As a self published author one of the most challenging yet rewarding parts of the book publication and distribution process, is figuring out how best to market what I have written. I will admit that, while I do not have a background in marketing, I have found that the promotion piece of my job is actually one of the most rewarding. When I first started out as an author I had absolutely no idea where to begin. I read an article written my another author that basically demanded that anyone who had a service or product to sell needed to be on Facebook and Twitter. I had a Facebook account which I used to stay in touch with my family, but it was a small account and I didn’t post all that often. As for Twitter, I had no idea how even to begin to approach the beast. I may not be tech savvy, but I’m always willing to take on a new challenge, so I decided to take the bull by the horns and open a Twitter account. Once I had my account however, I really had no idea where to begin. I messaged my daughter-in-law Brennen who always seems to be up on the latest technology, and asked her how to ‘twit.” Yes I did refer to a tweet as a twit, but come on, doesn’t that make sense?

After Brennen walked me through my first tweet, I set up an author page on Facebook then set out to conquer the world. I will admit, that in the beginning, my sole intention was to use this Twitter and Facebook account as a means off promoting my books, but in the long run I have found so much more. I have met so many truly wonderful people that I would otherwise never have met. I consider many of my fans to be friends, and I have found an entire community of authors and bloggers that are some of the most wonderful people you would ever want to meet. I feel like my life is fuller and much richer with these people in it, and I have to admit, that I wouldn’t trade the relationships I have formed for all the book sales in the world.

So what is next for me now that I have created a Facebook empire? Okay maybe not an empire but I feel like I have done okay after two years. As of this writing I have: Facebook Author Page – 7500 “likes”, Personal Author Page – 665 friends and 117 followers, Kathi Daley Group Page – 782 members, Kathi Daley Birthday Club – 664 members, and Kathi Daley Recipe Exchange – 211 members.

First of all I plan to continue to do the contests, games, and giveaways that I have always done. I have freebies and giveaways every week and I just completed my fourth scavenger hunt where we had several hundred contestants following the clues to solve the murder mystery. Up next is the Kathi Daley Books Halloween Party with 20 totally awesome authors and bloggers who plan to rock your world with holiday fun.  https://www.facebook.com/events/877016315748795/

Oct. 10 – Opening Day – Intro of event
Oct. 11 – Author Kathi Daley
Oct. 12 – Author Susan Bernhardt
Oct. 13 – Sheryl Hagan-Booth – Booth Talks Books
Oct. 14 – Author Jacquie New
Oct. 15 – Lisa Kelley – Lisa Ks Book Reviews
Oct. 16 – Ren Reidy – A Little Bit of R&R
Oct. 17 – Mary Brown – MJB Reviewers
Oct. 18 – Author Julie Moffett
Oct. 19 – Author Tonya Kappes
Oct. 20 – Author Jennifer Snow
Oct. 21 – Author Amanda M. Lee
Oct. 22 – Jenna Czaplewski – Girl With Book Lungs
Oct. 23 – Author Lynn Cahoon
Oct. 24 – Kathleen J. Kaminski – Cozy Up With Kathy
Oct. 25 – Brooke Bumgardner – Brooke Blogs
Oct. 26 – Author Melanie Jackson
Oct. 27 – Author Leslie Langtry
Oct. 28 – Linda Langford – Chatting About Cozies
Oct. 29 – Author Tracy Weber
Oct. 30 – Author Mollie Cox Bryan
Oct. 31 – Halloween – everyone can post greetings

I also plan to do some “live” reader events this year. I am super excited to join Tonya Kappes, Duffy Brown, and Laura Bradford for a Mystery Train event on October 1, 2016. I think this is going to be the reader event of the year and I hope you can all join us (well, at least the first 60 who sign up.)

https://www.facebook.com/mysteryreaderevent

When: October 1, 2016 …

Beyond these events I know I will continue to attempt to balance getting to know my fans with actually writing the books that got me fans in the first place. As always, I’ll keep you updated with posts on my Facebook page: http://www.faceboo.com/kathidaleybooks – in my newsletter: http://eepurl.com/NRPDf – and through my personal blog: http://kathidaleyblog.com

Now for what you have all really been waiting for – the giveaway. To be entered to win a $25 Amazon Gift Card answer the following question in the comments below: How do you like to interact with the authors in your life? Reader events such as the train? Facebook events such as the Halloween Party? Reader Conventions? Book signings? Other? Any and all suggestions and comments will be read and taken into account as I plan my time in 2016. This same blog is posted over at the Whodunit Blog. You don’t have to read it twice but head on over and comment since each blog has its own giveaway which provides twice the opportunity to win.

I recently mentioned to an acquaintance that a friend of mine was experiencing a difficult life situation, and that although she was handling it very admirably, I was really worried about her. My acquaintance asked me how I knew this woman that I had referred to, and I told her that she was one of my friends on Facebook. My acquaintance laughed and said that Facebook friends weren’t real friends and I was wasting my time becoming involved with the ins and outs of their every day lives.

So the question of the day is: Are Facebook friends real?

Of course they are real since they do exists. At least most of them. There are some people out there with phony accounts but this blog is not going to address those particular voyeurs. The question this blog is going to address, isn’t whether or not these friends who we will most likely never meet in person are real people, but are they real friends?

In my opinion the answer is yes. These people are ABSOLUTELY my real friends. They’ve shared their ups and downs with me. I’ve worried about them and prayed for them when they have faced medical challenges, relationship issues, job losses, and other life challenges. I rejoiced with them during the special moments in their lives and laughed with them during their silly moments.  I’ve gone on vacation with them (vicariously through photos) and they in turn have shared my ups and downs and have traveled with me.

I feel like I know some of the people I have met on Facebook more intimately than I know some of the people I run into in my every day life. I care about the friends I have come to know through social media and in turn I feel like they care about me. So are Facebook Friends real? I guess we each have to decide that for ourselves, but I know that my life is fuller and richer due to the friends I share photos and updates with every day of my life.

So the question of the day is are Facebook friends real? Comment below for a chance to win your choice of a Kathi Daley Tote. I have four patterns left to choose from including Hopscotch Homicide, Grimm’s Furry Tail, Matrimony Meltdown, and Much Ado About Felines. I will announce the winner on my Facebook page on Saturday.

http://www.facebook.com/kathidaleybooks

Website http://www.kathidaley.com

The Daley Weekly. http://eepurl.com/NRPDf

So a writer, an editor, and a publisher walk into a bar… Seriously, isn’t this a great title for a blog? It’s too bad I don’t have a joke to go along with it. I guess I’ll have to write one at some point but I’m not really all that good at jokes. I’m not even sure why I started this weeks blog in that manner, but those are the first words that popped into my head when I sat down to write this so I went with them. Going with random thoughts really is what writing is all about. Sometimes you follow the spontaneous words and they lead you down a path to a plot, and other times, like this one I suspect, they lead you nowhere.

I will say that several of my plots have originated with a book cover or a title and not with a plan or even an idea of what I wanted to write about. I recently published The Legend of Tabby Hollow. When I came up with the title, with the help of my friends on the Kathi Daley Books Group page, I did not have a plot in mind. I knew the book would be a Halloween book but that was as far as I had gotten. When I sat down to write the book I knew I had to incorporate the title, so I created a magical place on Madrona Island known as The Hollow.

The book starts out with the following passage:

The hollow is a mystical place located in the center of Madrona Island. Given the rocky cliffs that encircle the area, it is protected from the storms that ravage the shoreline. The hollow is uninhabited except for the cats who reside in the dark spaces within the rocks. While most of the island’s residents stop short of referring to the hollow as haunted, it is widely accepted that not everything that happens there can be explained.

From there I just kept writing until I had a book.

Another example of starting a book from a point other than a plot idea can be explored by considering a cover. Often times I design a cover long before I ever sit down to write the book. Once I have a cover I then need to make sure that the content of the book matches the cover. This has been true with many covers, the most recent, Much Ado About Felines. I saw the graphic with the carriage and knew I had to have it. Jessica and I designed a cover, and then when I sat down to write I thought to myself, “Self, the plot needs to revolve around a ball.” I won’t say the entire plot evolved from the cover, but a lot of it did. And the story of the old man that everyone loved, originated with the cat which I’d already placed on the cover and not the man. I had designed the cover with two cats instead of one so I had to give the second cat something to do. Hence the side story of the old man and the cat who watched over him.

So back to my joke. A writer, an editor, and a publisher walked into a bar…

Nope I have nothing. Who wants to take a stab at it? Comment below with the conclusion to the joke and I will give the best answer a $25 Amazon gift card.

Not a joke teller (Yeah me neither). Comment anyway and I will pick a random winner to receive a paperback or Kindle copy of the Kathi Daley Book of their choice. Non US Kindle only.

This month I celebrate my second anniversary as a published author. As I sit in quiet reflection, I can’t help but ask myself if I could have imagined even in my wildest dreams that I would come so far and meet so many awesome people in such a short period of time. When I uploaded Halloween Hijinks for the first time my expectations were actually very low. I figured that my family and friends would by a copy and maybe a few others would stumbled across it and be willing to take a chance on a new author. To say that I was absolutely blown away when I realized that I’d sold over 3,000 books that first month would be putting it mildly.

This is the first cover:

Of course a little success can fuel a fire, and once I realized that I might actually be able to make a living as an author, I dove into the self publishing pool and never looked back. The Legend of Tabby Hollow publishes on September 15 two years after Halloween Hijinks. In that two year period I have published 32 books and, in all, have over 300,000 books in circulation across the world.

So what does this mean for my goals for the upcoming year? In September of 2013 I just wanted to sell a hundred books. In September of 2014 I hoped to expand and add a couple of new series. I now have 4 series. Zoe Donovan came first and will always be near and dear to my heart, followed by Pumpkins in Paradise shortly after. In 2015 I added The Whales and Tails Series and The Seacliff High Series.

Halloween covers for all 4 series.

I’ve actually done quite a bit of thinking about what to do next. I’d like to continue to grow and evolve as an author without really giving up anything that I already have. (Yup I know that is probably unrealistic.)

I’d love to add a new series but I have to ask myself if I can handle 5?  Or would a new series require me to wrap up one that I already have?

I’d love to do more reader events. I have a lot of people write to me and ask if I will be at this conference or that book signing. I have done little in this area up to this point due to the time commitment, but I do think that adding a few reader events will be one of my goals for 2016. I’m not quite ready to announce them yet, but I have signed up for two events in 2016 which I will be talking about on my Facebook page and in my newsletter during the next month or so. I have two others that I am considering as well.

I’ve not had an agent or publicist up to this point, choosing to do everything on my own, but I have recently sighed with an agent to explore the area of audio books for The Whales and Tails Series. If this works out I may expand this to the other series as well.

I am going to Alaska in October to do some additional research for the search and rescue series I have been talking about for the past year. I am also tossing around the idea of expanding my reach by publishing romance novels as well as cozy mysteries. I have an idea for a romance series that I need to noodle on for a bit longer before I commit, but I grew up on Harlequin Romances and would love to see my name on one someday.

As for expanding my paperback distribution, this is a subject that will take a lot of consideration. On one hand I have people ask all the time why my books aren’t in bookstores or why they aren’t available in more libraries. The easy answer is mass market publishing. In order to have your book in the larger bookstores, or chains such as Target, you really need to sign with a publisher who has an agreement with these retail outlets. Is this something I am considering for the future? Maybe. I will admit that I’m sort of a control freak. I was approached early on about the idea of publishing the Whales and Tails Series through one of the “Big 5” publishing houses but in the end I decided not to. I like being able to choose my own titles and design my own covers. I like owning my own work, and I don’t like having someone telling me that I need to cut this or add that. However, doing a series for a publishing house with mass market distribution would open a few doors, so like I’ve said several times during the course of this blog, maybe????

So there you have it. I will admit that my goals for 2015-2016 are still a bit fuzzy but I am working on them and you know I will keep you all updated. Please comment below to be entered to win a kindle or paperback copy of The Legend of Tabby Hollow (non US Kindle only). Any ol comment will do so have at it.

So, it is Thursday evening and I just realized that I never got around to writing my blog for the week and it is supposed to post in a few hours. No worries, I tell myself, just sit down and write it now. So here I am sitting at the same computer I’ve spent the entire day sitting at and I can’t seem to come up with a single original idea. I’ve decided to take my own advice and just write. The blog is titled Random Thoughts and Meaningless Musings and that is what you are about to get. I figure I’ll just start writing and we’ll see where we end up. Game? There is a giveaway at the end so just bear with me.

It’s windy outside. Really windy. And cold. Fall is definitely in the air. I like the wind. I find the sound it makes as it rustles through the leaves soothing. Of course I don’t like super hard winds since I have like a million really tall pines surrounding my house, but a steady yet gentle breeze is nice.

Interesting side note that popped into my head as I chatted about the sound of the wind, I sleep with my fan on and the sliding door to my bedroom partially open 365 days a year. I like the white noise from the fan and I like to sleep in a cold room. I might be part vampire. My husband has literally had to shovel snow out of the bedroom a few times. I’m not kidding. I mean it’s not deep but it has been known to blow in when the leaves from the trees have fallen and no longer provide a barrier.

Speaking of trees, the trees in my yard are beginning to turn. I know that within a few weeks my landscape will look like the photo I am attaching of my yard last September. Tahoe is beautiful in the fall. The mountainside is covered in red, yellow, and bright orange. It is simply amazing.

Bon Jovi is singing in the background as I bore you with my thoughts. I wish I could say that Jon Bon Jovi was actually in my home serenading me, but it’s just a recording. It’s My Life is currently playing. I really love this song. It is one of my favorites. I especially love the part that says: “It’s my life, it’s now or never, I ain’t gonna live forever.” I think that is an important lyric. I have found that in life it is important not to put stuff off. If you have a dream or a goal work now to make it happen. And yes I do mean work. Most things worth having don’t come easily so don’t wait around for your dreams to fall into your lap cause they probably won’t.

(Oh yeah he’ll do!)

Hum, what now? Let’s talk candles. At this moment I have an apple scented candle burning in the background. It smells really nice but I think I’m about ready for pumpkin. I love everything pumpkin. Pumpkin candles, pumpkin desserts, pumpkin lattes, pumpkin decorations. October is by far my favorite of all the months and Halloween in by far my favorite of all the holidays. I’m known as the decorating queen in my family. I love to bring the feel of the season into my home so I change out tabletop displays, placemats, and other adornments on a regular basis.

Of course thoughts of pumpkins leads to thoughts of Halloween. I love everything about the holiday. I especially love to go trick-or-treating with the grandkids. I make a huge pot of chili which warms us from the inside before we head out. There is a neighborhood in Tahoe that is “the” neighborhood to trick-or-treat in. Everyone really does it big in this neighborhood and the decorations are as awesome as the energy generated by thousands of kids going from door to door. I’ve attached a couple of photos from Halloweens past of my grandkids. Aren’t they cute!

Echo is sitting next to me staring at me. I’m pretty sure he is concerned that I have lost my mind and he may be right. One thing is certain and that is he wants me to quit for the day. It has been a long day and I am tired. I can hear my husband and grandkids upstairs in the kitchen so I am betting it is time for dinner. I’m not sure what is on the menu for today but it smells good. So goodnight to all of you and hopefully next week I will be back with something a bit more coherent.

Hugs!!!

Giveaway: Comment below to be entered to win a Halloween in Paradise Mug. I will choose a winner Saturday morning. I will post the winner to both this page (in a comment) and on my main Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/kathidaleybooks

I often get emails from aspiring authors who ask me for advice about their dream of becoming a writer. First of all I want to go on record as stating that I am THRILLED to help and support aspiring writers, and I fully encourage anyone who has the dream of writing a book to do so, but…

I know there is always a but.

In order to be a writer you have to be willing to write.

Here is an example of a typical email chain:

Dear Ms. Daley,
I am an aspiring writer who hopes to publish my first cozy within the next year. Any tips you might have would be welcome.
Signed, Aspiring Author

My response:
Dear Aspiring Author,
The best advice I can give you as to how to become a published author is just to write. Set a goal as to when you would like to publish, divide the number of words you’d like the book to be by the number of days to your goal, and then commit to write an average of that number of words a day.
Best of luck, Kathi

Dear Ms. Daley,
I find that I can only write on the days I feel really inspired and most days I just don’t feel inspired. How do you do it?
Signed, Uninspired.

Dear Uninspired,
Trust me there are days my brain simply won’t function but if my goal is 5,000 words for the day I write 5,000 words for the day. Yes there are times I get up the next morning and delete everything I wrote the previous day because it is total crap, but write anyway. There are times that magic arises from the crap so write your words!!!
Pulling for you, Kathi

Dear Ms. Daley,
How do you handle writers block. What if you just aren’t sure where a story is going?
Signed, Blocked and Impotent

Dear Blocked,
As I have stated before JUST WRITE. This is an actual passage (text in red) from Hopscotch Homicide. I had no idea who the killer was or where to go next. I was stumped so I started out typing blah blah blah. Yes those actual words. Then I deleted them. I then began to ask myself some questions to try to work it out.

In the following passage I was really stuck so I just inserted Zoe and we worked it out together.

Who killed Mrs. Brown?

I looked at the question for several minutes without anything coming to mind.

Why was Mrs. Brown at the school the day she was murdered?

I tapped my pen on the pad at least a hundred times. Then I drew a happy face, as well as a few random squiggles.

Nothing.

Why was Mrs. Brown making a huge pot of hamburger gravy?

This last one should be solvable. There were most likely only limited answers. The correct answer might lead to the killer. Unless some random person happened along and killed Mrs. Brown on impulse, the killer had to have known she would be at the school that day. It seemed likely the person or persons she was making the gravy for would know she planned to use the school kitchen to make the large batch, ergo, the person the gravy was intended for was the killer.

Long shot? Maybe. But at this point it was all I had to go on.

The school wasn’t open yet, so the gravy couldn’t have been for the students. The freezer at the school was being replaced, so she didn’t intend to freeze it. I’d already checked with the church and the senior center. Neither were having a potluck. Who else, I asked myself, would need the quantity of gray slop Mrs. Brown had been preparing on the day she died?

Maybe a better question, given Mrs. Brown’s reputation, was who would ask her to contribute to a potluck in the first place?

I clicked my pen open and closed. I drew a series of random shapes on my tablet. I was really, really stuck.

I looked at Charlie. He glared at me. It was obvious he thought it was time for us to be in bed. And he was right. I was getting nowhere.

“Are you ready to go back up?” I asked Charlie.

He lifted his head and wagged his tail.

“I’m really losing my edge,” I complained. “Maybe I do have too much going on and there really isn’t room left in my brain for sleuthing.”

My actions became Zoe’s actions and between us we figured it out.
Pulling for you, Kathi

Dear Ms. Daley,
Where should I start?
Signed Confused.

Dear Confused,
Anywhere. Just start. You can always change it. I usually change it. Really, you just need to WRITE! Words. Everyday. If you write every day eventually you will have a novel.
Hugs, Kathi

Dear Ms. Daley,
I finished my novel. Now what?
Signed, Nervous

Dear Nervous,
First off CELEBRATE! You set a goal and you accomplished it. Whatever happens from this point forward no one can take that away from you. Published or not, you my friend are a writer. Once you have celebrated: submit, pray, love.
Signed, So proud of you.

I always try to respond to every comment but I am actually going to be out of town for three days beginning today so I probably won’t. I will read them all and there is a giveaway so please comment anyway. 🙂

Giveaway – Comment below to be entered to win a Halloween in Paradise Book and Mug.

As most of you know I write 4 mystery series. The Zoe Donovan Series, Paradise Lake Series, and Whales and Tails Series, are traditional cozies where the mystery is always a murder. My Seacliff High series features mysteries that don’t always include a murder. To be honest I find this refreshing.

When I first started writing I found it limiting to base every book on a murder. I asked a friend in the publishing industry if he thought it would fly to write a cozy mystery that didn’t necessarily build from a murder and he said no, you pretty much gotta have a body.

So here I am after almost 2 years as an author with over 30 books under my belt and I am still asking myself the same question. It seems unnatural to me that as cozy mystery writers we build this quaint and cozy town with zero crime other than all the homicides. I get that cozy mysteries are murder mysteries but I’m playing with the idea of mixing it up a bit.

While I have not definitely decided on my plot for Santa Sleuth (Zoe Donovan #18) I am seriously considering creating a mystery that does not begin with a body. I realize that my story within a story idea has already thrown some of my readers for a loop, and I hate to mess with success too much, but I can’t help but wonder if a body free story wouldn’t be refreshing.

Comment below and let me know if you think you gotta have a body or if a body can be optional. I will choose one winner which I will announce on my Kathi Daley Books Author page on Saturday morning. Here is the link if you haven’t already found me.

http://www.facebook.com/kathidaleybooks

This weeks giveaway is for a Hopscotch Homicide Tote.

Yup, it is that time of year again, at least in the world of fiction. With three series all demanding their own Halloween book, I really had to start in August. So what can you expect from the usually abstract mind of Kathi Daley over the next few weeks? Here is a preview.

Up first is Halloween in Paradise. It will publish on August 15, and since I did not do a presale with this one, it will not be available to order prior to that date. Halloween in Paradise is set during Halloween week and features Tj and her family and friends as they partake in a variety of holiday traditions such as: costume shopping, decorating the house, trick-or-treating, and so much more. In the midst of the Halloween frenzy, Tj finds herself pulled into a series of events that occur at the high school where she works. She not only must help one of her girls to deal with the increasingly popular pastime of cyber bullying, but she must also help a student who has recently suffered a personal tragedy. And if Tj wasn’t busy enough, in walks Samantha Colton, a reporter for Second Look; a television series which takes a second look at unsolved murder cases. The case that Ms. Colton is in town to investigate is the death of a popular student after the homecoming dance ten years prior. To make matters worse, or maybe more convenient, the graduating class Holly was a part of is in town for the ten year reunion of their own homecoming. In other words, all the suspects in Holly’s murder, just happen to have converged on Serenity for the weekend. When Samantha turns up dead Tj realizes that someone has a truth they don’t want uncovered.

Halloween in Paradise will also introduce a new doggy character named Pumpkin. Isn’t she cute? Pumpkin will be a regular in the series beginning with this book. Don’t worry Echo is still very much in the picture as well. Pumpkin is a puppy that Gracie finds and campaigns to keep.

After Halloween in Paradise we revisit Cait and Cody with The Legend of Tabby Hollow which publishes on September 15. There is a presale if you are interested.  The hollow is a mystical place steeped in legend where only the cats who roam the island live. It is said that the hollow is haunted by the first settler to the island who lost his life and his head when the founding families arrived and built the fishing village of Harthaven. While most locals won’t dare enter the hollow least they fall victim to the headless poltergeist that haunts the area, Cait makes regular pilgrimages into the interior to check on the cats. The book opens with one of these expeditions, but this time Cait meets a messenger who leads her to something she really wishes she’d hadn’t seen. As with all of my holiday books, the murder mystery is investigated amongst holiday celebrations and updates on the characters lives. I don’t want to give too much away, but let’s just say that Maggie has a secret, Cait and Cody get up close and personal, Destiny must decide the fate of her baby, and Cait meets an Angel who has come to help a motherless child.

Meet Ichabod. The kitty guest star of the story.  Isn’t he a beautiful cat? I love his bewitching eyes and thought he was perfect for the story.

And last but not least is Ghostly Graveyard. It will publish in October. I am shooting for October 1 but I just started it so I am not going to set up a presale until I get a better feel for how long it will take to write. I am really enjoying the interactive story with Phyllis, and plan to continue with it for at least a few more books, but it does make it a bit more challenging to write. I can’t provide a ton of detail about the story since I don’t plot my books and I’m still writing it, but here is what I know. Zoe has a new nemesis, a man named Duncan Wright. After very publically threatening his life, you guessed it, he turns up dead. Zoe and the gang must try to figure out who really did it before Salinger decides that maybe Zoe isn’t as innocent as he’d like to believe. There will also be the usual holiday events which occur as part of Ashton Falls Haunted Hamlet. These events include a street carnival and haunted graveyard. Alex is in a play, Scooter is busy with soccer, and Phyllis and the girls are celebrating their first Halloween together.

So there you have it. Three Halloween books from Kathi Daley Books are headed your way.

To win a kindle or paperback copy of Halloween In Paradise plus a Halloween in Paradise mug, comment below with your favorite Halloween tradition. (Sorry US only. NON US can request a kindle copy of the book by commenting below.)

I used to wonder if the author had to be in love with her leading men to write a convincing love story. After falling in love with a few of my own leading men, I have to say the answer to that question is yes. (Sorry honey)

It is my opinion that a huge part of the success of the Zoe Donovan Series is due to the romance between Zak and Zoe. What is interesting about this is that Zak was not even part of the original script. I was writing the scene at the events committee meeting in Halloween Hijinks and in walked this rich and gorgeous guy that Zoe hated on sight. I didn’t plan him and I certainly didn’t expect him to take on a leading role, but by the time I typed “The End” I was totally in love with Zak and I realized that Zoe was totally in love with him as well.

Let me back up a bit so that this all makes sense. I have stated many times that the Zoe Donovan Series just sort of happened. I was messing around on Facebook and I got this idea to share my page with my dog. I quickly jotted down the paragraph that begins with According to my Facebook page, which I share with Charlie, my half terrier/ half mystery dog, we’re in a relationship with our two cats… and then I kept writing until I had a book.

This is true. I had however had an idea to write a series that featured three best friends: the protagonist, her best girlfriend, and her best boyfriend. My favorite television series of all time is Buffy The Vampire Slayer. I know that may seem odd since I’m not really into vampires, but I LOVE the dynamic created by the best friend trio (Buffy, Xander, and Willow.) I wanted to recreate this in my own writing and every one of my series have started off with the best friend trio as the main cast.

Zoe Donovan (Zoe, Ellie, Levi)

Paradise Lake (Tj, Jenna, Kyle)

Whales and Tails (Cait, Tara, Danny)

Seacliff High (Alyson, Trevor, Mac)

My second favorite leading man next to Zak is Cody from the Whales and Tails series. I actually considered having Camden Bradford from Romeow and Juliet become Cait’s love interest but Cody showed up and stole the show. Cait and Cody have taken a little longer to kickstart their relationship, but I’m writing The Legend of Tabby Hollow right now and I can promise smoochies are on the horizon.  Cody, like Zak, is the strong supportive type who loves with his whole heart and will do anything for the woman he commits to. He is a retired Navy Seal who is strong both physically and emotionally and exactly what Cait needs to become the woman she is meant to be.

As for Tj’s love life from the Paradise Lake Series, Tj has struggled rather than finding true love right off the bat. I initially intended that Dylan would be Tj’s love interest and even wrote the first couple of books in the series that way, but Dylan never clicked for me. I’m not sure why, he was a perfectly fine character but I wasn’t feeling it, and I knew if I wasn’t feeling it my readers wouldn’t be feeling it, so I decided to go another direction.  Currently Tj is in a relationship with her high school sweetheart Hunter. I’m honestly not sure how this will end up. I like Hunter as a character, and I like the fact that he has a history with Tj, but I’m still not sure that I’m in love with him the way I am with Zak and Cody. On one hand I suppose it is possible to write him as a love interest for Tj even if I have not as of yet fallen in love with him as an author, but I’m not sure that the passion Zak feels for Zoe or Cody feels for Cait will come through between Hunter and Tj unless the good doctor can find a way to steal my heart.

So what about Alyson from the Seacliff High Series and her love life? Currently she is in a very casual relationship with a high school senior named Devon. It’s already been established that Devon will graduate mid year and move onto other pursuits so I don’t see this being a long term relationship. Alyson is in high school and she lives with a lot of uncertainty in her life, so I don’t see her getting into a serious relationship with anyone for the time being. She will date and may even fall in love but I predict that best friend Trevor and super dog Tucker will be the main men in her life for the foreseeable future.

So who is your favorite book boyfriend? Comment below to be entered to win a Hopscotch Homicide Tote and a copy of the book.

People often ask me about my covers. They wonder if I work with a graphic artist or if I do them myself.  The answer is both. When I first started writing I did all my own covers using a program called GIMP. It’s an awesome program but I was only minimally skilled at using it, so while my covers were acceptable they weren’t really awesome.  Here are a few of my original efforts.

When I was writing Zoe Donovan #9, Haunted Hamlet, I wanted to combine two graphics, one on the top and one on the bottom, but was having a hard time getting them to blend. I posted my work in progress on Facebook and asked if anyone had any suggestions. An angel named Jessica Fisher commented to my post and offered to work with the images and see what she could do.  Here are the two graphics along with the finished product.

Once I got a glimpse of how really talented Jessica was I asked her if she was willing to take on an even more challenging task. She was. I wanted to use a Christmas interior I found for a Thanksgiving book. The image below is the original graphic followed by the finished product. Can you believe it is even the same graphic? She not only changed the view though the window from winter to fall, but she eliminated the tree and stockings, extended the floor, and added a new rug. She also added the grate in front of the fireplace as well as all the fall decor. Once I saw how really talented Jessica was I asked her if she would like to work with me on a permanent basis. Luckily she did and the rest is history.

Jessica and I have settled into a routine of sorts. I come up with the idea and the base graphic, I then give her my wish list. She manipulates the graphic to meet my needs and after a series for emails we have a finished product. Jessica really is very talented and I really do test the limits of that talent at times. I usually send her a graphic followed by the words, “I really like this but I want to move this, eliminate that, make this bigger and that smaller, etc. Somehow she manages to make it work.

Comment below with your favorite Kathi Daley Books cover to be entered to win a Hopscotch Homicide tote.