Shalanna Collins

The winner of the 2011 Oak Tree Press First Mystery Novel Competition, NICE WORK by Denise Weeks, is LIVE on Amazon! 366 pages in sturdy trade paperback. Lasts for weeks with no spoilage and very little dust collecting!

And my Pomeranian keeps tinkling on my shoes. Please help send him to obedience school: buy this funny puzzler! (And at 10 cents per book royalty, I need to sell a LOT of books to teach him "hold it until we get outsi--NO! NO!")

A traditional mystery with an edge, NICE WORK is the first book in the Jacquidon "Snoop Sisters" Carroll series. Jacquidon Carroll could've killed her boss when he downsized her--or so the police think. Can she and her sister find the real killer in the maze of BDSM clubs and secret societies that her (ex-)boss turns out to have been involved in before it's too late?

Hey, just like FIFTY SHADES OF--no, not exactly. In this hilarious romp, there's no explicit stuff--everything's played for laughs. It's a "Snoop Sisters" sort of game, like those in Anne George's great Southern Sisters series. And on the Oak Tree Press sales site, it's on SPECIAL for $12 with free shipping. What a deal!

The book is LIVE on Amazon.com. Please, even if you can't purchase a copy and help send my Pomeranian to obedience school, click through and LIKE the book on that Amazon page. This helps the price on Amazon come down as the ranking goes up (or so I am told by the Data Fairies). It's a perfect beach read, or will last you for several absorbing hours while curled up under the A/C.

<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Nice-Work-Deni...2808986&sr=1-4" TARGET=_blank>http://www.amazon.com/Nice-Work-Denise-Weeks/dp/1610090403/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1342808986&sr=1-4</a>

But wait! There's more!

After much bullying on my part of the long-suffering and amazing Oak Tree Press sales site people, there is a special release date SALE on their direct sales site for ordering NICE WORK!

<a href="http://www.oaktreebooks.com/Shop%20OTP.htm" target="_blank">http://www.oaktreebooks.com/Shop%20OTP.htm</a>

Page down to the "N" section, about twenty-four PAGE DOWNs. Click on ADD TO CART button. Don't worry--you get the special price of $12, which you will see as the shopping cart window opens.

The newest, hottest blockbuster is FIFTY SHADES OF GRAY, which deals (eventually; you have to stick with it for a while, I am told) with BDSM. Well, MY book deals with a murder whose roots are in a BDSM community gone wrong! It's played for laughs, granted, as my naive young Snoop Sister sleuths have to go to clubs and get on mailing lists to try to figure out where to look for clues. But this mystery is edgy! You'll be among the first to read this book, which is BIG and LONG. That means it's more than a couple of hours' reading. It has a BEACH BOOK potential. No explicit stuff and no awful cussin', either. Funny stuff. Sisterly banter. Think the Snoop Sisters, the Thin Man movies, and Anne George's late lamented Southern Sisters series. My family can FINALLY read something of mine without whining about "fairy tale stuff" and "I hate magic because it isn't real/is of the DEBBIL/is stooopid." Really!

YOU GET A BLAZING HOT DISCOUNT!!

My publisher has put the book up on the sale page with its normal suggested retail price listed in the description. This price would make anyone gag and faint. "You think you're David Foster Wallace's protege or something?" Because this trade paperback is 366 pages. Yes, sports fans, you read right. We managed to keep this one big. BUT WE ARE SELLING IT FOR LESS THAN LESSER BOOKS!

When you click the pre-order yellow button that reads in green "ADD TO CART," your system will go to the PayPal cart window--and you will see that the book is on pre-order sale for $12.00. YES! WHEN YOU CLICK ON THE BUTTON!

TWELVE DOLLARS!

This is cheaper than John Grisham's latest, which the Faithful Cousin just picked up at the airport in trade paper at 400 pages, for $16. And funnier!

THIS IS A GREAT DEAL!

FREE SHIPPING!

BONUS!! If you buy the book and then review it on Amazon (and this can be any review; if you really dislike it and can construct a cogent review that isn't like the ones written by fourth-graders who don't understand what the teacher has told them to read and review for class, I will be happy to hear any and all of your thoughts), YOU SHOULD THEN E-MAIL ME. I WILL SEND YOU A CODE BY RETURN E-MAIL that will let you GET A FREE OAK TREE PRESS BOOK from the selfsame OTP page, ANY OTP BOOK AT ALL!

A FREE BOOK just for reviewing the book on Amazon! This is a special arrangement with my publisher because she is awe-inspiring and she likes me best (ha). If you want the code printed on a bookmark, say so, and we'll do the deal by snailmail.

NOTE: If you want an autographed copy, mention that, and I'll send you an autographed bookplate and my various bookmarks/decorative objects. If you are one of the first twenty-five responders on this, you will also get a free pen!

A FREE PEN! YIPPEE! HOORAY!! WHAT A DEAL! Okay, it's kind of silly, but hey, it's free stuff. (Right now, I only have 25 pens left. If I sell any books, I'll re-order those. It's neat to "accidentally" leave them around on bank counters and grocery store checkout stands and think that people are picking them up and perhaps noticing my pretty little cartoon and name and website address.)

If you feel that an autographed copy has to be an AUTOGRAPHED COPY where I write on the page, come to one of my signings. I'll be signing in September, possibly in August, in Dallas/Ft Worth/Fairview/Allen and in Plano and in Austin and in Oklahoma City/Norman and various other locations to be announced. You could mail me the book and I could mail it back, but that gets expensive and my signature is not yet worth what Clark Gable's goes for.

I think it's worth giving the book a chance. After all, it won the Dark Oak contest. It has finaled in the St. Martin's contest two years in a row (several years ago). It can't be any WORSE than "Twilight." (Kidding!! Kidding!!)

Wouldn't it be fine if the book climbed out of the Amazon ranking pits of around 456,666 or so to some more reasonable number like 13,000 or 6,999. My mother (aged 82) could finally brag to her pals at bridge and bingo that her daughter had made something of herself. "What, I don't know," she'd continue, "but something, at long last."

I am thrilled that Oak Tree Press has awarded me the prize and in effect consented to take a chance on me. I have assured the publisher that I will make my Close Personal Friends and family members buy copies as soon as possible. All six of them have done so. Will you be next? *music swells, tension rises*

What the heck--an entire book that costs about the same as a fast-food meal or a dinner out (at least these days! I paid $18 for two dang cheeseburger meals at Whataburger the other day, and I didn't even GET one of them because I am still on that dadblasted super-restrictive "not even dirt" diet).

I pray that NICE WORK becomes a "keeper" for at least a few of y'all. If not, you can always donate it to a used book store or to a nursing home and take it off your taxes as a charitable contribution. That's the beauty of a real paper book!

Comments or questions are welcome here or at any of my other blogs.

My Official Author Blog That Won The Mayonnaise Jar Award For Most Fascinating Creative Writing Blog

<a href="http://deniseweeks.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">http://deniseweeks.blogspot.com/</a>

My Other Official Author Blog for my YA/fantasy scribing alter ego, Shalanna Collins

<a href="http://shalannacollins.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">http://shalannacollins.blogspot.com/</a>

My personal private Super Sekrit Journal intended only for Close Personal Friends and Weird Al Yankovic

<a href="http://shalanna.livejournal.com/" target="_blank">http://shalanna.livejournal.com/</a>

The book's own blog (yes, my editor insisted--but it IS cute if you've read the books or like diabetes-friendly recipes and special offers on such oddities as fur-lined soap dishes)

<a href="http://jackiesjotting.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">http:/jackiesjotting.blogspot.com/</a>

Buy da book ("Ya knows ya wants ta"--Popeye)

<a href="http://www.oaktreebooks.com/Shop%20OTP.htm" target="_blank">http://www.oaktreebooks.com/Shop%20OTP.htm</a>

I have to stop now, as I'm running out of links. Keep cool out there! Eat a Popsicle! Don't do anything I wouldn't do.

Or at least if you DO, don't let people find out. *wink*