QuickJAB

I Always Wanted To Be A Spy

I Always Wanted to be a Spy 29 6x9 new girl with gun THRILLER 2

MAGGIE SLOAN’s lifelong dream to be a spy began when she was four years old and already a focused, self-trained spy. After college, Maggie’s job searches are futile despite her willingness to consider diverse employment opportunities, until the county library system hires her as a librarian.

When Maggie’s brilliant observational talents and her potential to expose complex criminal activity draw the attention of an international ring, she becomes their target. However, a senseless murder changes her life forever, and MAGGIE transforms from prey to predator.

Will the librarian with the soul of a spy and the unusual security team stop the desperate kingpins or will she become the latest victim? It all comes down to kill or be killed.

 

I ALWAYS WANTED TO BE A SPY

 

REMEMBER!

If you love Maggie’s story, leave a review, especially if you are interested in reading another MAGGIE SLOAN adventure!

 

 

 

QuickJAB

Book Expo at The Villages

Expo The Villages Dec 2018.jpg

My books are ready for the hordes of readers who are expected to bust down the doors at the Book Fair/Expo at The Villages in Florida. The Villages is a huge retirement community in Central Florida lovingly referred to “Land of the Blue Hairs” by people who are old enough to remember ladies with blue hair before it was fashionable to have pasteled and multi-color hair. After yesterday when I was almost run down three times in the parking lot, I call it the “Land of the Zooming Maniac Golf Cart Drivers.”

So how was it? I chatted with new friends, sold books, enjoyed seeing old friends, laughed a lot, and will definitely go back next year.

My favorite:

Man <Flips through book>: How much is Pink Baby Alligator?

Me: Ten dollars.

Man: Will you take eight?

Me: No.

Man: <reads back cover>: How much is it normally?

Me: Ten dollars.

Man: I really want it for my grandson.

Me: ….

Man: What would you say if I told you I have only five dollars?

Me: Go make a friend.

Man <cracks up>: I’ll pay your ten dollars if you’ll sign it to my grandson and let me take a picture of you with the book.

Me: You drive a hard bargain.

Man: <laughs harder. Buys book, asks wife to take a picture of him and me with the book, takes a picture of me with the book, and walks away still laughing.>

 

QuickJAB

Author, Subspecies Independent

Indie Author

I’m an Independent Author, a businesswoman, and an entrepreneur.  I’m surprised when I tell people, even other writers, that I’m an Indie Author their response is “What’s that?”

I want to say, “I write for Indiana Jones.” Wouldn’t that be the coolest answer ever? But instead, I stick with the mundane. “A free-agent author.” Then I worry I might appear on some fantasy football draft.

Their response, “Oh. Self-published.” Do they even realize how much disdain drips out of their mouths and onto their shirts? Ewwww.

My answer: I flip the book over and point at the publisher logo. And give them the dreaded Mom Stink Eye.

My publishers are indie businesses, not traditional publishers. More entrepreneurship. No advances, no agents, no on-staff editors, no hundreds of books published a month.  And I have complete control over the creative compositions, my novels, from start to finish.

My readers love what I write and read my books. And even review my books! I adore my readers.

Oh. If you see Indie, tell him I said Hi. Better yet, tell him to drop by the farm for a homemade brownie.

 

 

 

QuickJAB

UPDATE Author Highlights ~ Susie H. Baxter

Susie Baxter - 2_2 for back covrAWARD-WINNING AUTHOR!

**UPDATE**

Susie H. Baxter‘s novel, Pumping Sunshine: A Memoir of My Rural Childhood, received the prestigious RPLA FIRST RUNNER UP Award for a Published Novel in addition to FIRST PLACE for a Published Autobiography or Memoir at the Florida’s Writers’ Conference on October 22, 2018.

Congratulations, Susie!

About Susie H. Baxter

Susie H. Baxter serves as Creative Nonfiction Editor for Bacopa Literary Review, the annual print journal of the Writers Alliance of Gainesville, and teaches memoir writing at Santa Fe College.

During her career as an acquisitions editor and publisher for a health-science publishing house in St. Louis, Baxter commissioned dozens of successful clinical reference books, authored by world renowned physicians. Recognition for her success included Times Mirror’s coveted Editor-of-the-Year Award.

She is the author of three books: C. G. and Ethel, a Family History; Write Your Memoir, One Story at a Time; and Pumping Sunshine, A Memoir of My Rural Childhood, and a finalist in the Royal Palm Literary Award competition, sponsored by the Florida Writers Association.

Susie H. Baxter Author Page on Amazon         susiehbaxter.com

Interview with Susie H. Baxter

Q. How would your 10-year-old self react to what you do?
A. She would not be surprised that I am currently renovating an old house—scraping peeling paint and cutting glass to replace broken window panes. But she would be surprised that I had a career in health-science publishing where I recruited physicians to write medical references, and that I have written a book about her childhood.
Q. What is your definition of success? 
A. Success is achieving a goal set by one’s self, no matter how large or small.
Q. What is a dream you have that you’ve yet to achieve? 
A. To consistently be relaxed and organized.
Q. If you see a puddle on the ground, do you walk around it or over it? 
A. At the age of five I stepped into it and ruined new shoes my parents bought on credit. Today I would walk around it. For sure. The punishment for my naivety is still vivid.
Q. What tips do you have for a new writer? 
A. Join a writing group so you can get encouragement and feedback. Trust your gut, but if two or more readers tell you a change is needed, believe it.
Thank you, Susie!