Thank you!

by Laura Crum


Just wanted to say a big thank you to all those who made my free book promotion such a huge success. We gave away thousands of books, with your help spreading the word. And I very much hope that all of you who took me up on the free book offer enjoy my horse-themed mystery novels. Happy reading and riding...and happy writing, too, seeing as it's now the "novel writing" month again!

Here's my resident great blue heron flying away just as the sun rose yesterday (he's after the goldfish in my pond), for something lovely and inspiring.

Get "Slickrock" For Free!

                                                by Laura Crum 

            Starting today, Weds Jan 9^th and going through Sunday, Jan 13^th, you can get the Kindle edition of my fifth novel, Slickrock, for free. Slickrock was the winner of my contest for a free book, getting the most votes, with Hoofprints in second place. For those who wanted Hoofprints (the second book in my series), that book is currently on special offer for 99 cents, making it almost as good as free. Here is the link to get Hoofprints. And here is the link to get Slickrock for free. Also, if you want to start with the first book in the series, that book, Cutter, is also on special offer for 99 cents. Here is the link.

            If you haven’t tried my mystery series yet, Slickrock has always been the overall reader favorite of my twelve novels featuring equine veterinarian Gail McCarthy. The series as a whole is set in Santa Cruz County, California, where I live, but Slickrock takes place on a horse-packing trip in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and the whole mystery occurs in that context. It’s essentially a “vacation mystery”. Sort of the vacation from hell.

            In brief: Gail embarks on a solitary pack trip in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, with just her two horses and her dog for company. Seeking peace and tranquility, she stumbles upon a soon-to-be-dead man, and is drawn into the whirlwind of events that precipitated the tragedy. It will take all of Gail’s strength and ingenuity to survive this trip, and all of her intelligence to figure out who is stalking her through the mountains. Lots of horse action—all of it based on things that have actually happened.

            The beginnings of Slickrock are buried in my distant past—the summer I was twenty-two and spent three months living by myself in a tent at a Sierra lake, with just my six month old dog for company. I wasn’t there to write a novel—no, I was after something much bigger than that. I’d fallen in love with the book, Walden, by Henry David Thoreau, and I was trying a grand experiment in solitary living, to prove or disprove the claims of that book. I meant to write something, of course. My senior project, as an English major, was a paper to be written about my time of living by myself at Burgson Lake in the mountains, and how it compared to Thoreau’s sojourn at Walden Pond.

            To that end, I kept journals while I lived at the lake, meaning to weave them into something cohesive later. I did present the paper, but have long ago lost it, but the journals, with their descriptions of my solitary life in a tent at Burgson Lake, stayed with me. Those journals were the beginning of Slickrock.

            Here I am with Joey, my six-month-old Queensland heeler, at Burgson Lake, thirty-three years ago. The photo was taken by my friend, Shery, when she drove up to spend a weekend at the lake with me.

            It wasn’t until I was thirty that I conceived the idea of writing mystery novels—more or less inspired by Dick Francis. I came up with the concept of a female equine veterinarian as a protagonist, and began by writing about cutting horses (my first novel, Cutter), as I had spent my late twenties training and showing cutting horses. By my thirties I was involved with team roping horses (which play a large part in my third and fourth novels, Roughstock and Roped). I was also taking many horseback pack trips into the Sierra Nevada Mountains on our own horses. On the longer trips, we crossed the spine of these mountains many times, going over several different passes, and camping at dozens of high Sierra lakes. The longest trips lasted two weeks or so. I kept journals on these trips, too. And gradually the concept of a pack trip mystery began to assume form.

            I wanted to write about the pack station that I had worked at, and the lakes and passes I knew. The trails and the steep, rocky terrain were big in my mind. And, of course, every wreck and near-wreck that had come our way, as well as some described to me by friends, would make their way into this pack trip story. But…I needed a plot.

            Well, as I often do, I borrowed from life. I had heard a tale of real life villainy involving horses that interested me (can’t tell you—it would spoil the story). And I had, myself, stumbled upon a very dramatic crime scene that I thought would make a good opener for the book. And then there were all my Sierra journals, written while I was up in the mountains, for background. And so Slickrock was born (and named for the infamous “slickrock”, which also plays a part in the story).

            I tried to incorporate all my real life pack trip adventures into this book, as well as my favorite places. The picture below shows me riding across Kerrick Meadows, high in the eastern Sierras, and the scene of a fairly thrilling horseback chase in Slickrock.

            The horse Gail rides in the novel is Gunner, but most of my pack trips adventures were on Flanigan, and it is his stalwart nature that is the bottom line in both the story and my real life travels. Here I am on Flanigan at Wood Lake, a lovely Sierra Lake which appears in Slickrock.

            Slickrock has always been the reader favorite of my novels—I can’t say exactly why. For me, the parts drawn from my journals that describe what it is like to be alone in these mountains are the really interesting part of the book. And I think that perhaps some readers agree. For those of you, like me, who admire Funder’s writing and blog (“It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time,” listed on the sidebar), here is Funder’s comment on Slickrock:

“And her place descriptions are amazing! Having read Slickrock I desperately want to learn to pack. She really captures the beautiful, remote, terrifying, captivating reality of the mountains. (I could do without all the calamities that befell Gail!)”

            So there you go. If that doesn’t make you want to read the book, I don’t know what will. Except the fact that it free right now on Kindle—only until the end of this week. So now is the time, if you’re interested at all. I honestly think that if you enjoy my writing on the blog, you will enjoy this novel.

            Here is the link to the Kindle editions of my books. If you do give Slickrock a try, I’d love to know what you think of it. And if you would post a review on Amazon, I’d be really grateful.

Love...and an Ordinary Horse

                                    by Laura Crum

            So lately I have had one minor negative thing after another. Nothing big, nothing important, but still, upsetting and annoying. I started a very whiney blog post about this stuff, and in the middle of it, I looked out my window and saw my bright gold palomino horse, Sunny, standing in his corral, looking up at my window with his ears pricked—like a little “spot of sunshine,” as my son says. And I smiled. How could I not? Sunny makes me smile every time I look at him. Wouldn’t you? Is he not a Barbie/princess/unicorn pony come to life?

            Bird, of Redheaded Endurance, listed on the sidebar, once said that being able to see and call to her horses from her window was one of her greatest joys (I apologize, Bird, if I’m not quoting you accurately). And that is so true for me, too. I am looking out my window at my own HORSE (let alone he’s so cute). He lives here with me on my small horse property (which I developed over a twenty year period from bare land—as I could afford it.) This is my childhood dream come true. So I got up from my whiny blog post and went down to the corrals.

            I walked past the veggie garden and gazed with my usual interest at the brushy hills that protect my little hidden hollow from view. I watched the chickens clucking and pecking in the barnyard, and I rubbed the big tiger cat’s head when he greeted me. My cute yellow horse looked at me hopefully, and met me at the gate when I got his halter. I caught him and climbed aboard, with the help of the fence. I know its not PC—no helmet, no saddle, no bridle, no boots…etc. But I just felt like doing it.

            So I rode Sunny for twenty minutes on my riding track and then turned him loose to graze. He seemed quite happy with that. I was happy just watching him from the porch.

My once ornery little yellow horse—the one I had to uhmm, “correct” quite a bit for the first couple of years I owned him-- is my buddy now. We get along so well—we are really a good team. I am so grateful for him and for my happy life. And I went back in the house and deleted that whiny blog post.

Because I love my life. And I love my ordinary little horse. He’s nothing special. Most folks wouldn’t want him. My last blog post was about training my horse, Gunner, an immensely athletic horse (still with me) who can probably move better at 32 years of age than Sunny ever moved in his life. Sunny is a clunky-moving, cold-blooded critter who flunked out as a team roping heel horse for being too slow and clumsy—and it does not take a terribly athletic horse to make a heel horse. For reference, my horse with two left feet (Plumber) made a good heel horse (see my post on Plumber here). Sunny is a good, tough, solid-minded trail horse—that about covers it. Some of my friends refer to him as my “plug.” And it’s pretty much true. But he works for me.

He, among many other things, helps me to realize that I have no real problems. Yes, there are negative people in the world, and its no fun when we end up dealing with them, and sometimes people let us down, even if they mean well—and that’s no fun either. Stuff happens and stuff breaks—and it’s a bummer and a nuisance. But my main emotion after riding Sunny was “thank you.” I am so glad that my problems are my problems—they are GREAT problems to have. My family and critters are healthy and happy, we are secure in our home, which we love. I have many good friends (lots of whom have been my friends since I was young, also some new friends that I very much enjoy, and some good internet friends) and I’ve had a wonderful career writing horse-themed mystery novels, achieving my initial goal of writing twelve books in my series featuring equine veterinarian Gail McCarthy (and a huge thank you to all of you who have read these books—especially those who have written me to let me know and/or reviewed my books—I appreciate you, too). I’ve had so much fun with my horses over the years, and I continue to have fun with them today. What more could I ask?

So a big thank you to Sunny, for reminding me of what counts. I love my ordinary horse.

And for those who are interested, Sunny features largely in my last two novels—Going, Gone and Barnstorming---which both center on trail riding adventures.

And finally, today is the last day to get the first novel in my mystery series, Cutter, for free. I’m tickled that so many people have taken me up on this offer, and I hope a few more will grab this free book today. Here is the link to get Cutter for free.

            

Wild Life....and Free Books

by Laura Crum

No, my life is not really that wild. It may have been at one time, but now I am pretty sedate. But yeah, once upon a time I liked to go bar hopping and hang out with cowboys…not to mention I hauled my horses from cutting to cutting (and then roping to roping) all over the western United States. These days I prefer sitting on the porch with a margarita in hand, contemplating the horses grazing and the roses blooming. I have had my fair share of the wild life, thank you very much.

However, living in these brushy hills by the Monterey Bay, I am surrounded by wildlife of various kinds. My horses are so accustomed to these critters that they barely glance at them, whether said critters are strolling through the corrals, or we meet them on the trails. And this is really an advantage. No de-spooking needed.

I actually love seeing the wild animals, and consider them to be every bit as interesting and delightful as the plants in my garden, which is a good thing, as the deer eat the roses, the bobcats, coyotes, hawks..etc eat the chickens, the raccoons eat everything they can find, and, well, the list just goes on and on. So today I thought I’d share some of my “wild life” with you all.

Our commonest visitor is deer. Below you see a doe and her two fawns in my yard.

Here’s a buck behind my house. I see deer on the trails all the time; I frequently see them in the horse corrals. The horses are very used to them and barely react to their presence.

Horses don’t care at all about this critter below, either. But the chickens are very bothered by her. This is a female that I saw often—she eventually brought her kits out and I saw them, too—but I didn’t get any good photos of the babies. We call her a bobcat, but she’s really a lynx. They are very common in these hills.

I often see wild animals when I go down to feed the horses in the morning. Here’s a coyote by the driveway. Horses don’t react to him at all. But the cats and chickens are scared of him—for good reason.

Many of the wild critters are drawn here by a desire to eat our chickens. Here’s a Cooper’s Hawk actually sitting on the chicken coop observing the poor things (the chickens get locked up from time to time when the predators have been taking too many).

Some wild animals are more benign. The tree squirrels don’t do any damage.

My son took this photo of one of his favorite wild things.

A wren raised her babies in a nest above our back door. My husband is six foot seven and he could reach up and take photos of them in the nest. The picture below was taken the very morning that they fledged. I watched over them all day and they successfully made it up into the brush—the mother stayed with them and took care of them. Yay!

Some wild things are a little creepy. My husband let this tarantula crawl on him, trusting in the wisdom that they can’t actually bite you. Not me.

But I do love these little fence lizards. We have lots of them.

And here’s another critter in my garden—but this one isn’t wild.

OK—there’s my wild life today. Doesn’t much resemble the wild life I had in my twenties (!)

And on the subject of books—I have been a total slacker and failed to finish editing my eighth book, Forged, in time to have it up on Kindle this week. I’ll try to get it done by next week. In the meantime, for those who don’t know, the first seven books in my western horse-themed mystery series about equine veterinarian Gail McCarthy are now available on Kindle for 99 cents. If you’d like to try them, follow this link. The order is Cutter, Hoofprints, Roughstock, Roped, Slickrock, Breakaway and Hayburner. For more about these titles go to lauracrum.com Next week the 8^th book, Forged, should be available for 99 cents, too. And the first five titles are available for free as a "borrow", if you're part of Amazon Prime (until June). The last four titles in the series-- Moonblind, Chasing Cans, Going Gone, and Barnstorming-- are still in print and are controlled by the publisher. They are available on Kindle, too—for $9.99.

But…if you’d like FREE copies of the last four books in my mystery series, you can have them (or some of you can) by contacting Susan Daniel at susan@danielpublishing.com and requesting review copies. This offer is limited to the first six people who request the books. Your only obligation is to review the books on Amazon. Can be a three sentence review, but you need to review all four books. So, those of you who are reading the series in order, this is your chance to get the last four books for FREE. You must review the books on Amazon, though.

(For those who are wondering why the reviews must be on Amazon, its because Amazon is now such a huge influence on book sales that having quite a few reviews for each book is very helpful. This is why the publisher is willing to give away six copies of each of the four titles. And any fan of the series who wants to do me a big favor—post a positive review of one—or more—of my books on Amazon. I don’t “expect” any one to do this—its an annoying little chore-- but if you happen to do it, I’ll be very grateful. And again, the first six people who request them can have the last four books in the series for FREE, in exchange for reviews on Amazon.)

Contest Winners--and Everybody Wins!

by Laura Crum

I drew the three winners of my contest out of my old cowboy hat this morning.

First place winner is Linda, who requested Cutter.

Second place is stillearning who requested Moonblind.

Third place is Kate, who also requested Cutter.

Congratulations! I hope you enjoy these stories. All three of you must email me your snail mail addresses ASAP so I can mail you the books. Email me at laurae@cruzio.com

Each of the three winners gets the title of their choice from the eleven published books of my mystery series featuring equine veterinarian Gail McCarthy. The twelfth book in the series comes out this spring (2012), by the way.

And now, for all of you who entered, here’s another way to win a free book. My publisher has agreed to send a free copy of “Going, Gone”, my most recent novel, to anyone who agrees to review it on her/his blog or on Amazon. All you have to do is email Susan Daniel at susan@danielpublishing.com and give her your snail mail address and your agreement to email her a copy of your review when you post it. So for all of you who requested “Going, Gone”, and any of you who would like to read it, here’s your chance. Send Susan an email before next Friday (August 19^th) and she will put you on the list and send you a book. Everybody can win a free book! You must email her by August 19^th, as this opportunity closes then.

For those who requested the earlier titles, I know they can be hard to find and sometimes pricey. If you really want a specific book, my friend Wally, who boards his horse with me, has copies of all the books at his feedstore. If you call the store (831-728-2244—in California), ask for Wally or Lynn and give them your credit card number, they will mail you a signed copy of any of my books. $20 for the hardcovers $15 for the trade paperbacks. This includes shipping to anywhere in the continental United States. Wally won’t ship outside that area, and he doesn’t do the internet, but if you want your book personalized, he’ll bring it over here for me to write you a message.

Someone asked about my favorite title, and that’s a hard one. Like most authors, I think, I like certain things about each book—they all have their strengths and weaknesses. The overall reader favorite is probably Slickrock. People either love or hate Breakaway, which is my darkest novel. I really like this book. The last three titles (Moonblind, Chasing Cans, and Going, Gone) have to do with raising a child, and again, people either love them or hate them. Those who hate them have (usually) never had a child and find the whole subject boring. For me, though, these books are probably my favorites because the things I’ve learned about life through having a child have been very moving to me and I’ve tried to weave these insights into the stories. And yes, there is lots of horse action and an intense mystery plot in each book as well.

Most of my books are available online and the last three can be ordered directly from the publisher. Ordering info is posted on my website—just click on my name on the sidebar to go there. Don’t forget, you can all have a free copy of “Going, Gone” in exchange for reviewing it on your blog or on Amazon. Just email Susan at susan@danielpublishing.com within the next week to request your book.

Summer Book Giveaway--Laura Crum

Three winners! You choose the book! That’s right. Now’s your chance, if you’re at all curious about what sort of books I write. Or if you’ve read some of my mystery series, but can’t find the next title (and some of the older books are hard to find). Enter this contest and if your name is drawn, I will send you the book of your choice. I am going to have first, second, and third place winners, and all will get to choose a book. So, three winners!

To enter, leave a comment on this post. The comment must include your choice of book. You can say “any of them” or “the first one”, or name a title, but indicate your preference. I will draw three names out of a hat this coming Friday and post the three winners then. If you win, you must email me at laurae at cruzio dot com and send me your snail mail address, so I can mail you the book. I am willing to mail them anywhere. The books are only available as print copies. The first eight books in the series are hardcovers, the last three are trade paperbacks (larger size paperbacks).

To find out more about my mystery series, see the covers, read reviews, and/or the first chapter of each book, click on my name on the sidebar to go to my website. (A warning—I’ve posted the first chapters from my manuscript copies, so some of them have typos, which were cleaned up by the time the books were published. I know I should go back and repost the first chapters sans typos, but website maintainance doesn’t seem to get very high priority around here. However, be assured that the books are pretty much free of the sort of errors you may find on the website.) I’ll give a short overview of the series here so you can get an idea if you might be interested.

The books feature equine veterinarian Gail McCarthy, and each book is a classic mystery. Not suspense, not romance, though there is plenty of suspense and romance included. But the genre is mystery, not glue-you-to-your-seat-with-horror suspense, or full-of-throbbing-objects erotic romance. Just to be clear.

Since Gail is an amateur sleuth, there is a certain element of unbelievability in the fact that this particular horse vet has stumbled on over a dozen murders so far—I mean, would you have her out to your barn on a call? However, this is a standard mystery premise, and with this one caveat, the books are as believable and true to life as I can make them.

Almost all the horse action is based on things I have done or seen with my own eyes, and there is PLENTY of horse action in every book. Besides the mystery plot, each story focuses on a different element of the horse world. The first book, CUTTER, revolves around cutting horses, the second, HOOFPRINTS, centers on reined cowhorses, the third, ROUGHSTOCK, on team roping and endurance riding, the fourth, ROPED, on roping and ranching, the fifth, SLICKROCK, on horse packing in the mountains, the sixth, BREAKAWAY, on trail riding, the seventh, HAYBURNER, on breaking a colt…etc.

Above and beyond the mystery plot and the realistic exploration of different aspects of the horse world, the main character, Gail McCarthy, evolves throughout the series, having various life adventures. In this sense, all twelve books constitute a very long novel that covers twenty years of one woman’s life. She begins a career, finds a boyfriend, breaks up with him, goes through a depression, finds a new boyfriend…etc. So there is some merit to reading the books in order. However, each book stands well alone as an entertaining/exciting read, and it is not necessary to have read the previous installments to enjoy any given title.

And finally, every horse wreck and veterinary adventure that has happened to me and my friends has been included—the books are a virtual encyclopedia of what can happen to a horse—again, all as true to reality as my writing skills will permit. Every horse in every book is based on a horse I have known, and all are realistic, believable horses, behaving as horses really do behave. They don’t talk, or bash the bad guys to defend their owner or any of the host of other silly/unbelievable things I have seen horses portrayed as doing, in various novels I have read. (I don’t know if this bugs you guys as much as it bugs me, but for the record, my fictional horses are “real” horses.)

I’ll give a very brief synopsis of each book here, and again, for more info, click on my name on the sidebar.

CUTTER: Veterinarian Gail McCarthy thought cutting horse trainer Casey Brooks was being paranoid with his stories of poisoned horses and sabotage, but when his blue roan mare returns riderless and Casey is found dead, she isn’t so sure.

HOOFPRINTS: Gail McCarthy is a horse vet with a hectic schedule, not to mention a horse, a new boyfriend, and a house payment, and her life is more than a little disrupted when she finds two dead bodies in the course of a routine call to a well known reined cowhorse barn.

ROUGHSTOCK: While attending the annual Winter Equine Seminar at Lake Tahoe, Gail finds one of her fellow horse vets dead, and another accused of his murder. The trail leads back to Gail’s hometown, and through the twists and turns of the team roping world, plunging Gail into a confrontation with an unlikely killer.

ROPED: A stalker haunting the ranch of an old friend creates a harrowing personal drama for Gail as she struggles to sort out a mystery involving animal rights and a bitter feud—and win a team roping event at the same time.

SLICKROCK: Gail embarks on a solitary pack trip in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, with just her two horses and her dog for company. All too soon she stumbles upon a soon-to-be-dead man, and is drawn into the whirlwind of nefarious events that precipitated the tragedy.

BREAKAWAY: Faced with a depression and some big life changes, Gail struggles to find the right path as she is confronted with the strangest mystery she has ever heard of.

HAYBURNER: Gail is called out to treat injured horses when the biggest boarding stable in the county catches fire. When a second barn fire occurs nearby, Gail finds herself in the middle of the search to catch the arsonist—before any more horses or people die.

FORGED: Gail’s horseshoer is shot in her barnyard, while shoeing her horse, embroiling Gail in a dangerous attempt to capture an elusive killer.

MOONBLIND: Gail’s cousin Jenny, who runs a Thoroughbred layup farm, complains of mysterious villains who are out to destroy her business—and harm her horses. While trying to support Jenny, Gail discovers this threat is all too real.

CHASING CANS: Legendary barrel racing trainer Lindee Stone is killed when a horse flips over backwards with her. The cops are calling it an accident, but Gail witnessed the wreck and thinks there is something fishy about it.

GOING, GONE: While on a vacation in the Sierra foothills, Gail finds that her old boyfriend, Lonny Peterson, is accused of murdering a local auctioneer. In an attempt to save Lonny, Gail ends up in a harrowing horseback race with a ruthless killer.

So here’s your chance to check out my writing for free. I hope all of you enter. Remember, you must leave a comment naming your book of choice by this coming Friday, when I will draw the winners. And if you win a book, I’d love to have you review it. Cheers--Laura