Shannon Wallace Mystery series. If you are a fan and have been following along since the early days, let me say thank you. I cannot wait for you to enjoy the ride all over again. It's been updated, re-edited, re-covered, and I think much better. Shannon and I have had a chance to renew our friendship as well, and I must say I am in love with writing her stories all over again.

If you are new to the series, I hope you enjoy this first book and entry point into South Lake, Mississippi - home of the SLPD, South Lake Police Department, and Tillie's Home Cookin'-- It's GOOOOD! Tillie's, Shannon's aunt and her little eatery is renown in north Mississippi. Shannon loves her hometown...well, until she begins this one week... but this is a caper mystery...so get it and find out what happens~!

Okay, just because I cannot wait another minute....

I unveil the cover for you.

Are you ready?

Here it is!

TADA!!!!!

The cover for Disk of Death, the first book in the Shannon Wallace Mysteries.

She's a woman on a mission

Shannon Wallace is having a bad hair week. She's been ditched by her job, dumped by her boyfriend, and implicated in his murder.
When she finds out her very private video collection is missing from the crime scene, it is all out war to find the disks before the cops do. The problem is--the killer has them. And he's watched them. Now Shannon's at the top of his most wanted list!

DISK OF DEATH is now out on pre-order! You can get it before it is even released, by clicking this link http://amzn.com/B01AZLRZFG GET IT NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Merry Christmas from South Lake

It's been a long time since I wrote any new Shannon and Dwayne stories. Get ready my murderers, there are NEW TALES COMING!!!

Merry Christmas from South Lake is just a snippet of a tale that I dreamed up this morning. I hope you will make plans to get the reissue of the first Shannon Wallace Mystery re-titled Deadly Array coming in 2015.

And Merry Christmas to you and yours this holiday season. I hope it is a good one

_________________________________________________


Merry Christmas from South Lake by Kim Smith

"What is that on your head?" I asked. A gust of wind from the front door disturbed papers on the front desk.

"It's a hat, Wall-ass," Dwayne answered, tapping the black monstrosity. It sat on his head like it would fall if he did anything close to a tilt of his neck. "I found it."

"Well, you better take it back to whatever homeless shelter you found it at."

He took it off and brushed at the brim. "It's made of silk, I think. Probably really expensive. I found it just sitting in the middle of the path around the lake at the park. It needed me to pick it up. It kinda called to me."

I shook my head. "And you had to answer? Ugh."

"I get that you don't like it. But I do. It's Christmas, and my head is cold. I need this hat." And he plopped it back onto his head and turned into his office.

I followed him, not really wanting to continue this tirade but curious over his choice of park in the early morning. "What were you doing at South Lake Park so early?"

He shrugged. "Getting some fitness in. You'd do well to do that too, Ms. I-eat-at-buffets."

I sniffed. "I am not getting fat, Dee. I have to jog after you. Let me see that hat."

He handed it to me, and I looked at it closely. It was a stovepipe style, like Abe Lincoln wore. It had the remains of a red feather in the hatband. "Not bad." I handed it back to him. "But don't wear it indoors. It's bad manners."

He snatched it from me and growled. I turned and walked out. My buddy, Dwayne Brown, the hat aficionado. Who woulda thunk it?

We worked at Video Angels, a video production company that had been Dwayne's brainchild. In the last few months we'd kept ourselves alive by shooting plays, but with summer coming, I longed to do a wedding. I booted up my laptop and scoured sites where other people had their webpages filled with wedding images.

Dwayne interrupted my drooling. He stood in my doorway, his silly hat in hand. "Hey, I'm going downtown to get something to eat. You wanna come with?"

My stomach growled. The oatmeal I'd consumed was long gone. "Do I have to sit with you wearing that hat?"

He stuck it on his head and grinned.

I sighed. "Fine. But if anyone calls you Frosty the Snowman, I'm going to laugh."

I pulled on my hooded coat. He wrapped a Christmas red scarf around his neck. If he'd stuck a pipe in his mouth, he really would look like a black version of the jolly snowman.

He held the door open for me as we left. "Ho, ho, ho. Merry Christmas."

I grinned. "That's what I love about you Dee, you say the sweetest things."

Kim Smith: short stories

Just thought I would add my offerings in here for the Christmas shopping season. I have recently added to my repertoire of short stories, and have a new one up at Smashwords. It is sort of an experimental fantasy fiction entitled "Anenome Hanks". I hope you will get it for your stocking, as it is only $1.00.

If you want more of my Shannon and Dwayne mystery/adventures, there will be one up at Red Rose calledThe Christmas Heist. It is a short story as well and I am sure they will price it reasonably.



There at RRP you will find two more of my short stories, The Christmas Kiss, a sweet romance. And under my pen name, Kaycee Conners, there is Christmas Layover. That one is a spicy romance, so just saying if you are not into the love/romance/sensual thing, those are not for you.

I hope you will check out all my books this year, especially if you are a new Murderer here at Mb4. They are on Amazon for Kindle, and that will be a very good place to start shopping with that new Kindle Fire HD you get for a gift.

Didn't think I knew about that, did ya?

The old and the new

*tapping mic* hello? Is this thing on?

Hello, my name is Kim and I am a serial writer.

There, I've said it.

But some folks wanna know how on earth do you write a series and keep it fresh, and keep it going with elements that are familiar and something that readers want to come back to book after book.

Well, here is my take on it.

You have to do simple things like change the season, up the ante on the characters' personal trials, and throw in a little of the mundane. That is how to keep it familiar but different. Also, you have to add in a new "something" that they have to endure and work through to keep it fresh. Murder is ever changing, right? Who's next on your list of victims?

While you keep the cohesive side of the series going you have to keep the quirky in your character, and add zip to the life of the character. But really, adding jeopardy to their life is what really keeps the pages turning.

Now, on to my personal note.

If you are a Shannon Wallace fan, you have a new book to look forward to. I just got the cover art final and wanted to share. Looks like next May will be the target date, but you should definitely go out to Red Rose Publishing and look me up. And while I am tooting my own horn, if you didn't know this, all my books are either in print and ebook form, or will be very soon.
Book three
Hope you will stay with me on this serial journey. I am trying hard to keep it fresh for you.

Murder and Mayhem and .... Thankfulness?

Dear Murder by 4 friends,

Today I am going to talk about the essence of murder and mayhem. These items are the very gut of writing mystery and suspense. But heck, why IS that?

Well, there is nothing more horrible than murder and mayhem, so it makes the most intense reading. I know, in our times of instant movies, news, and everything electronic, it is hard to get a shudder going because we are blasted with murder and mayhem on a regular basis. But nevertheless, it is the essence of what a good mystery/suspense writer should be aiming for.

That shudder, that cold chill, that feeling of horror when someone is killed by no nice means.

How do you know when you are hitting the mark? Here are the descriptive blurbs from three good writers: see if you can figure out what words make you get that "oh yum" feeling of a mystery to be devoured.

electrifying thriller
chilling truth
game of beat the clock
deserted highway
burst of flames
unanswered questions
target
deep-seated fear

Now, the question, my dear writer friends would be : are you writing this? Are your readers seeing electrifying writing? Chilling plots? High stakes? Danger on every page? Or even for the simple mystery, unanswered questions and fear? These are essential!

I hope you have an awesome November. And that brings me to the thankfulness part of this post.

A challenge has been issued. A gauntlet has been thrown down. For the next thirty days, I am going to be compelled to write about what I am thankful for. So get ready. This is a daily challenge, and you will find the results on my Facebook page, so if you haven't friended me there, go do that right now. It's here : Kim Smith, Facebook Page.

In the immortal words of Jim Carrey, alrighty then.

_____________________
Kim Smith, author of the zany Shannon Wallace Mysteries
Get the first two books in the series, Avenging Angel, and Buried Angel, at a 10% discount for a limited time!