Order my books direct from the publisher

A few months back I signed up at IngramSpark to have my Switch Killer paperback books published direct to readers. This has worked out well and it dawned on me--why not do the same with my other 3 previous books?

 For your convenience, I have them all listed here. Click on the QR code and it will take you directly to the book you are looking for. For readers who prefer an e-book you can find me at: Kindle, Smashwords, Barnes & Noble, Baker & Taylor, Kobo, Apple, Google, OverDrive, and hoopla.

 

 Owe It To The Wind  

Truly, Everything (sequel to Owe It To The Wind)

Beg(ga)(he)r 
                     

A Tin Box of Matches (Book 1 of the Switch Killer Series)

This Too Is Suspicion (Book 2 of the Switch Killer Series)
 

Silent Comes The Night (Book 3 of the Switch Killer Series)

 

Silent Comes The Night

Is there redemption and forgiveness after love is gone? Find out in the conclusion of the Switch Killer Series, Book #3. This book (and the first two) can be ordered directly from IngramSpark using the link below: https://shop.ingramspark.com/b/084?params=myP7sCHLr5S9w5JEjkkuA0ZILlNEfdBLKJft0ZKZQMx

This Too Is Suspicion

 

Book #2 of the Switch Killer Series can be ordered directly from IngramSpark: 

https://shop.ingramspark.com/b/084?vrgHU05zD1ekD6ggVZmUauFpeiUKfLDUjd9Zg3Kzwo2

IngramSpark: A Tin Box of Matches

Book #1 of the Switch Killer series now available to buy direct from IngramSpark. It sells for $19.95 and will be sent directly to you. What does a police detective, a new hire to the police force and a serial killer have in common? One psychic. This is a mystery with family drama.

Click on the link here: https://shop.ingramspark.com/b/084?H7xM6aTyeiyIkvmrz9vvXb0OcJ6czedSgK5Zx87qTHl

 

 

To Swear or not to Swear

I am often asked when I'm out doing book signings if my books have swear words in them.  Well, yes, they do, although I don't use the F word (I seem to not like 'ph' sounds no matter what the word: fill, fix, phone, elephant, it doesn't matter).

I have asked other authors how often they are asked this question and I always get a puzzled look along with "never." I seem to be an anomaly.

Do I come across as some hard-core biker?  Is it my red hair that gives visions of an Irish temper?  And who doesn't yell without swearing?  "I'm gonna let you have it, you no-good-guy-whose-mother-never-married!"  Really doesn't give you the same punch, does it?

I did an author talk one time along with three other authors.  Afterward, I got to chatting with one of them and we talked about our current projects.  I asked her if she ever got the question about swearing.  She frowned and said 'no' so I proceeded to say I was now working on a book in which I would have no swear words so that I could hand it over when the question came up with, "Here's your book."

"No,don't do that," she warned.

"Why?" I asked.

"People get upset, people swear.  Your book won't come off as real and you want your characters to act like normal people."

I dismissed this at the time considering that the book I'm now working on I state as: a-feel-good-book-for-the-end-of-the-world and has some spiritual connotations. I really thought I could pull this off.

However, when strange fiery balls are falling out of the sky toward Earth I have to agree.  How many people are going to stand there and exclaim, "Jiminy Cricket! What's that?" "Holy excrement! Run!"

Recently I've discovered, and will laminate before the next book signing to have at the ready, two magazine articles expounding the virtues of cussing.  Those who do, tend to have a wider vocabulary (sign of intelligence), helps reduce and endure pain, and they may be more honest.

Sequel to "Owe It To The Wind"

As I do book signings the question has come up again, "Where is the sequel to Owe It To The Wind?"

Yes, on the back cover there is a title to look for but down the road the title was changed.  It is now, Truly, Everything.  We apologize for the confusion.

Finding Time to Read

When I am out doing book signings the topic usually comes up about people not having the time to read.  Personally I read at night.  It is my night-time ritual.  Most people say, "Yes, I've tried that but I fall asleep."  Yes, I do too!  That's the relaxing part after a run-around-day.

Right now I am reading, and thoroughly enjoying, Anthony Doerr's Pulitzer Prize winning book: All The Light We Cannot See.  

530 pages and I am 71% through it according to Goodreads where I keep track of all my books.  I started this on Oct. 4th -- three weeks ago.  I make a goal of reading at least 2 pages a night.  Sometimes, lots of times, I read more, 5 pages, 10 pages, sometimes over 25 pages.  I read until I fall asleep.

Other times I take a book with me when my husband and I are headed out.  He drives and I can read then unless I'm checking out the fall colors here in the Midwest.  Or he stops for something he needs.  Who knows how long he'll be in the store and I'm just sitting in the car.  I haul my book out.  Yesterday I only got a paragraph read before he was back but there have been times I've read several pages before he's reappeared. 

Most people feel they have to sit down and read the whole book or at least read through it in a few days.  But you can stay in that world for as long as you like.  Even re-reading it if the mood hits.

Just enjoy reading wherever you are, no matter the time limit. 

Defining a Christian/Inspirational Book

Recently I did a book signing.  I took a break at one point leaving my husband to manage things.  When I came back he asked me, "Do you call your books Christian?"

"No!  You've read my books, you know they're not."

"Why can't they be called Christian?  You don't have any devil worship in them."

"No, but I have sex in them. Swearing."


 "Christians don't swear?  None of them?  How do they propagate?"


 "Well, I suppose you have a point there.  And I do have my main character telling her boyfriend 'no' all through high school."  I thought about this for a moment because since I've started this publishing odyssey I've been asked this question numerous times plus, "Do you have swear words in your books?"  (Oddly enough people are more upset by swear words than sex.  I know because I've asked).


I said to my husband, "What brought this question up?"

"I had a woman ask me if your books were Christian and I didn't know the answer."

"So, what did you say to her?"

"I asked her her definition of a Christian book."

"What'd she say?"

He shrugged.  "She said she didn't know."

Hmmm. So I have 3 award-winning romance/mystery books that may or may not be Christian books.

Click here
to go to my website and make your own decision.

Survival of the Fittest will not be Me

I can still see my husband's face as he slapped down his book in his lap, looked at me and said, "Why do YOU want to go to Cabela's?" (sporting goods store)

"I'm working on my next book -- you know -- the feel good book for the end of the world?  I need to know how to make a fire from flint, or sticks and stones or whatever people use out in the woods."

Cabela's had a collection of fire making tools, in two places.  I asked several questions.  The teeny, tiny picture on the packaging left something to be desired.  "You just scrape some of this stuff off, strike this part really hard, you get a spark, you're good to go."  Okay, I can do that.

No.  I can't.  I scraped.  I got a spark.  Several sparks in fact.  Even some really big sparks.  No fire. "We're dead when we run out of matches," I said to my husband.

He comes over and strikes the stick several times.  He feels the paper I've got sitting there.  "What?" I asked.

"I wondered if it was wet."

"Right, because water would be an accelerant!"  I yelled.

"Try dried leaves," he offered walking away.

"Don't you know people in the military you could talk to?" my niece asked.

"Yes!  Your uncle, my husband the former Marine!"  We looked at each other, looked at him and then back at each other.

"That's not gonna work," she said.

"Yeah, I already found that out," I mumbled.

Yes, I know others in the military, boy scouts, eagle scouts, Scout Masters but I'm still going to be dead once the matches run out.

I'm hoping the chocolate holds out 'til then.

Forgotten Bookmarks

Here's a fun look at something we all do -- use anything but a real bookmark to hold our place in a book. A friend lent this book to me so I used a paid bill for my bookmark (seemed only proper not to use a real one).
When I go to return this I feel I should put a little something in there for my friend or for the next person to find. But what? A really outdated picture? My kids being goofy? A hand-written note that makes you wonder? Unsigned, of course. A hidden treasure map that I make up?
Ah, the possibilities are endless as to what you'll find between the pages of a book.

http://www.amazon.com/Forgotten-Bookmarks-Booksellers-Collection-Between/dp/0399537015/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1436305892&sr=1-1&keywords=forgotten+bookmarks

Old Bible Handbook

Cleaning out my parents belongings I am finding things I have never seen in my life.  And some of it has been very interesting.

Take for instance this twenty-fourth edition, 1965, Halley's Bible Handbook complete with the Latest Archaeological Discoveries.  But the oddest note I found was this:

The Most Important Page in This Book is 814

And it's not the last page.  It is a suggestion as to what goes in a sermon or reading in the church. 

Pinnacle Achievement Award

      Congratulations to Beg(ga)(he)r on winning the Pinnacle Achievement Award for Fiction. 

Reading Coaster

                                                      My new coasters have arrived !

It's Read an E-Book Week!

It's that time of year again when thousands of books are discounted at www.smashwords.com.  I have my own marked 50% off this week.  You can now download Beg(ga)(he)r and Truly, Everything for only $2.00 and Owe It To The Wind for just .99 cents. 

My link is: https://smashwords.com/profile/view/jrarmstrongbooks.  Be sure to use the code RAE50 at checkout to get the discount.

Happy Reading!

Chocolate & Reading

It's great when chocolate goes with a book 

For Kindle Readers #3

                                 

                                      Beg(ga)(he)r, my third book is now out on Kindle.   

A vacation goes awry for a group of sorority sisters when their one sister wants them all to change their identities for the time that they are together.  As much as her friends protest DeMaris takes on the role of a best-selling author.  After finding a safe deposit key and a key to an apartment in a shady part of town it's too much for DeMaris.  If she's going to pretend to be a mystery writer why not try to solve a real one?

And the girls find themselves in trouble once again.

Book: Truly, Everything

Truly, Everything is now out on Kindle.  This is the sequel to Owe It To The Wind and won ForeWord Reviews Book of the Year Award for Romance.  It was also a Finalist in the Eric Hoffer Award and Indie Excellence Award.

Kindle Readers

Just a quick note to all you Kindle readers: I now have "Owe It To The Wind" out on Kindle world-wide.  This is my first book which won First Place in ForeWord Reviews Book of the Year Awards for Romance.

Memories of a small town

My Dad grew up in a small town in southern Illinois.  I know very little about it except that my grandfather was the Postmaster there and my father and his friends enjoyed hopping on moving trains. 

Recently I have been going through boxes of my parents that have long been packed away.  I had several of my Mom's things.  Nothing of my Dad's until now.  What a treasure trove!  And the ideas for stories have been whirling in my head after reading some of the newspaper items that he kept.

My Dad left this small town in 1924 and never went back.  Am not sure of the date but I know that the town burned down at some point after he left.  I have photos of people and buildings.  A few of the people I recognize the name and think, "So that's what they looked like."  For the first time I see an adult picture of my Dad with hair!

I see a road trip in my future plus a new book. 

Lines in Nature

While in Florida traveling with my sorority sisters I picked up a book called, Mark Making by Helen Parrott.  Why a whole book on lines?  Why buy a book about ordinary lines? 

It's a different way of looking at everyday items (although the reason I bought it was because I liked the holes punched in the cover and THAT gave me an idea). I have only looked at a few pages so far but one of them showed pictures of sketches the author had done of a tree scar.  My immediate thought was, 'Yeah, I'm not going to be drawing any lines that I see.'

What did I do today?  I drove into town to the library, picked up an audiobook from an author I've never heard of (but I need to take my own advice of trying someone new) -- and sitting in my driveway listening to a few minutes of it I looked up to see -- really see -- the tree in front of me. 

This tree has been growing there for probably thirty years or longer.  I have pictures of it from when it was just a sapling.  Have I ever really looked at it?  Sat under it for shade but no, have not paid much attention to it otherwise. 

Is it a W? A couple of Y's hanging out? Or V's? 

From here I clicked pictures of various leaves in my garden. Snapping them only for their lines. 

 Reminds me of the Zentangle movement.  Just lines.  But look what they can do. 

I need to revamp my Willowrose Publishing logo.  Maybe I've found the idea for W.  Maybe I've found something new to quilt.