Managed to work our dog Darwin into my last short story.

Today I wrote THE END to the sixth of six short stories scheduled for my next little collection, and it marks the end of the rough draft stage of my three writing projects for 2014. On an unrelated note, I just finished watching last night’s Master Chef and now I want a gourmet donut.

Now comes the fun stuff: editing and/or revising if they need it. I’ve got a steamy adventure romance. I’ve got the second in the Boo-Done-It murder mystery series. And I’ve got the small collection that will tie together my two series (Boo-Done-It and The Cowboy’s Baby).

If  the editing and publication goes well on these three, then I’ll start what will be my major project for 2015, a horror novel.

Until then, check out ARROYO, a weird western. See if you like romantic comedy with a fairy tale base: THE COWBOY’S BABY and THE COWBOY’S BABY GOES TO HEAVEN. The first Lockhart mystery about our dog Boo Radley and her fictious ability to drag her owners onto murder scenes–TALKING TO THE DEAD GUYS. And if you like quirky, then you’ll like TWISTED RIXTER, some of my recent short stories.

You can find all of them here at the Amazon.com Kindle store.

http://amazon.com/author/gretchenrix

Here’s the inspiration for my mystery novels.

WHAT I READ THIS WEEK:  Brood of Bones by A. E. Marling.  Midnight Crossroad by Charlaine Harris.  Raney by Clyde Edgerton.

Still a few copies available

Two copies available.

Join us this Friday from 5 pm to 8 pm at the Lockhart Shoppes on Main (101 South Main) for my first book signing of THE COWBOY’S BABY GOES TO HEAVEN.

This is part of the First Friday event many of the merchants around the courthouse square have been participating in, staying open late for shoppers and tourists. Should be fun. Food, drink, antiques, collectibles, the beautiful view of our courthouse, and Black’s BBQ just around the corner.

WHAT I JUST FINISHED READING: Eleven Days by Donald Harstad. The New Orleans Zombie Riot of 1866 by Craig Gabrysch.

My e-books can be found at

http://amazon.com/author/gretchenrix and http://smashwords.com/books/view/105559

Have a good weekend.

THE COWBOY’S BABY GOES TO HEAVEN is free today, Friday, May 30, 2014 for the Kindle and the Kindle app. Hope you take advantage. Hope you enjoy the book. This is a romantic comedy. http://amzn.com/B00G99P8WG  WHAT I READ THIS WEEK :   Rising Tides by Nora Roberts.

SATURDAY MORNING. Thank you, readers from Japan, India, Australia, Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America. I appreciate your support.

FREE today for Kindle readers

Finally got the photos from Aggiecon. We sold thirty-one books that weekend. ARROYO, TWISTED RIXTER, TALKING TO THE DEAD GUYS, and even one THE COWBOY’S BABY.

Here we are (minus the people):

Grumpy Cat toy

Another Grumpy Cat angle

Rix Cafe Texican banner

My other books

Aggiecon dealer’s room

Photos by Roxanne Rix

You can find my books at     http://amazon.com/author/gretchenrix

WHAT I READ THIS WEEK: A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin. Dead Money by Dean Wesley Smith. Tarzan the Untamed by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Balanced on the Blade’s Edge by Lindsay Buroker. Claiming the Duchess by Sherry Thomas. Enemy Within by Kristine Kathryn Rusch.

FREE this Wednesday April 30, 2014, my quirky short story collection TWISTED RIXTER. If you’ve got a Kindle or a Kindle app and you’ve ever wondered what I write, here’s your (free) chance http://amzn.com/B00HQ0PH1O  .

I didn’t get to go to Aggiecon, but my sister Roxanne and our friend Janet Christian went in my place.

By the way, promoting your book and successfully promoting your book are two different things. I’m not going to go into whether I’ve been successful with the following sites or not. I’ve promoted my books on two. No money lost on either, since they were free.

Here are two sites that will at least get your title seen: Clean Indie Reads (for non-sexually explicit romance novels with no “F” words) and EbookSoda.  I will only mention BookBub in passing since I haven’t used it. Their services cost, and can be relatively expensive. ‎ http://bookbub.com   These other two are free (at the moment). 

Clean Indie Reads utilizes Twitter and their own web page to promote your book once with a group of five to six others, but one real useful extra they offer is the continued Tweet way after your promotion time is over. They are quite generous with their attention. http://cleanindiereads.blogspot.com

 EbookSoda is a service similar to BookBub coming to us from Great Britain that sends out email blasts touting your book in a group of six to ten and sent only to subscribers who have indicated they like your genre. http://www.ebooksoda.com/

I was happy with the promotions from both, and as I said, at least it got the books out where they could be noticed. As a courtesy I subscribed to get the EbookSoda emails, and I regularly scroll through them every day, sometimes even following the link back to the Amazon page. So I figure many people also pay attention.

WHAT I READ THIS WEEK:  Cross by James Patterson.  Lady 52 by Jude Hardin and J.A. Konrath.

DARWIN’S CORNER: This shorty bulldog is a good barker. Too bad she seems to bark at invisible creatures invading our front porch. I’m not going to let it turn into the story of the boy who cried wolf, though. I get up to check (yeah, right).  Photo  by Roxanne Rix. 

This past month I’ve been immersed in a writing workshop taught by Dean Wesley Smith that took up a lot of my spare time. Because of that I decided to sacrifice my normal writing time to television viewing instead. Had to watch The Following, Survivor, Under the Gunn, The Amazing Race, NCIS, Face Off, Hawaii Five-O and all the rest.

It’s been a nice learning session (and vacation from writing). Hopefully I can apply what I learned from his course.

If you’re unfamiliar with Mr. Smith, check out http://deanwesleysmith.com , he’s got a lot of experience to impart.

So, I’ve been coasting. I could have finished my second mystery novel this month, but now it will be next month.

I also did a lot of reading.

WHAT I FINALLY FINISHED READING THIS WEEK:  Shadows in the Sun by Chad Oliver. Unearthly Neighbors by Chad Oliver. The Shores of Another Sea by Chad Oliver. (All contained in an omnibus edition called From Other Shores). And WHAT I READ THIS WEEK:  Eye Spy by Tahir Shah.

Photos by Roxanne Rix. You can find my published fiction at http://amazon.com/author/gretchenrix.

DARWIN’S CORNER–

By now it seems like we’ve had this little bulldog forever. She takes walks, but she’s like no other dog we’ve ever owned. She doesn’t meander from one side of the road to the other, she doesn’t smell things, she doesn’t mark her territory, she doesn’t poop on other people’s lawns, and she doesn’t happily launch herself at the people and dogs we pass. She just walks. I”m not complaining. This is the first dog I’ve been able to walk  faster than.

WHAT I READ THIS WEEK: Hawaii by James Michener.  Born Rich by Janet Christian.

Books and stories by G. Rix at http://amazon.com/author/gretchenrix

DARWIN’S CORNER

This week as I was putting on my shoes in the kitchen, Darwin calmly picked up the one still  lying on the floor and marched away with it in her mouth just as pretty as you please. Thankfully I was able to rescue it before she took her first bite.

We’ve been feeding her that high-priced stew-like dog food in order to get some medicine down her. Now she doesn’t like her dry food. One day instead of writing about Boo Radley I’m going to write about the little bulldog we’ve started calling Dar.

Photos by Roxanne Rix.

WHAT I READ THIS WEEK:  A Clean Kill in Tokyo by Barry Eisler.  Grave Indulgence by William Doonan.

DARWIN’S CORNER

Well, we found out a couple of new things about Darwin this past week. She will chew up leather shoes. Took care of a whole pair. And yes, we shouldn’t have left them lying out on the floor to tempt her. Another thing is that she thinks the right side of the couch is her spot now. Gets real frisky if anyone else is sitting there. One more thing. She makes absolutely everyone smile who sees her. She also grunts like a little pig.