Book on Sale at Amazon Today!

January 25, 2020

Prime members, get Sunny Side-Up today for only $3.17!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Need a hauntingly good read?

Get your eBook or paperback today and have a Happy Halloween!

BOOK 1

BOOK 2

BOOK 3

Over Easy?

Just finished the first draft of Over Easy, book 4 in the Susan Cramer Mystery series!

What that means for you?

It's time for you to pick up books 1, 2 and 3!

Book 4 will be out in the Spring of 2017, and there's not a moment to lose!

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Editing in the Works

Oh, that blissful chore that needs to be done before the beta readers take over!

Yes, I am in full swing of editing my third mystery, "Hard Boiled." And yes, it should be out in the spring. And yes, I go to bed, my eyes just a bit more sore than usual.

But it's all worth it!

I don't have a cover yet, but that's also in the works. Expect something with a black background. The eggs will probably be sitting on a black plate; one of them will be cracked. You know how it goes.

Anyway, expect to be reading the third installment of the Susan Cramer Mystery Series soon!

BOOK 1

BOOK 2

BOOK 3?

(COVER IS COMING!)

HALLOWEEN IS SNEAKIN' UP

What will you choose to read this Halloween?

After the trick-or-treating there will be lulls I'm sure, and if you haven't planned on watching a scary movie, why not try a mystery book?

Here's my latest book trailer. Enjoy!

Kathryn

FRIDAY FLICKS: Up for a Mystery?

Yesterday, I announced that I will be at the Relay for Life - American Cancer Society event today at 6 p.m., and I announced that some of my books will be at a discount.

Here they are:

Both of my mysteries typically run for $12.98 online, but at tomorrow's event they will be $10, saving you almost $3 a book!

Please join me!

Hard Boiled: Working on my third mystery

Amazingly, in-between all of the fun I'm having with my grandchildren this summer, I've had some time to work on my mystery. Yes, even during the screams and running around and out-and-out crazy fun that only grandchildren can bring.

In Hard Boiled, which will be released in September of 2016, expect Susan to get involved in yet another strange mystery. I won't share the details here - especially because some of you may be reading books one and two - but suffice it to say that Susan has returned from her Hawaiian cruise only to find one of her family members dead.

The police say it was suicide, but Susan knows better. Why? Because she knows this particular family member better.

Book 1

Book 2

HAPPY SUMMER READING!!

Kathryn

FRIDAY FLICKS: Scrambled and Sunny Side-Up

I will be at Eagle Mountain tomorrow for a book signing. Other vendors selling beauty products, jewelry and more!

Come and see me!

DATE: May 23

TIME: 9 a.m. - 3 p.m.

PLACE: 3535 Ranches Parkway in Eagle Mountain. Find us right in front of Great Clips!

Watch these trailers!

FRIDAY FLICKS: A sampling of a few of my own...

I'm at the Simple Treasures Gift Show today and tomorrow. Show closes tomorrow at 6 p.m. I would love to see you if you can make it out!

In the meantime, enjoy these!

FRIDAY FLICKS: Sunny Side-Up by Kathryn Elizabeth Jones

Just in case you haven't seen this one yet! :)

FRIDAY FLICKS: Sunny Side-Up by Yours Truly

Yes, today I'm sharing one of my favorite book trailers; one that most folks also consider their favorite. If you have a book trailer to share, please let me know! I will post it here in one of the next coming Friday's!

Free Exposure!

Get it at Amazon!

BOOK SIGNING LAST DAY! Boutique!

Yes, I'm scheduled for another book signing!

If you missed it yesterday, there's still TODAY! 

This one will be at the Kearns Senior Center, 4851 West 4715 South from 9 a.m to 4 p.m. on Thursday, December 4 and Friday, December 5.

There will also be some terrific booths selling handcrafted boutique items.

BOOK 2

BOOK 1

Book 1

Book 2
NEWLY RELEASED!

FOR AUTHORS

GREAT SHOW!

If you missed the Simple Treasures Gift Show this year you really missed out!

I did some selling (sold out completely of my mystery novels) did some trading (it's a great thing to do when you're a vendor) and pretty much wore myself out! But I met some great people, and shared some great things (you never know when you'll be discussing something OTHER than books) :)

First Book in the series

Second Book in the series

If you didn't get the chance to visit the gift show, my books are still available online!

Have a great day!

Kathryn

LAST DAY of the Simple Treasures Show!

Just a quick note about the Simple Treasures Gift Show!


https://www.facebook.com/simpletreasuresboutique

My biggest seller?

I have only one copy left of "Scrambled," book 1 in the Susan Cramer Mystery Series, and only 8 copies left of book 2, "Sunny Side- Up." 

Nancy Peterson, the narrator of Conquering Your Goliaths and The Feast will be here today, so stop on by for one of my inspirational reads. 

Rested up and ready for a new day!

Kathryn

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

SCRAMBLED

By

Kathryn Jones

Eating Out

Six months later a thought occurred to her that the fat man had been the catalyst; her last straw, her wake up call. 

             “Are you open?” the man had asked.  His voice had been deep and yawning like 

the Grand Canyon. 

“Of course.”  She looked up.  The man was fat—even more endowed than her own husband who’d gained a mere seventy pounds since their wedding day 20 years ago.  Fat oozed like soft butter from his great waistline.  His black and white checkered shirt, though buttoned, gaped to his belly, revealing a matted mass of hair.  She tried not to stare at it.  The word “pig,” came to mind.

            “Did you find everything all right?” she asked.

            “Just ring me up,” he growled, scratching his unshaven face.  “I have an appointment.”

            If someone had said, ‘Make a wish, Susan,” she would have wished for freedom in that moment—freedom from the customer, and all those to follow; freedom from her horrible job and marriage, freedom from unavailable friends and broken down cars.  She would work a bit somewhere else, and then travel to some exotic location.  Perhaps Paris or Hawaii…

            “Miss!”

            Susan felt the crisp dollar bill in her hand.  “Sorry, sir,” she said, handing the disgruntled customer his change.  She watched his back-end leave the store.  Blubber, bump.  Blubber, bump.  Blubber, bump…

            It was the fat man who had finally given her the courage to take care of herself for the first time.  Perhaps it was not a conscious choice, but it was definitely a choice.  She left work that day never to return, got on a bus, leaving her rotten car in the parking lot—her fat husband wondering where she’d gone.  She hadn’t looked back. 

            Occasionally, like today, when the hotel lights burned deeply into her skull, and her eyes felt heavy from the tasks of serving, she would remember.  The terrible times when she tried to get pregnant.  His anger about her job, or the way she folded his underwear. She would think about the way he spoke to her; hardly, and then, harshly, as if the words he had meant to say to her long ago needed to come out now in one heated rush.

Also, the short moments of tenderness—her broken-down heap of a car that had still managed to get her to work, the doughnuts and candy bars that always made it into the kitchen cupboards and then quite naturally were fed by him into her open mouth—because he always shared what he bought for himself.  All those moments that made her life one with him. And now she was left with an aloneness she couldn’t begin to understand.

            “Jenny?”  The pounding on Susan’s front door made her blink.  She would never get used to her new name even if she lived to be a hundred years old.  She stood, walked to the solid piece of wood called her door, and peered wearily out the keyhole even though she didn’t need to.

            “What is it this time, John?”  Tonight, John seemed to be wearing some sort of pullover sweater and blue jeans.  His short, red hair was combed down the middle, and splayed to either side like the opening entrails of a fish.  She might have laughed if she hadn’t cared for him.  He was the dorkiest man she’d ever met, albeit the nicest.

            “Cup of sugar?”  She could see the white cup held eagerly in his left hand.  He pushed it forward to the keyhole.

            “I’m tired tonight.”

            She removed her eye from the keyhole, wondering if he blushed.  He always turned red whenever she spoke of anything having to do with sleep, or darkness, or her new down comforter.  She wasn’t sure why unless certain words created in him a desire for something he would never get from her. Was it her imagination, or could she feel him going red beyond the door?  And he was probably grinning too, now that he’d managed to breathe a little more evenly.

            “Come on Jenny.”

“Oh, all right.” 

The dead bolt cracked heavily, the double set of chains flicked to the sides of the heavy door, and she turned the knob of her upstairs room.  The Hotel Camaro, once a manor in Walnut Hill, had plenty of solid wood even where it didn’t seem needed—above her bed, on one of the walls in the living room, even above her head on the carved cornices seen throughout the building.  Everything reeked of oldness and renovation—though change would probably not happen in her lifetime—if ever.   The owner, Carter Childs, held his money like a tight fisted kid with his only penny; except Carter had many pennies though he told everyone otherwise.  The tramps who lived at the hotel were a continuous reflection of the future of the hotel and its’ lower than life standards.

John smiled.  His slightly yellow teeth reminded Susan of the eggs she had boiling on the stove. 

“You don’t mind getting the sugar yourself?”

“No problem.  But are you sure you want eggs?”  She could hear his large feet clunking to the pantry as she stirred the boiling eggs with a spoon.

Yes, the egg bomb incident.  How could she forget?  What had she been doing?  Oh, yes.  Carter wanted to see her, an overflowing toilet in room 10, he’d said—John’s room.  And she’d left the boiling eggs on the stove.  When the eggs exploded an hour later she was finishing with the water overflow mishap and had just re-entered the hallway.  Carter was beyond angry when he heard.  Her hotel room smelled like rotten eggs for days and she’d spent weeks walking outside and breathing in the musty city of Southern Philadelphia before permanently returning to her room.

“You do look tired.”

John had the sugar in his white bowl, but like always, he was not returning to the door.  “What can I do?”

“I just need some sleep.”

John blushed.  “Okay,” he said, looking for a place to sit on the old brown couch—her only couch in the very sparse room.

“You’d better go.”

“Maybe I can help.”

“You promised.”

John rolled his large blue eyes.  “I know,” he said, “but you need someone.” 

It had taken Susan six long months to trust John with a few facts about her life; others she had made up to cover her identity.  Her real name was one of them.  That she’d never been married was another—a sure fire mistake she would later see more clearly.  Perhaps John would have been less interested in her if he knew she had simply run away from her husband.  She wondered what he would think of her if he knew of her shallow thoughts of him that had created this mess in the first place.  She wondered if he’d understand that all of her thoughts weren’t shallow, that there was something else she never spoke of with anyone, the surest reason for her departure.  Was he searching for her?  Would she turn on the television one day only to discover her face on the small screen?  Or would he be grateful?  Was he pleased that she had left him?  Would he want to find her simply to file the divorce papers?  She wondered how long it had taken before he’d discovered she was missing.  She was glad they had no children, but only for this reason; no family that would be missing her.

Except her mother of course; her father was dead, and her sister in Virginia.  Kate would have a fit, perhaps even look for her for awhile, and then she’d get caught up once more in the corporate life and forget all about her.  Just like when they were kids and the doll collection was replaced by fake dollar bills and glittering coins purchased as a set from the grocery store.  Kate would later become a teller, and then she would work her way up the company from Payroll Manager to Director of Human Resources.  In addition to bossing all the bossing people around, she would get her degree in management, leaving Susan behind to take on the menial jobs.

Susan would never attend college, would marry the first man who even took a look at her—her husband, Bob, and they would try to have children—without success of course.  In the end, they would sit together, watch T.V. and he would eat and feed her what he’d bought.

Nothing stuck on her bones.  But with him, it was almost like, by getting fat, he was getting pregnant instead of her.  At first she’d joked about it.  And then the joking made him watch television alone in the basement, sneak food at odd hours, and make excuses for his sorry life.

Susan turned to look at John.  He had been silent for an unreasonable amount of time.  “Sorry,” she started and then realized he was gone.... -Book one of the Susan Cramer Mystery Series

  

"Susan Cramer was desperately in need of a vacation, but not at the expense of another dead man."

            A leisurely vacation turns deadly when an old man falls dead at Susan's feet on the cruise ship Aloha.

            Was she some sort of death magnet?

           

            Maybe so. Maybe not.

            One thing was for sure. Through the lies, secrets, and surprises to be discovered on board and off, Susan will learn at least one important thing, and this thing called "love" will be something she wished had never followed her out to the high seas.

-Book Two of the Susan Cramer Series

BOOK SIGNING TODAY!!

I'm preparing for my book signing today. That means loads of work, but a lot of fun when the time comes!

If you'd like to stop on by, let me know by answering this post, and I'll send you the details!

Can't make it?

Get the book here!

CHARACTER BLOG HOP!

Time for another blog hop, and this one comes with a twist!

If you've read any of my character interviews, expect a bit more fun today. Here goes:

I was tagged by Sharon F. Svitak.

From Sharon:

I love romance novels. I have read hundreds, possibly thousands. Now I have decided to tell the story of two characters who have been haunting my dreams forever.

Her site is here: http://www.sharonburgess.com/blog.html

And now, prepare yourself to meet a wannabe and sometimes not wannabe sleuth:

What is your name? Are you fictional/historical?

My name is Susan Cramer. I'm fictional, but I don't feel like I am. I mean, guys drop at my feet all of the time, but not in a good way if you consider some dead old man staring up at the evening sky. I shouldn't complain. I have Henry, he's a real cop, and he helps me out of the many scrapes I manage to find myself in.

When and where is the story set?

This time around I'm trying to cruise the Hawaiian Islands, (the story is set in modern day) and I say trying because, like I said before, there's always some dead guy discovered at my feet. I've never traveled to Hawaii before, but my writer has and she has done some mega research to put me in all of the right places at just the right times. 

No, I don't always like where she places me... Have you ever been inside a cruise ship morgue? But I know I have to go to creepy places like that to make the story great.

What should we know about you?

I'm reaching my 40s, but I'm not there yet. I'm recently divorced, on vacation, and trying to make sense out of my new life. I haven't any children, but have hopes that some day I will. It isn't easy to keep going, especially when you're accused of murder, and you're thrown into yet another mystery, but having Henry with me is a big help. 

I also have a thing for eggs. Scrambled, Sunny Side-Up... but not in the way Henry likes to eat them...

What is your goal?

I've always wanted to go to Hawaii and I finally have the chance. But this goal fizzles early on, replaced by trying to find the murderer of Mr. McLean. In-between the search I hope to find some quiet moments, some time to walk the beach and rejuvenate, which is a real joke. Henry however (can I say a little about Henry?) he wants me for more than a nice friend, and I'm just not so sure about that.

What is screwing up your life?

That would have to be the murder and all that's coming to me because of it. I mean, what would you do if you were thrown into the midst of a murder investigation, and, at the same time, had to deal with a hovering man in your life? 

What is the title of the book you're in?

Sunny Side-Up. It's book two. In book one, Scrambled, you begin to get to know me through my journeys as a maid in the run-down, and more than likely haunted Hotel Camaro. This time, while on the high seas, I'm dealing with all sorts of sharks and poisonous beasts; not all of them men. 

When can we expect the book to be published?

October 1, 2014 was the release date, so go back to this post to learn more.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to tag any writers. Sorry about that.

Love Hawaii? Get Sunny Side-Up

Sunny Side-Up may be on pre-order status, but if you've been waiting for part two of the Susan Cramer series, you just my want to pre-order your copy now!

The official release date is October 1, 2014, but don't be afraid to get your hands on something sunny side-up a bit early.

Get Sunny Side-Up at Amazon

Susan Cramer was desperately in need of a vacation, but not at the expense of another dead man. 

A leisurely vacation turns deadly when an old man falls dead at Susan's feet on the cruise ship Aloha. 

Was she some sort of death magnet? 

Maybe so. Maybe not. 

One thing was for sure. Through the lies, secrets, and surprises to be discovered on board and off, Susan will learn at least one important thing, and this thing called "love" will be something she wished had never followed her out to the high seas.

SCRAMBLED: A Susan Cramer Mystery FREE! Last Day!

My cozy mystery, Scrambled, will be up for free today through September 6.

That's the eBook!

This is a great time to read the eBook in preparation for book two, Sunny Side-Up to be released in October!

Get the eBook here

Listen to the Sunny Side-Up trailer 

Market Your Book With Flair: 5 Ways to be Remembered

Almost anyone can market their book, if they are willing to get out there and talk about it.

But what about marketing with style? With flair?

Marketing so that others remember you is not always easy. There is so much competition, so much vying for attention, that it seems almost impossible for an author to get noticed; especially a newly established one.

So what should you do?

Do an unusual book signing. I have almost sworn off bookstores. Not that they aren't nice in the sense that folks are coming in to buy a book and there you are signing yours, it's just that most bookstore signings are boring.

To spruce things up I have a book signing party at my home. For my upcoming book, Sunny Side-Up, I will be having a luau at my home complete with music, dancers, food, and books. For Scrambled, I had a scrambled egg breakfast signing.

Use Animoto for your book trailers. What intrigues you the most when you hit upon a new website and/or Facebook posting? Is it the text or the video that most draws you? Even with readers, your site will get more hits and more lasting interest if you provide a video on your front page and write an occasional post with a book trailer.

To make the most of your book trailers, have a website/blog that is updated at least 3 times a week. Even more is better. Make sure your blog is professional in appearance and reflects you and your books. Make sure it is easy to use. Get out of your own head and post topics of interest to others instead of just marketing your book every day.

Get the reviews you need, the interviews that are offered on other sites; in a nutshell, work your online marketing like there's no tomorrow. Every day, along with your writing, do some marketing. Balance these two pursuits. And keep them balanced and moving forward no matter the roadblocks.

Think of creative ways to do an interview. I've started one on my site where I interview the main character of a book. I have been dabbling with interviewing the antagonist. IF YOU'RE UP FOR THE CHALLENGE, EMAIL ME AND I'LL SEND YOU A LIST OF QUESTIONS TO BE ANSWERED BY YOUR BOOK'S ANTAGONIST.

Finally, get out there and market! Sitting behind your desk only produces so much connection. Get out there and market your book whenever you can. Make it easy on yourself by keeping a few copies of your book in your car. Make sure you have postcards made up with your book cover on it. And be prepared to answer questions about your book because you will be asked.

Being remembered is a little like meeting someone for the first time and recalling who they are because of something intriguing they said or did.

An author remembered is just like that.