CARDIAC ARREST IS FINALLY HERE!

THE MAKING OF CARDIAC ARREST

22-JANUARY-2016 It’s finally here! On the anniversary of the death of Princess Margaret of Prussia and what would have been the birthday of Lord Byron, my first mystery novel is out in the wild. This novel began as my personal challenge to see if I could complete NaNoWriMoNational Novel Writing Month. I wanted to write the book anyway, but I’m a person that needs deadlines and structure which is why I’m so much better at getting things done when they are classroom assignments than things I want to do for myself. I completed NaNoWriMo 2014 and finished the draft of this manuscript in December of that year. Then it went off to Theolyn Brock and Neliza Drew who helped edit it. I thought I would be able to take care of the rest on my own. Ha!

I went to my dear friend Thomas Boatwright and asked for a favor. One of those “PLEASE BUT ONLY IF YOU REALLY FEEL LIKE IT AND HAVE TIME OTHERWISE IT’S OK TO SAY NO” kind of favors. Would he make my cover art if I took care of the text and layout? He always knows the mood, tone, and vibrancy of the art I need and made me this cover art. Then he even made a change to it so that it would fit the dimensions of a printed softcover. Please go support him and buy his stuff.

But then I still wasn’t done even though I thought I was! I was going to take the easy path using Scrivener to compile the file to .mobi and be done with it. Drew wouldn’t let me until she took a look at it first. Next thing I know, it’s ten hours later after we were glued to our desks coding in CSS and HTML to make the digital file as nice as possible. Her book, ALL THE BRIDGES BURNING, will be out soon and you should get it if you like action crime fiction. She also makes incredible scented candles that I urge you to buy because having them burning while you read is de-fucking-lightful.

THE STORY OF CARDIAC ARREST

Filed under “Mysteries > Amateur Sleuth” or “Mysteries > Female Sleuth,” this is the first of the Farrah Wethers Mysteries. Since it’s impossible to find “medium boiled” in any of the automated categories of book retail, I think this is far more cozy appropriate than hard boiled or noir labels. Why? Because Farrah isn’t a private detective or cop and it’s set in a charming small town. Most of the cast is female with a Stepford Wives/Village of the Damned kind of tribute. What’s scarier than rich, white, beautiful blonde women, amiright? I also prefer “medium boiled” because my characters love to swear and drink, like me. Usually cozies exclude any cursing, but that’s rather unrealistic. Sure, I have friends that are prim and clean with their vernacular, but the fact that I exist among the crowd means someone somewhere is saying, “FUCK THIS” several times a day. Farrah and her best friend June Cho aren’t quite as filthy as I am with my trucker-with-road-rage flair, but expect slightly colorful language.

Farrah Wethers lost her office job and embarked on a career as a new massage therapist in suburban New Jersey where she lives with her husband Jackson. Farrah and her best friend June Cho navigate the murder mystery of a well-respected and wealthy client of Riverside Wellness Spa. Because the philandering Mr. Koczak died in the closed room at the spa while Farrah was working on him, she becomes the prime suspect. Farrah is befriended by the widow who invites Farrah and June to the lavish memorial festivities honoring her husband which gives them opportunities to find a slate of suspects and clues.

WHERE TO BUY CARDIAC ARREST

You should be able to order CARDIAC ARREST almost anywhere in paperback with the ISBN. The only places that won’t be able to get it are libraries and academic institutions, but by all means, you can donate a copy to them. CARDIAC ARREST has been enrolled in the Kindle Lending program — if you buy it on Kindle, you can loan your file to someone else’s Kindle; and the Kindle Match Program — if you buy the paperback through Amazon, you’ll have the option of getting the ebook for only $.99 extra. But seriously, if you catch me on the right day and drop me an email that you bought the paperback and gave it away or lost it or a chimpanzee stole it and you’d like the digital version, I’ll give it to you. I’d rather email you the file than have it pirated.

Paperback:

• CreateSpace
• Amazon

Digital:

• Amazon/Kindle

Review Copies:

I’ll gladly send book bloggers digital review copies. Please email me at amberlovescomics at gmail dot com to request it.

DON’T CRUSH MY JOY. I DO THAT FINE ON MY OWN.

A lot of us go on and on about how competitive it is in comics or in publishing or in whatever. Literally, every industry is fucking competitive and not everyone loves that or gets energy from the thrill of the game. That game. The one where your inner voice keeps getting louder. Can I do better that person? Will anyone care? Will anyone actually read this? How many sales does it take to be noticed? Do book bloggers get annoyed if you email them without any previous introductions? Will Amazon delete any nice reviews I get just because I happen to be friends with people who read?

Trust me, I know this novel isn’t the greatest thing in crime fiction. I don’t expect anyone will nominate it for any award it might qualify for (because remember MWA only accepts authors from their selection of approved publishers). I do hope people read it and ask me about it. Don’t be surprised if I’ve forgotten what happens in it. I just wrote book two and forgot who I made the killer. My mind is a Wonderland.

What’s awesome is that when I’m feeling completely shitty about my life and my lack of accomplishments and lack of success, I can still go to a place on the internet like my Amazon Author Central Page and see there’s shit there! There’s a bunch of books that I wrote or have short stories in. They’re comics, non-fiction, and prose fiction. I do more than tweet. It doesn’t feel like it 99% of the time.

What did getting laid off and then being sick for most of the year do? It gave me opportunity (to live without money and lose my savings to mandated health insurance) to find like-minded friends who helped me write and publish some stuff like Josh Neff, my champion of personal struggles who still makes writing a mission.

I didn’t put him in the book because I left that page for specifically the writerly writers and artists who helped. The internet shy Mansugar wasn’t around when I wrote CARDIAC ARREST, but he’s been the most supportive person ever to come into my creative life by encouraging me to do it during the editing and publishing phases. Never once when he said he was proud of me was it out of guilt because of my depression or a fight or a stupid leading question from a third party where answering, “Yeah, of course I’m proud,” really would make someone sound like an asshole. When he says he’s proud of me for having done or even tried anything, I believe him. When your own parents never say it, “I’m so proud of you, babe,” goes a long fucking way. No joke, he bought me NaNoWriMo celebratory flowers because I love getting flowers and keep feeling like a failure. So, don’t say anything mean about my book or he’ll totally kick your ass.

Founder and Editor-in-Chief of AmberUnmasked.com and Vodka O'Clock Podcast. Author of The Farrah Wethers Mysteries, comic book short stories, prose, and non-fiction. Cosplayer and figure model.