The post publishing relief

So now that No One Noticed is officially out and published and rarin' to go, I'm FREEEEEEEEE. I know that I sound suspiciously like Doby the Elf. But, alas, that's a wee bit how I feel. No, I was not enslaved by evil wizards who made me wear a dirty pillow case and be at their beck and call to do whatever they needed done. However, sometimes, as a writer, one does feel a bit trapped by the intensity of the project. The relief one feels is euphoric, with a dash of glee, and a dollop of bliss, followed by a slow fizzling out like a balloon sadly leaking out its birthday helium.

I spent the better part of today cleaning off half of my desk. I couldn't face the other half. So I was pleased with half. And you should be too. If you had seen the sorry state it had grown into, you'd be quite pleased with me.

And then I went browsing. Which is really a way of saying I went shopping, but without my credit card.

And, just to make sure you know everything I did today, I spent an enormous amount of time trying (and failing) to make travel arrangements for my daughter to fly overseas. Hopefully tomorrow things will be easier.

I walked the puppy and played a lovely game of chuck it.

And then I decided to settle in and see what I could start coming up with for this idea I had for my very first "Granini and me" story.

It's going to star a snail.

Like this one.

This lovely beaut was found nibbling on the leaves of a tree in Indonesia last month when I was poking about on a coffee plantation. It was HUGE. And I think it makes quite the perfect picture for my snail of inspiration.

I know, I know, I promised Book 3 for my Jack Diamond Series. And I promise, I'll get to work on that one just as soon as the holidays are over. But I thought I might dip my hat (my pen? my fingers??) into Children's Stories and try to whip up an adorable story that involves a snail. And three princesses. And the Jeff.

How's that for a tantalizing treat?

Alrighty! That's it for today! Wish me luck on my travel planning tomorrow. And hopefully I'll have such amazing success I can sit down and write more on this Children's book!

* * * * *

No One Noticed

by Kay Nimitz Smith

Book 2 in the Jack Diamond Mystery Series

now available on Amazon!!

Book 2

Meanwhile, please go and buy my book.

And then leave lots of great feedback!! 

* * * * *

Buy my books!

Both books are available in paperback and kindle versions

Diamonds for Diamond 
(Book 1 in the Jack Diamond Mystery series)
and
No One Noticed

(Book 2 in the Jack Diamond Mystery Series)

Underwater crime scene investigations

No One Noticed

by Kay Nimitz Smith

Book 2 in the Jack Diamond Mystery Series

now available on Amazon!!

Book 2

Someone asked another intriguing question this week 

and I thought I'd share the answer.

How does underwater crime scene investigations and scuba diving

 play a role in your new book?

That's a great question!

For those of you who have read my first book, Diamonds for Diamond, you'll remember that our protagonist, Jack Diamond, is a detective for the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office (MCSO). He is *ALSO* the head of the MCSO's Dive Rescue and Recovery Team.

And before I go any further, yes, in real life the MCSO has a Dive Rescue and Recovery Team. Yes, the folks who dive for them are amazing. They do great work!! Sometimes they're saving lives, other times they're doing underwater crime scene investigations, recovering weapons, evidence, cars, and dead bodies as the needs arise.

So, back to Jack Diamond.

In my first book, Diamonds for Diamond, a serial killer is on the loose, dumping his dead bodies in various bodies of water throughout the Portland, Oregon metropolitan area. Jack Diamond and his team perform underwater crime scene investigations, scuba diving in the black water conditions of the Columbia River, the Willamette River, and other bodies of water, to recover the victims' bodies and various evidence associated with those crimes.

Jack and his MCSO Dive Rescue and Recovery team are back into action throughout the book No One Noticed. And although the scuba diving and under water crime scene investigations play a smaller role in this book, there are several intriguing scenes throughout the book involving underwater crime scene investigations.

I have done extensive research regarding these crime scene investigations. All my underwater scenes have been thoroughly "vetted" by a specialist who used to perform those types of blackwater scuba diving investigations. And although I have yet to go scuba diving myself, I finally got my first official snorkeling experience in the Indian Ocean just a few weeks ago. The visibility in the waters around Lembongan Island is a gajillion times better than that of the Columbia River, but hey, it's a start!!

Here is a picture of my favorite scuba diver (and underwater crime scene specialist) off the coast of Menjangan Island a few weeks ago (October, 2019):

And here is a picture of my favorite scuba diver under the Columbia River:

hahahahahaha

So it's not really a picture of him under the Columbia River. The water isn't that clear. I could never have been able to get such a great picture. Seriously. Visibility is less than a foot. No bueno for pictures. Or visibility. And the lack of visibility makes it exceptionally difficult and challenging for his team to do underwater crime scene investigations. But they do. Mostly by feel. 

And they're awesome.

Can you imagine how incredibly challenging it must be to locate a dead body, under water, without visibility?!? They use these incredible search patterns, lead lines, under water communications gear; they try to avoid kicking up the silt, and they feel around, hoping (and sometimes not hoping) to find something. 

One time my most favorite scuba diver described a search in which he was seeing absolutely nothing under the water, and he felt something. Something suspiciously like a bone. A vertebrae. He knew it felt human. He'd found cow bones before, but they're bigger. So he popped it into his pouch and kept on looking, because that's not what he had been searching for. Turns out they believe the neck bone was the bone of a human skeleton from many years before that they believe had floated downstream from an ancient Native American burial ground located near the Columbia river.

He has also told me stories about finding something rather gruesome through his scuba gloves, but not knowing exactly what it was until he took a steadying breath and brought the item right up next to his face to find out what it was. Sounds down right gruesome to me!! What a horror nightmare.

I am equally fascinated by the thought of his team recovering bodies that have been in the water a very long time, relieved that their families can have closure and being able to bury their loved ones; and sheer mortification and horror at the idea that water critters have nibbled upon these bodies, which is great for the ecosystem, but rather terrifying for the poor soul who has to try to scoop the water logged body into a body bag, hoping not to lose a toe bone that is apt to float away.

So yes. Underwater crime scene investigations. I write about them in my books. I find them fascinating. And unique. And a whole realm of crime scene investigations that are rarely, if ever, discussed in murder mystery books. 

So there you have it.

If all y'all have more questions, please don't hesitate to post them. 

I'll answer them along the way!

Meanwhile, please go and buy my book.

And then leave lots of great feedback!! 

No One Noticed

(Book 2 in the Jack Diamond Mystery series)

Here is a closer look at the entire book cover for book 2,
for those of you who are interested:

* * * * *

Buy my books!

Both books are available in paperback and kindle versions

Diamonds for Diamond 
(Book 1 in the Jack Diamond Mystery series)
and
No One Noticed

(Book 2 in the Jack Diamond Mystery Series)

Buy my books!

They're available!!

Paperbacks & Ebooks for both novels 

are now available!

Diamonds for Diamond and No One Noticed

(The first two books in the Jack Diamond Mystery series)

Book 1

Book 2

  

You can find both paperback and e-book versions for Book 1 here:  

Diamonds for Diamond 

(Book 1 in the Jack Diamond Mystery Series)

and

You can find both paperback and e-book versions for Book 2 here:

No One Noticed

(Book 2 in the Jack Diamond Mystery series)





For those of you who like to read the back cover of the book, here are the blurbs from the back of the books:

Diamonds for Diamond

A serial killer is terrorizing the women of Portland, Oregon as he dumps their lifeless bodies around the waterways of Multnomah County.  Detective Jack Diamond and his partner Nick Buchanan race the clock to catch the killer as the victims stack up, and the killings become personal.  The ghosts of Jack’s past haunt him as the love of his life becomes the killer’s next target.  Jack and the county’s Dive Rescue Team perform underwater crime scene investigations, turning up evidence that leads them to the killer — but will they get there in time?

No One Noticed 

Marjorie Goverman was a devoted wife, loving mother, and dependable full-time employee. She disappeared for six weeks, and no one noticed.

At the urging of his beloved grandmother, Detective Jack Diamond brings this missing person’s case to his colleagues at the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office, hoping that solving the case will help ease his way back to work after his near death experience. As Jack wrestles with his own personal issues, he and his colleagues peer into the bizarre and seedy underbelly of new-age prenatal care, racing to figure out where Marjorie went, why she disappeared, and why no one noticed when she did.

Here is a closer look at the entire book cover for book 2:

* * * * *

The last (and hopefully final) proof will be here tomorrow!

Happy Days!

So don't get the theme song stuck in your head (for Happy Days), but blissful news, the first proof came back and it looks LOVELY!!!

Just a few minor changes and it'll be ready to go!

The cover, for example needed a few tiny bits of change.

For example:

When I put No One Noticed right up against Diamonds for Diamond, I noticed that the size of my name and "A Jack Diamond Mystery" were larger on one book than the other. So I had to fix that. I also noticed that my Jack Diamond logo was practically invisible on the proof. It gets lost in the blue, cloud-covered skies. So I fixed that. Then after a much more careful look at Diamonds for Diamond, I noticed that I could get away with a much smaller font for my photographer acknowledgement (thanks Jen!!) since I thanked her inside my book (and here too!), and thus I could put that whole section into one line, like it is in my first book. It's frustrating that these things weren't caught in the first round, but alas.

These things do happen.

(And now I have Phantom of the Opera in my head. When Carlotta says, "Si! These things do happen! Well, until you stop these things happening, this thing does not happen." I actually think that my life is one long running playlist of movie clips and television show clips and song clips with lines from each one playing back to back to back. It's amusing if you happen to be with me and you happen to know the movie or television show reference. My mind persistently pulls from the television show Friends and the movie The Princess Bride. So if you want a good place to start, start there.

Meanwhile, INSIDE the book, I found a few changes as well. One, I found a typo! That almost never happens at this stage. Super excited. The perfectionist in me is beyond thrilled. It's like scratching a satisfying itch that I didn't even know I had. In one of my sections in No One Noticed, I have a character who is from Scotland and has a lovely brogue. Trying to translate that accent to the reader's ear is a challenge in and of itself. Trying to get my computer to recognize the misspelled words as intentional is another. Inside a whole flurry of brogue I had the word whose instead of the contraction who's. With all the red underlines in that chapter, it's no wonder we all missed it. One's mind simply glosses over the misspelling as it sounds correct, particularly when one is struggling to get the brogue into one's head. At least, that's what I keep telling myself.

Also, along the way, some of the spacing of the words needed slight adjustment. I loathe reading a book where the words on a line are all stretched out or overly squished together. So I had to adjust for those issues.

I also found a last minute minute oddity. (Get it? minute minute?) Some of my chapter headings were ever so slightly longer than others, even though they all had three hard returns before the word Chapter. Turns out I had a 12 point font on some and a 16 point font on another. Again, something that the perfectionist in me reveled in discovery before publication.

Then, while I was making those adjustments, I noticed some dialogue in several places that could also use a quick touch up. It's so hard not to keep editing. Over and over, making things better and better.

Because each amendment is, in fact, an improvement.

But at some point, one must simply stop, let go ("Let it go, Let it go..."), and move on to the next book.

As someone who strives to get things right, I do find it a challenge to go back and re-read my first book and find things -- some big, some small -- that were I to go back and re-publish, I would change.

My daughter, for example, despised the way I spelled GranNini in the first book. I wanted people to understand the connection between the fact that she is a grandmother and her nickname is Nini (pronounced gruh-nee-nee). My daughter, however, said I should assume that the audience is bright enough to get that. She also didn't like the capitalization in the middle of the name. And she said the extra N was superfluous. Thus, in No One Noticed, I have changed the spelling of Granini's name. And sure enough, she's right. The simplification works well. But changing the spelling from book 1 to book 2 is a struggle for me, as it is inconsistent.

Furthermore, my father-in-law, bless his heart, said he was pleased that he had only found one or two typographical errors in book 1. I have yet to discover any, as I have read the book so very many times, and clearly I gloss over them. My editor didn't find any either. When he re-reads the book before starting book 2, I shall have him point them out to me, again, not just for posterity, but also so that I can make the edits should a second edition of the book ever be released.

I strive for perfection.

I am humbled by my imperfections.

And I hope that you all understand the infuriating frustrations that arise from the conflict.

So. Enough ramblings for the day.

Here is one last lovely look of the book's cover before the book is sent out for final print. Should be sent out Sunday night or Monday morning, and will be available for purchase very shortly afterwords!

SOOOOOOO EXCITED!!!

* * * * *

Diamonds for Diamond (the first book in the Jack Diamond Mystery series) can be bought by clicking on the picture or the link below.

You can buy my book in both e-book and paperback on Amazon here:  

Diamonds for Diamond by Kay Nimitz Smith



No One Noticed (the second book in the Jack Diamond Mystery series) will be available shortly!

* * * * *

well, drat

Well, drat.

So I just got a notification this afternoon that my proof has been delayed by the publisher.

Whah!!!

Super bummed.

Supposedly (which makes me think of Joey and supposebly) they shipped it today and it will be here next week. But I've been waiting with baited breath for today to arrive, and the proofs didn't show, and now I'm mopey.

Sniffle.

And it doesn't help that the puppy is super sick.

Sigh.

I hate delays.

And sick puppies.

So. Back to the waiting game. I'll let you know when it arrives. As I'm sure you're all as excited as I am to get this new version out!!!

And to top it off, the cover of the book that I put in the last blog wasn't the final cover for the actual book, so that's interesting. Makes me hope that the final book cover on the proof is the right one. Fingers crossed, people! Let's see if I can at least scrounge that up for you, to give you something lovely to look at rather than just being all bummed along with me.

Here you go:

Here's to wishing your Thursday afternoon is much better than mine.

* * * * *

Diamonds for Diamond (the first book in the Jack Diamond Mystery series) can be bought by clicking on the picture or the link below.

You can buy my book in both e-book and paperback on Amazon here:  

Diamonds for Diamond by Kay Nimitz Smith



No One Noticed (the second book in the Jack Diamond Mystery series) will be available shortly!

* * * * *

We judge books by their covers

Choosing the wording for the book cover

We Judge Books By their Covers

I can't tell you how many books I have chosen to read, or slid back onto the shelves, after having read the book cover.

It's amazing to me how easy it is to actually judge a book by its cover.

We've been advised against it since we were wee tots.

And yet we do.

We judge books by their covers.

In your mind's eye, envision the cover for a romance novel. I'm sure at some point you've seen one of their covers. A half naked man, hair flowing wildly, swooping over a woman who is flopped over his arms.

Or a bodice ripper book, where the cover focuses mainly on a woman's cleavage, her ample bosoms heaving -- perhaps even a wee damp bit of sweat beading strategically.

Western covers usually evoke memories of the vastness of Montana, or a horse meandering along with the Grand Canyon somewhere nearby.

Murder Mysteries inevitably have pictures of knives, bright red blood oozing off the tip. Or pictures of a city skyline, making the reader think of the darker, seedier side of urban life.

Or perhaps the cover has something like a graphically designed bird that, although not immediately clear as to its meaning, will somehow evoke feelings of satisfaction once the reader makes the connection three quarters of the way through the novel.

Matt Damon's face inside a space helmet helped the movie version of the novel the Martian fly off the shelves. The book cover is an eye-grabbing orangy-red, immediately evoking feelings of Mars. To top things off, the book cover also has an astronaut sort of bouncing -- arms in front, feet off the ground -- as if the astronaut is struggling on the planet. Perfection.
Add in Matt Damon's face and you've got yourself another winner.

We judge books by their covers.

If one is lucky enough to have a zinger of a cover to entice the potential reader to pick up our book from amongst the gajillions out there on the shelves, or on the Amazon lists or the Goodreads recommended book lists, one then has to have a wowzer of a back cover paragraph. The clincher. The hook.

We judge books by their covers.

Right now, I am facing that mountain. Trying to write the hook, the clincher, the paragraph that will hopefully entice the reader to pick my book off the shelf and tuck it under their arm, taking it to the register and smiling, thinking of the lovely afternoon they will spend tucked into a blanket, reading my book. Or sitting on the back deck, sunglasses perched upon the bridge of their noses, sipping 'drinkies,' reading with delight as Jack Diamond discovers who the bad guy is.

I have an initial idea for my hook.

But perfecting it is my next task.

Wish me luck!

Next up: choosing the picture for the back cover.

* * * * *

Diamonds for Diamond (the first book in the Jack Diamond Mystery series) can be bought by clicking on the picture or the link below.

You can buy my book in both e-book and paperback on Amazon here:  

Diamonds for Diamond by Kay Nimitz Smith



No One Noticed (the second book in the Jack Diamond Mystery series) will be available shortly!

* * * * *