Ann Charles Release "Better off Dead in Deadwood (Deadwood Humorous Mystery Series #4)" Yesterday, 2-12-2013

Unless noted otherwise image credits are Ann Charles

Images credits, Ann Charles and  State Line Observer

Ann Charles is friend and contributor to the dhsclassmates web site.  I communicate with her frequently. She is sensitive to how her books will affect those who hail from Deadwood.  “Will the real residents in Deadwood and Lead grow tired of me sitting on benches along their Main Street and daydreaming about Violet’s world? I hope not. Judging from their entertaining, exciting histories, they are pretty tolerant of quirky characters.”  Ann welcomes all of  us into her quirky literary world.  

She now adds Lead to this new book.  So now we have two maps!

Ann has a interesting FaceBook group called  Ann Charles' Purple Door Saloon.  Join her and her quirky followers in shared merriment!

Both Amazon and Barns and Noble released the Ebook version and the hard copy version will follow in a month or so.

Meet the Author

Ann Charles first book signing, Purple Boots
were surprise family/friends gift! 

Ann Charles is an award-winning author who writes romantic mysteries that are splashed with humor. Her book NEARLY DEPARTED IN DEADWOOD won the 2010 Daphne du Maurier for Excellence in Mystery/Suspense Award and the 2011 Romance Writers of America Golden Heart Award for Best Novel With Strong Romantic Elements.

Currently, she has several fiction books available: NEARLY DEPARTED IN DEADWOOD, OPTICAL DELUSIONS IN DEADWOOD, DEAD CASE IN DEADWOOD, and BETTER OFF DEAD IN DEADWOOD, which are all part of her ongoing Deadwood Mystery Series. The fifth in this series will be out in early 2014.

Also available from Ann are the first two books in her Jackrabbit Junction Mystery series: DANCE OF THE WINNEBAGOS and JACKRABBIT JUNCTION JITTERS. The third book in this series will be out in mid-2013.

A member of Sisters in Crime and Romance Writers of America for many moons, Ann has a B.A. in English with an emphasis on creative writing from the University of Washington. She is currently toiling away on her next book, wishing she was on a Mexican beach with an ice-cold Corona in one hand and her Kindle in the other. When she is not dabbling in fiction, she is arm wrestling with her two kids, attempting to seduce her husband, and arguing with her sassy cat. Most nights, you can find her hanging out over at www.anncharles.com, on Facebook as Ann Charles, or as DeadwoodViolet on Twitter--especially around midnight when her quirky fictional world comes to life.

Dear Reader,

I’m often asked, “How many Deadwood books do you plan on writing?” With this fourth book in front of you, I thought you might be wondering the same thing.

An organized author would have all the books planned out with a high-level outline that indicated how she was going to weave the series plotline through each book, and how everything was going to end and when. Fortunately for you, Violet Parker had other plans.

When I started writing this series, I put together a high-level plot plan for multiple books. I really did! I was going to go about this whole business of writing a series as planned. By the time I’d finished writing the first book, NEARLY DEPARTED IN DEADWOOD, I was already “off” plan and had to pretty much scrap the rest of what I’d written down. At that point, I threw my hands up in the air and told Violet, “Fine, you tell the dang story; I’ll just keep notes.”

She took over and ever since, I’ve tried to keep up on the keyboard. The last time I asked Violet how many books she thought it might take to tell this story, she looked at me like I was wearing a red rubber nose and rainbow-colored wig and said, “As many as it takes to reach ‘happily ever after.’”

Do I know how it’s all going to end? Yes. Well, sort of. I think I do, anyway. But maybe not. With every book, I keep digging and realizing that this adventure goes much much deeper than I ever expected. Like in the mines now filled with water beneath Deadwood and Lead, there are story veins leading in many directions that are rich with fun-filled chambers yet to be explored. New characters arrive on scene with each book, adding more laughs and nail-biting anxieties to the world we’re discovering with every page.
 

Will Violet always leave you hanging at the end of the books in this series? Let’s ask my Magic 8 Ball … It says, “As I see it, yes.” There you go. Seriously, this is going to be a long tale, and I need to divide it into books to give everyone a break—the characters, me, and you. I’ve always enjoyed shows on television that have season finales which leave me excited and anxious for the next installment. My goal is similar; however, I often receive emails in the middle of the night full of cursing because someone couldn’t put the book down and now must wait until I finish writing the next. While I don’t like to frustrate people, those emails do make me chuckle. I’ve learned some very colorful language thanks to these folks.  

Will the real residents in Deadwood and Lead grow tired of me sitting on benches along their Main Street and daydreaming about Violet’s world? I hope not. Judging from their entertaining, exciting histories, they are pretty tolerant of quirky characters.

I hope you enjoy this most recent slice of Violet Parker’s life. I sure did a lot of chuckling and wincing and grinning and holding my breath as she told it to me.

Hold on tight, because the ride is getting a little bumpy now.

Welcome back to Deadwood ... and Lead.

www.anncharles.com
www.anncharles.com/deadwood