Updates from the Inside

by Bethany Maines

COVID Update: Social distancing and sheltering-in-place continues, my time spent googling “how to look good on webcam” has increased and Facebook ads have become increasingly applicable.  Why, yes, I do want that ridiculous photography gadget.  However did you know? I have learned that even with headphones on my daughter yells at her online schoolwork games like they’re sporting events.  “Giraffes don’t belong there!”  As part of my attempts to maintain my introvert lifestyle and avoid my family who are now EVERYWHERE I have started reading romance novels on Radish, an app for episodic romance novels that lets you browse by your preferred trope.  Werewolf biker romance?  Sure, why not.  Anything to forestall another round “do we have any more paper towels?” Because no, we don’t. 

Regular Update: I have a new book coming out!  In fact, I have two.  Shark’s Fin is a mystery thriller and book four of the Shark Santoyo Crime Series.  It arrives in May and because there’s a wee bit of a cliff hanger, I’ve decided to put out book five, Peregrine’s Flight a month later.  The Shark series is ridiculously fun to write, with wickedly good good guys and wonderfully bad bad guys, each book takes readers on a fresh adventure as Shark and Peri inch closer to taking down the big mob boss.  It’s gritty, funny, and full of twists and turns, you can blast through all three Shark Santoyo novels on Kindle Unlimited and then pick up Shark’s Fin in May and Peregrine’s Flight in June!

SHARK'S FIN

Book 4 of the Shark Santoyo Series
Release Date: May 12, 2020

When Shark Santoyo made a deal with the FBI to flip on Geier—the boss of The Organization— he thought he’d be done in a few weeks. But six months later Shark is faced with an FBI handler who is working against him, an assassination investigation and an increasingly erratic Geier. But as the threats mount, Shark realizes that if he wants to make it out of this mess alive, he’s going to need the help of the only girl who has ever held his trust and his heart—Peregrine Hays.  Peri and Shark believe together they can make it through anything. But they’ve never taken on both the FBI and Geier before.

Praise for the Shark Santoyo Series: "Anti-heroes, bad guys, uncles and the dynamic crime-fighting duo of Shark and Peri equal reading bliss, especially if you like some heart, brains and wit with your down-and-dirty grit. All I can add is READ IT." --Tome Tender Book Blog

READ OR BUY THE SERIES NOW: https://amzn.to/3aUhDuA
PRE-ORDER SHARK’S FIN: https://amzn.to/34km8fd

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Bethany Maines is the award-winning author of the Carrie Mae Mysteries, San Juan Islands Mysteries, Shark Santoyo Crime Series, and numerous short stories. When she's not traveling to exotic lands, or kicking some serious butt with her black belt in karate, she can be found chasing her daughter or glued to the computer working on her next novel. You can also catch up with her on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and BookBub.

Shark's Hunt

by Bethany Maines

Yesterday was the release day for the third novel in my Shark Santoyo Series – Shark’s Hunt.  The series is a cross between Veronica Mars and Goodfellas. It’s got violence (but no gore, I don’t do gore), humor, mystery and a hero and heroine who might be smarter than everyone else, but still might not be smart enough to get themselves out of trouble.  While each book follows a new adventure there is an overarching plot through the series that has been tricky to plot and fulfill in each new book.  The document that tracks my timeline is now multiple pages and the spreadsheet of characters is extensive as I have to track who lives and dies (and when) as well as their various affiliations. Writing this series has been an adventure and I hope that the readers enjoy it with me.

SHARK's INSTINCT (#1) - $1.99: https://amzn.to/2W7Wx48
SHARK'S BITE (#2) - $2.99: https://amzn.to/2KUEmOt
SHARK'S HUNT (#3) - $2.99: https://amzn.to/2W4Hf0m

Also available to be read on Kindle Unlimited.

Sequel-itis

by Bethany Maines

Recently, I was discussing series and sequels with another writer.  The general question was how to connect an overarching story to an individual story.  If the books plotline makes sense how do I add in the greater plotline without frustrating the reader with not enough answers, or annoying them with too many threads that don’t pertain to the current story?  As we hashed through how to accomplish this we agreed that previous generations of writer’s didn’t have as much expectation to connect their sequels or series.

No one expected any of Jane Austen’s characters to pop up in her other books or link to each other to create an “Austen Universe.”  Hercule Poirot went on mystery after mystery, but his character didn’t evolve enormously and there was no evil mastermind to hunt book after book.  Even in the pulp era, Tarzan went on adventure after adventure, making incremental progress in his character development, until eventually we just had the Son of Tarzan because there was nothing else left.

The idea of a long running story arc seems more specifically tied to television and serial movies.  And with the rise of streaming television and binge-watching it seems more prevalent than ever.  When I can watch an entire seasons worth of TV at once I don’t have to worry that questions won’t get answered or miss the little clues from three weeks ago.  The advent of streaming television has made it easier for TV writers to include a “Big Bad” for the season or to have episodes that don’t include a “villain of the week.”  But novels don’t have the luxury of releasing all at once.  It’s very difficult to hoard up enough material to release like that for one thing.  And most writers can’t write at a pace that would produce quality sequels in a short span of time. But it seems clear that desire for that kind of material is there.

My Shark Santoyo Crime Series is an experiment in this over-arching story line and as we lead up to the release of Shark’s Hunt (#3) on April 23^rd I find myself wondering if readers will enjoy the progression.  I’m excited to have the next “episode” out in the hands of readers.  Hopefully, they stick around for part four.

Pre-order on Amazon now - Shark's Hunt

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Bethany Maines is the author of the Carrie Mae Mystery Series, San Juan Islands Mysteries, Shark Santoyo Crime Series, and numerous short stories. When she's not traveling to exotic lands, or kicking some serious butt with her fifth degree black belt in karate, she can be found chasing her daughter or glued to the computer working on her next novel. You can also catch up with her on YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.

It's All Video, Video, Video...

by Bethany Maines

Recent trends in social media and marketing have shown that video is on the rise. According to a recent white paper from Cisco, “globally, IP video traffic will be 82 percent of all consumer Internet traffic by 2021, up from 73 percent in 2016.” For marketers that means being without video capabilities may make it harder for them to connect with consumers.  Or, for authors, that it may be important to add video marketing to their books promotions.

As an author and a graphic designer, I find this both frustrating and exciting.  Marketing a book is already expensive enough for an author (unless you’re Nicholas Sparks or one of the other big names, and very few of us are). Adding video to the budget can potentially be a problem. Also, concepting and scripting for video is a particular talent that may not be something an author excels at.  But recently, I’ve been working with my business partner (who has more video experience than I do) to create short promo videos for my upcoming book releases.  It has been really thrilling to see imagery, text, and audio come together in a way that feels like my stories.  And now I can reveal my first video!  I hope you enjoy it.  Let me know in the comments if you think I hit the mark.

The Shark Santoyo Crime Series: When twenty something Shark got out of prison and made a deal with Geier, the boss of his old gang, he knew he’d be walking into trouble, but he never expected to meet the teenage crime savant Peregrine Hays. The knife-wielding beauty may fuel his dreams, but Peregrine has secrets of her own, and soon Shark is swept up in a whirlpool of murder, revenge, and love. Both streetwise and crime-hardened, Shark and Peri seem like a perfect bloody team as they battle crooked federal agents, sex traffickers, and gangs in search of vindication. But when Shark is faced with an enemy that knows him better than anyone else, he and Peri learn that their options may be staying together OR staying alive…

Shark’s Bite (book #2) Available: April 17^th  PREORDER NOW

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Bethany Maines is the author of the Carrie Mae Mystery Series, Tales From the City of Destiny, San Juan Islands Mysteries, Shark Santoyo Crime Series, and numerous short stories. When she's not traveling to exotic lands, or kicking some serious butt with her fourth degree black belt in karate, she can be found chasing her daughter or glued to the computer working on her next novel. You can also view the Carrie Mae YouTube video or catch up with her on Twitter and Facebook.

Edity Edity Edit

by Bethany Maines

This past week has been consumed by edits for the second book in my Shark Santoyo Crime Series - Shark's Bite. There's nothing like a keen eyed editor to make you realize how many times you use the word "shrug." Or nod.  Or dear God, how many times will my characters smile.  So many times.  Is there another way to say "smile" without actually using the word "smile"?  I may go mad looking up "grin" in the thesaurus.

When I get a manuscript back from an editor I make multiple passes through to make the requested changes and to make any changes to answer questions or fix problems an editor may have pointed out. The first time I make it through the manuscript I think I'm so clever. Then I actually read it and I think, "uh, I wrote that?" The word repetition, the sameness of gestures! And what about scene setting? The third time through I think... "Not bad, except for that one part.  That needs work."  Then by the fourth and fifth rounds I'm hunting for typos and hoping like hell I haven't put any fresh ones in with my changes. Finally, when I think I'll go blind staring at it and I can't think of one more thing to change, then back to the editors it goes. Then it comes back and I agree to fix all the terrible typos I managed to miss in the previous five rounds of read-throughs and then, finally, finally, off to layout it goes.

And after all of that, it's still a fairly sure bet that someone will still find a typo.  And that's when I make this face:

Shark's Bite available 4.17.18. Pre-Order Today

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Bethany Maines is the author of the Carrie Mae Mystery Series, Tales From the City of Destiny, San Juan Islands Mysteries, Shark Santoyo Crime Series, and numerous short stories. When she's not traveling to exotic lands, or kicking some serious butt with her fourth degree black belt in karate, she can be found chasing her daughter or glued to the computer working on her next novel. You can also view the Carrie Mae YouTube video or catch up with her on Twitter and Facebook.

A New Series with Bite!

by Bethany Maines

I’ve been working very hard this year on multiple projects and I’m finally beginning to be able to share some of them with you.  I’m excited to announce that October will see the release of Book 1 of my new Shark Santoyo Crime Series.  Launching a new series is incredibly difficult and one of the hardest things to garner are reviews on reputable sites like Amazon and Goodreads.  So toward that end I’m giving all of you the opportunity to become a part of my Advance Reader Team.  Sign up using the form below and you’ll be taken to the down load page to get a free digital copy of Shark’s Instinct and in a few weeks I’ll send you a reminder email to leave a review.  That’s it.  No strings, just a free book.  I hope you’ll join me as I venture into this new series!

Shark’s Instinct: Fresh out of prison and fresh out of luck, twenty-something Shark wants back into The Organization. But when Geier, the mob boss with a cruel sense of humor, sends Shark to the suburbs to find out who’s been skimming his take, Shark realizes he’s going to need more than his gun and an attitude to succeed. With the clock ticking, Shark accepts the help of the mysterious teenage fixer, Peregrine Hays, and embarks on a scheme that could line his pockets, land him the girl and cement his reputation with the gang—if he makes it out alive.

PRE-ORDER HERE or join the Advanced Reader Team using the form below!

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Bethany Maines is the author of the Carrie Mae Mysteries, Wild Waters, Tales from the City of Destiny and An Unseen Current. You can also view the Carrie Mae youtube video or catch up with her on Twitter and Facebook.