Enter Plotting Murder Giveaway

Have you entered the Plotting Murder Giveaway?

There's still time to enter if you haven't done so yet, or enter again, as many times as you can!

If you love to read Mystery, Thriller & Romantic Suspense, then Plotting Murder, the last summer giveaway is for you.

Plotting Murder Giveaway runs through August 29.

How would you like to read that next bestseller on a Kindle Fire 7 tablet? Cool, right?

Or maybe you could win one of the Amazon gift cards, or a cool lamp that opens like a book, or a pack of ebooks that's on your TBR list.

Enter today—and enter often—through August 29, and you could be one of the winners.

Photo by Kat Wilcox, Pexels #923681

Book Fair Too

Plus, don’t forget to shop our book fair and play the bonus scavenger hunt game, where we have a tea and brownie brittle bonus prize pack up for grabs. Plus, everyone scores a freebie, a short story download by C.J. Zahner exclusive to this event!

Great Prizes

Kindle Fire 7 • Amazon Gift Cards • Ebook Packs • Maple Wood Folding Book Lamp • Ebook Bundles from Amazon.

Sponsored By These Fabulous Authors

Amanda Uhl • Anne McClane • Barbara Barrett • C.J. Zahner • Curtis Bausse • D.B. McNicol • Danielle M. Haas • Dawn Greenfield Ireland • Eichin Chang-Lim • Em Petrova • J.J. Cagney • Jacqueline Diamond • J.C. Andrijeski • Joan Reeves • Karen D. Bradley • Katherine Gilbert • Kerry Blaisdell • Kristy Tate • Lisa Lieberman • Mimi Barbour • Nancy C. Weeks • Naomi Bellina • Sierra Kay • Stephanie Queen • Susan D. Peters • Taylor Marsh • Tricia Tyler

Takeaway Truth

Books, authors, and prizes—all fabulous. Enter today and tell your friends too.

Enter the PLOTTING MURDER Rafflecopter Giveaway.

Review: Mindhunter

If you want to watch something intelligent, well-acted and directed, tune in to Mindhunter.

Season 2 of this Netflix original dropped last week, and it's, well, compelling, creepy, captivating, horrifying, and just as riveting as a train wreck you can't help but watch.

Mindhunter, the Netflix series, is based on the book Mindhunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit by John E. Douglas and Mark Olshaker, first published in 1998.

I read the book when it first came out, and it scared me because of how easily sexual psychopaths caught and killed their prey.

Make no mistake, people were prey to the serial killers discussed in the book and now in the Netflix series.

A Little Factual Background

To answer your question, "Is this a true story?" in advance, here's a little history.

In 1972, the FBI established the Behavioral Science Unit in response to the rising wave of sexual assault and homicide.

In 1976, Supervisory Special Agents John Douglas and Robert Ressler, members of the Behavioral Science Unit, began compiling a centralized database of serial offenders. They did this by travel across the U.S. and visiting prisons to interview incarcerated serial predators.

Mindhunter, the Netflix series, is faithful, for the most part, in telling Douglas and Ressler's story of
obtaining information and classifying it by:

* Motives
* Planning and preparation
* Details of the crimes
* Disposal of evidence (bodies, murder weapons, etc.)

After interviewing 36 incarcerated serial predators, they completed their database, and FBI profilers began working in the field and providing consultations to police on active cases.

If you're a crime fiction reader, you probably know that the Behavioral Science Unit (BSU) no longer exists within the FBI.

It was folded into the Critical Incident Response Group (CIRG) and renamed the Behavioral Research and Instruction Unit (BRIU). Now it's called the Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU-5) and is part of the National Center for Analysis of Violent Crime (NCAVC).

BAU-5 works on developing research and using evidence-based results to provide training and improve consultation in the behavioral sciences—understanding who criminals are, how they think, why they do what they do—for the FBI and law enforcement communities.

It's All Mostly Real

Douglas and Ressler are portrayed by Jonathan Groff and Holt McCallany who seem made for these roles of dedicated agents. Anna Torv is Dr. Wendy Carr, a psychologist who specializes in deviant behavior. As always this Australian actress is perfect.The time is the 1970's.

They struggle to get inside a killer's mind and figure out how he thinks so they can catch him or, if he's already incarcerated, figure out how to identify these individuals in the hope of getting them early in their "killing career."

FBI agents Holden Ford and Bill Tench (characters taking the place of Douglas and Ressler) have their own problems which are highly fictionalize and dramatized in the Netflix series. What is true are the cunning psychopaths. The actors are chilling in their portrayal of killers from Richard Speck to Charles Manson to Ed Kemper.

The crimes as told in the series are factual. If you want the unmitigated truth, get Mindhunter, the book.

What's Totally Wrong in the Show

There was a glaring mistake in the show. I can't believe the show's writers didn't fact check better. They called serial murderer Dean Corll of Pasadena, a suburb of Houston, Texas, the Candy Man.

Wrong! And it's wrong on the Dean Corll Wikipedia page too.

The Candy Man was Ronald Clark O'Bryan, also nicknamed The Man Who Killed Halloween. He's the reason parents began checking the Trick or Treat candies received on Halloween.

O'Bryan lived in Deer Park, another Houston suburb. In 1974, he gave cyanide-laced Pixy Stix to his own children and some neighbor children. His young son ate the candy and died. O'Bryan did it to collect on a life insurance policy.

The other children with the poison-laced candy in their treat collections didn't eat the Pixy Stix. O'Bryan was tried, found guilty, sentenced to death, and executed in 1984.

Dean Arnold Corll was a monster who, with his teen recruits Elmer Wayne Henley and David Owen Brooks, abducted, raped, tortured, and murdered at least 28 teenage boys and young men between 1970 and 1973 in the Houston area. The agents in the film interview Elmer Wayne Henley.

Takeaway Truth

Riveting stories, great acting, and subject matter that's compelling even as it's stomach-turning—that's Mindhunter. It will creep you out far more than the fictional TV series Criminal Minds.

5 Online Tips for Authors

I believe you should never reinvent the wheel.

Here are 4 tips about easy ways to do things are required of you nearly every day. This will certainly aid you immediately in your online marketing.

1. Create a document with all your book titles, a short blurb for each, and the corresponding buy links for every channel where it's sold.

This document will save you so much time. You can access the document any time you need to fill out a website form or paste it into a blog post or wherever you may need it.

Create the document in an easy to access text document (Notepad) or Flashnote file, which is always plain text so you can just copy the link and paste it whenever you need it.

If you make this document in Word, save it as a text file so it doesn't create extraneous HTML code that can really mess up a blog post if you paste it into a blog without "cleaning it up."

2. Always paste from a text file rather than a Word file.

When filling out web forms, pasting content from a Word file can end up looking weird and/or have random odd characters appear.

3. Always proofread any online form you fill out—especially if you pasted text in.

Some web forms just won't accept pasted text cleanly. You may end up with random characters or symbols.

4. If you want to try to shorten a link so that you can track the number of clicks, use any of the popular link shortening services like Goo.gl, TinyURL, Bitly, Smart URL.

If you really want to see who's clicking your buy link, track the clicks. All the link shortening services work basically the same, but each has some pros and cons. Use the one that's easiest for you.

5. For books on Amazon, use Booklinker which creates one link that works in every Kindle book shop.

Booklinker is easy to use. Just create an account and create links for your book. It's so easy.You can personalize the link and also make the beginning part of it say: "get book" or "my book."

Remember, Booklinker is part of the Amazon world so it works only to create links for Amazon stores.

Of course, you can upgrade Booklinker to GeniusLink, but then it goes from free to paid. Once you upgrade, you can't go back to the free level.

By the way, Booklinker won't create a link from a URL that contains referral code so be sure you clean up the URL before using Booklinker.

(See my post Create a Clean Amazon URL Link.)

Booklinker does not currently support the shortened "amzn.to" format.

Takeaway Truth

There's always an easy way to shortcut the process. When you find a shortcut, share it with others.

Back to School Safety Tips

Back to school, the time most kids dread, has arrived. There's less than a month before autumn arrives and leaves begin to fall.

I think it's time for a few reminders for those of us who are NOT in school.

Back to School Safety Tips

1. Never speed through a school zone.

 Kids are unpredictable and prone to impulsiveness. School zone speeds are low because of that. Reduce your speed. It's only for a few minutes.

2. Never use your cell phone in a school zone.

In Texas, and many other states, it's illegal to use a cell phone in a school zone.

Take your eyes off the street to glance at your cell and you might maim or kill a child who impulsively decided to dash across the street in front of you.

The few seconds your eyes were on your cell instead of the street can be a matter of life and death.

3. Make time in your day to actually talk to each of your children about their school day.

Sounds simple, but many people let their kids live separate lives inside the home.

Be interested in what your kids do at school, what they think, and how their school life is going. Engage in a conversation and focus entirely on your kid. Act as if he or she is the most important person in the world.

4. Take away the kids' cell phones at a designated time each evening.

Help your child to succeed by having all cell phones placed in a central docking station at a designated time each evening. A kid with access to a cell phone when adults have gone to bed is a kid that will play on the phone rather than sleeping.

5. Turn off the WiFi at night.

Same reason as #4. The lure of the cell phone and/or internet is huge. Kids are usually addicted to their devices. Help them break the habit.

Takeaway Truth

Just as you're trying to set limits for your kids, set limits for yourself too. Unplug from media when you're home, and communicate one on one with your kids.

Enter Dog Days of Summer Giveaway

Hot days in August are called the Dog Days of Summer.

Celebrate the Dog Days—and all pets—with the Authors of Romance Gems.

Enter the Rafflecopter and you might just win an adorable piece of jewelry or a tee shirt or an Amazon Gift Card. It's Winner's Choice month at Romance Gems so you get to choose your prize from those offered. (If item shown is unavailable, a similar item will be given.)

Grand Prize Option (Dog Lovers)

As you read on, take a look at the prize choices available. If you're a winner, you can pick an Amazon Gift card or the prize shown.

Be sure and watch the fun video, DOG DAYS OF SUMMER. I think you'll like it, especially if you're a pet owner. You'll find it on the Movie Theater page on the Romance Gems blog and also on YouTube.

Dog Days of Summer Giveaway Sponsored By These Authors

Bonnie Edwards * Caroline Clemmons * Cheryl Bolen * Connie Vines * Constance Bretes * Elsa Kurt * Hannah Rowan * Jan Scarbrough * Joan Reeves * Judy Hudson * Kara O'Neal * Karen Kelley * Karen Whiddon * Kari Lemor * Kathleen Lawless * Kathryn Hills * Laura Hunsaker * Liz Flaherty * Lucinda Race * Nancy Fraser * Nora LeDuc * Peggy Jaeger * Satin Russell.

Grand Prize Option (Cat Lovers)

Giveaway Details

Starts at 12:01am CDT, August 4, Sunday.

Ends at 12:01am CDT, August 26, Monday.

That gives you plenty of days to enter so do it as many times as you can. Please tell your friends about our Giveaway too.

2nd Prize Option

You can click Rafflecopter here at any time, or scroll to the bottom and find the form.

There are some great prizes up for grabs. (You can always check the daily post for the Rafflecopter link and/or form too.)

August Prizes

Grand Prize
Winner's Choice—Pet-Themed Tee Shirt or $15.00 Amazon Gift Card

2nd Prize
Winner's Choice of Pet-Themed Gift or $10.00 Amazon Gift Card

3rd Prize
Winner's Choice of Pet-Themed Gift or $5.00 Amazon Gift Card

4th Prize
Bundle of 4 Ebooks

5th Prize
Bundle of 3 Ebooks

6th Prize
Bundle of 3 Ebooks

Romance Novels Featuring Pets!

We love our pets, don't we? Dogs, cats, horses, gerbils, hamsters, potbelly pigs, or some really exotic animals. Our lives are enriched by our animals.

You're going to love the prizes and ebooks offered this month. Some romance novels are sweet; some are spicy; some are August sizzlers! There's something for every reading taste.

If you love one of the books described below, feel free to go ahead and buy it in case you're not the lucky winner. The buy link for each book is embedded with the title. Enjoy the last month of  summer.

We hope you can squeeze in some extra reading time before the back to school rush hits with some of these books. Happy reading!

There's No Place Like Home by Peggy Jaeger Visit Peggy's BookBub Author Page. Symphony pianist Moira Cleary arrives home exhausted, gaunt, and anxious from emotional and psychological abuse from someone she trusted. Best friend, veterinarian Quentin Stapleton, wants nothing more than to help Moira heal. Can he convince her to stay home with the family who love her - and him - forever?

Elkhorn in the Moonlight by Constance Bretes Visit Constance at her Website. The search for stolen Sacred Arrows leads to much more. A hike through the Elkhorn Mountains leads Marcus, Nicole, and Sierra, her Blue Heeler, into unexpected consequences.

Heart to Heart by Jan Scarbrough Visit Jan at her Website. When Jeremy’s aunt gives him a second chance, he must decide if he can believe in the unbelievable and the pet psychic who teaches him about faith…and love.

Starting Over by Judith Hudson Visit Judith Hudson at her Facebook Author Page. Lily’s chance for a family of her own is slipping away. But by helping a damaged country music star find a new purpose in life, could she too find a way to start over?

Flock You by Karen Kelley Visit Karen Kelley at her Website. Who says you can't have it all? Absolutely no one breaks up on December First! Especially when their rent is coming due. I need a roommate--fast!

Love's Promise by Kara O'Neal Visit Kara O'Neal at Facebook. Eliska, Sugar, and Cora have a secret that must be guarded with more care than even their recipes for the baked goods they sell in their newly opened bakery. Despite their determination to avoid love, all three find themselves tumbling headlong into passion and threats from their past.

Counterfeit Countess by Cheryl Bolen Visit Cheryl Bolen at Facebook. Maggie thought she was married to an earl, but it seems her late and unlamented husband lied to her from Day 1. Now she throws herself on the mercy of the real Lord Warwick, who must work with Maggie to uncover her scoundrel husband's secrets—secrets which jeopardize England.

Hellfire and Handbaskets by Kathryn Hills Visit Kathryn at her Website. It’s hell in the ER, but Army veteran Dr. Rick Hauser wouldn’t work anywhere else. He’s seen it all. Until she storms into his life. Amelia Pennington is not just a pretty face. She’s a time-traveler from 1895 who upends Rick’s world. Even his dog, Rocky, is in love.

Here Today, Zombie Tomorrow by Connie Vines Visit Connie Vines Blog. Alive, Steampunk novelist Meredith Misso worked hard at living the perfect SoCal celeb life. Now that she is a Zombie, it’s all about the make-up, non-vegan lifestyle, and her soon-to-be ex, who somehow managed to Velcro himself back into her life. Here Today, Zombie Tomorrow features a pet hamster named Gertie.

Last Christmas by Joan Reeves Visit Joan at her Amazon Author Page Last Christmas, Annabelle gave Rick her heart. He stomped on it. This Christmas, Rick's going to pay! If you've ever fallen for someone who said he'd call, and he didn't, this story of heartbreak, revenge, redemption, and second chances is for you! Last Christmas also stars Friday, a rescue dog.

Saturday Share: Best Sloppy Joe Ever

I worked on graphics most of the day because Darling Hubby was at our house in the country.

He wasn't supposed to be home tonight so I didn't make dinner.

Of course he showed up at dinner time so I used my Instant Pot to make dinner.

I grabbed a package of hamburger meat from the freezer and defrosted it in the microwave.

Note: If you have the saute function, you can defrost it as you brown it in your electric pressure cooker.

We love Sloppy Joe sandwiches so much that I always keep a jar of sweet relish in the fridge just for this recipe. It's so good. You'll love it!

Best Sloppy Joe Ever

• 2 pounds ground beef
• 1 medium to large onion, coasely chopped
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1 large bell pepper (any color) chopped or 1 4-ounce can chopped green chiles
• 8 ounce can of tomato sauce
• 1 tablespoon packed brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons your favorite ketchup
• 5 ounces dark beer
• 1/2 tablespoon Worcestershire
• 1 teaspoon dry ground mustard
• 1 1/2 tablespoons mustard (yellow, Dijon, or spicy brown)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons chile powder
• 1 teaspoon dried garlic powder (omit if you're not a garlic fan)
• 2 tablespoons EVOO

Directions

• Brown ground beef, remove, and drain the fat off.
• Saute the onion, garlic, and bell peppers in the EVOO.
• Add the browned beef back to the pressure cooker, and toss in the other ingredients.
• Stir to mix it all together.
• Set your pressure cooker to cook for 15 minutes at high pressure. (If you have something other than an Instant Pot, use your cooker's settings which will probably be for stew or chili.)
• If you're in a hurry, do a quick steam release.
• Serve on a multigrain bun or bread with sweet relish. A salad or tangy cole slaw—and the rest of the bottle of dark beer—is perfect with a Sloppy Joe.

Takeaway Truth

Electric pressure cookers like Instant Pot make dinner easier than ever.

Create a Clean URL Amazon Link

What is a clean URL link and how do you make one?

When someone asks you for the buy link to your book, do you go to Amazon, click on your book, then copy the URL that appears in the address bar?

If so, you're probably giving them a very long that may break when someone tries to cut and paste it into a document or into a browser address bar.

(This article reprints at least once a year to help new authors.)

Example

The link below resulted from clicking the cover for Still The One in the "Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought" section that appears on every book page.

Then when the page for Still The One opened, I copied the link as it appeared in the browser address bar. This is what it looked like:

http://www.amazon.com/Still-The-One-Romantic-Comedy-ebook/dp/B005062SLS/ref=pd_sim_kstore_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=158W5YVPQ6JV5T1BTC6H

Of everything you see in the link above, only this much is actually the direct link to the book's webpage on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Still-The-One-Romantic-Comedy-ebook/dp/B005062SLS/

The rest of that long link:

ref=pd_sim_kstore_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=158W5YVPQ6JV5T1BTC6H

is referral code that tells Amazon where you found the book.

When asked for the book's buy link, authors should give the book's direct link, called a clean link or clean URL.

Professionals always give the shortest, cleanest link possible.

How to Clean Up a Link

Even thought a long rambling link will get you to the book—eventually—it takes longer for a webpage to open when you're using a long link tricked out with referral code.

Why give a potential reader such an awkward link? Clean it up. It's easy to do.

Look at the link. See the Amazon Standard Identification Number (ASIN)?

Everything sold on Amazon has this ASIN, a 10 character alphabetical/numerical identifying number.

The ASIN is immediately followed by  a forward slash mark. Everything after that forward slash mark is referral code and can be deleted.

In the case of Still The One, the ASIN is B005062SLS/ (see the forward slash mark at the end of the ASIN?).  Everything after the forward slash is referral code that can be deleted.

This clean, direct link to the book's webpage is what you give if someone wants a buy link:

http://www.amazon.com/Still-The-One-Romantic-Comedy-ebook/dp/B005062SLS/

Make It Even Shorter

You can shorten that clean link though. A much shorter Amazon link is created by doing away with www and abbreviating Amazon as AMZN and omitting everything beyond .com except the ASIN.

Formula for short clean link for an Amazon product: http://amzn.com/+the ASIN.

That gives us a clean short link: http://amzn.com/B005062SLS for my romantic comedy, Still The One.

But, Wait, There's More

It's possible to get an even shorter, clean link for any Amazon Product and make it a link that's good at any Kindle store in the world.

Simply set up a Booklinker account and create links for your book. It's so easy.

For Still The One, this link would be: http://getbook.at/Still-The-One.

What To Know About Booklinker

With Booklinker, you can personalize the link and also make the beginning part of it say: "get book" or "my book."

Booklinker is part of the Amazon world and works only to create links for Amazon stores.

You can upgrade Booklinker to GeniusLink, but then it goes from free to paid. Once you upgrade, you can't go back to the free level.

Booklinker won't create a link from a URL that contains referral code so be sure you clean up the URL before using Booklinker.

Also, Booklinker does not currently support the shortened "amzn.to" format.

Takeaway Truth

Short links are infinitely easier to work with, and links made with Booklinker can bring you more sales from foreign Kindle shops. Try it!

VISIT JOAN & FOLLOW HER ONLINE

Amazon Author Page * BookBub Author Page * Facebook Fan Page * Twitter * YouTube * Joan's Website.

Be the first to know about New Books and Giveaways, sign up for Joan's Mailing List.