A. E. Macdonald's Writing Life

November 1, 2012

Haunted Houses, do you believe?

Do you believe in ghosts? or haunted houses? I do. The funny thing is that I’m not really superstitious and not likely to believe most ghost stories but since I lived in one once, I do believe. I’d like to say that the house was a part of my youthful imagination, but I’m not the…
October 10, 2012

Observations on our Trip to Italty

We’re back from a 17 day trip to Italy. It was the best vacation of my life, so far. We saw Como, Milan, Florence, Rome and the village in Abruzzi where my husbands great-grandparents came from then back to Rome. We took the slow boat around Lake Como and found it to be so relaxing.…
August 23, 2012

Marketing Deadlines Are Murder, part 2

I self-published Deadlines Are Murder on December 15, 2011, and so far I have sold 325 copies. My main sales venues are Kindle, Barnes & Noble, Apple, Kobo and Nook. The most popular sales venue and the one that I have spent the most attention on is Kindle. the fact that I’ve sold more than…
May 30, 2012

On Self Publishing

Check out my interview on Sisters In Crime New England blog Pen, Ink and Crimes titled On Self Publishing at http://sincne.wordpress.com/2012/05/22/on-self-publishing/
April 30, 2012

Marketing my novel Deadlines Are Murder

Deadlines Are Murder is now available on Kindle in e-book format and in Print on Demand (http://www.amazon.com/kindle/dp/B006M7J65A) and on smashwords.com (http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/128363) for Sony, iPad, iPhone and many other tools.Now that its published, I need to get to work on Marketing and Marketing is a challenge. I’ve emailed the announcement that my book is available to all my…
February 28, 2012

How I self-published my novel

My intention to write about how I approached e-publishing process got lost in the actual process of publishing my novel. It’s funny how that happens. My intentions were good but, as they say, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. I started to look for a literary agent in earnest in January 2011…
November 8, 2011

my book cover

So, my plans to write about my e-publishing process have been thrown to the winds by a new job. In August I was offered a promotion in my day job and I took it. Life has been very hectic now and I need to refigure how I’m going to get time for my writing. Well,…
September 21, 2011

Next steps for DEADLINES ARE MURDER

So, I’ve decided to self-publish my first novel, DEADLINES ARE MURDER: A Sam Monroe Mystery. After querying and reading about small presses, reading up on the state of agents and the publishing industry today it seems to me that publishing industry is changing and has materially changed in the past two or more years. So,…
July 16, 2011

Today was a beautiful day

Temperature in the low 80’s; drop-leaf table (stained and polyurethaned by yours truly) installed in the back room next to the picture window, with a view of the trees and mid-level; a trip to the local farmer’s market by the lake and an afternoon reading on the deck; plus cheeseburgers on our grill; I couldn’t…
June 21, 2011

Would you like some chive with that?

When my husband and I first met, his choice of herbs and vegetables was not broad or adverturous. It ran to lettuce and broccoli with the occasional green beans added for a rare change. My husband liked what his mother had served and didn’t see any reason to change. I still remember his mother saying…