Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Gratitude

by Kathleen Ernst

I wrote my first novel for adults when I was fifteen. It was not very good, of course, but I knew I’d discovered what I wanted to do.

Twenty years and ten or twelve novels later, I sold a book. It happened to be a young adult novel. One thing led to another in the juvenile/teen world. With the exception of a nonfiction book for adults, all of my published books have been written for young readers.

OWM Until now. Old World Murder: A Chloe Ellefson Mystery will officially be released on October 1. Advance-order copies are already finding their way into readers’ hands.

I love writing for children and teens, and don’t plan to give it up. Still, it’s awfully nice to sit down at the grownup table, thirty-five years after writing that first manuscript! I had a blast writing Old World Murder, am hard at work on book 2 in the series, and have ideas for more bouncing around in my head.

I am enormously grateful to all the readers who make it possible for me to do what I love.

I’ve got a blog tour set up for the month of October. Sure, I hope to spread a little buzz about the book. But I’ll also be giving a book away at each stop—winner’s choice of Old World Murder or something from my backlist. It’s a small way of saying thank you to some of the wonderful people who love mysteries, and take the time to keep in touch online. I hope you’ll drop in. You might get lucky!

I already have.

Blog Tour Schedule

10/2 – Creating Characters Readers Care About – Three Essential Traits
Poe’s Deadly Daughters
http://www.poesdeadlydaughters.blogspot.com/

10/4 – Recipe For Promotion – Are You Missing An Ingredient?
Visual Arts Junction
http://www.visualartsjunction.com/

10/5 – Writing For Grownups, Writing For Kids
Creatures & Crooks
http://www.cncbooks.com/blog

10/6 – Planting Seeds, Growing a Series
The Cozy Chicks
http://www.cozychicksblog.com/

10/7 – Reenacting For Novelists
Mary E. Trimble’s Blog
http://trimble.web.officelive.com/blog.aspx

10/8 – Handwork
Killer Crafts & Crafty Killers
http://anastasiapollack.blogspot.com/

10/11 – Start Your Mystery With A Bang!
Mystery Writing Is Murder
http://mysterywritingismurder.blogspot.com/

10/12 – Interview
Beth Groundwater’s Blog
http://bethgroundwater.blogspot.com/

10/13 – Harpers Ferry – People, Past, Place
Repeating History
http://www.mmjustus.blogspot.com/

10/15 – Chloe’s Maple Blueberry Cake
Vintage Cookbooks
http://vintagecookbooks.blogspot.com/

10/17 – Ethnic Eating
Mystery Lovers’ Kitchen
http://www.mysteryloverskitchen.com

10/19 – Have You Got What It Takes To Write A Mystery?
Heidi Thomas’s Blog
http://heidiwriter.wordpress.com/

10/20 – Revisiting My Past
Women Only Over Fifty
http://woofersclub.blogspot.com/

10/22 – Culture Clash
Thoughts In Progress
http://www.masoncanyon.blogspot.com/

10/25 – Chloe & Me – Writing From Real Life
Lori’s Reading Corner
http://www.lorisreadingcorner.com/

10/26 – Of Prairies and Plots
Walking Nature Home
http://susanjtweit.typepad.com/

10/27 – Interview
Patty Jager’s Blog
http://www.patyjager.blogspot.com/

10/28 – Creating a Cop
Mystery Book News
http://www.omnimysterynews.com/

10/29 – Theme To Be Announced
The LadyKillers
http://theladykillers.typepad.com/

11 comments:

Mason Canyon said...

Kathleen, so looking forward to your blog tour. You've got some very interesting topics planned. Best of luck.

Mason
Thoughts in Progress

Beth Groundwater said...

Wow, that's a very ambitious blog tour! I hope you're not exhausted by the time you reach the end, and I hope you gain a lot of new readers and book sales as a result.

Sue Ann Jaffarian said...

Congratulations, Kathleen! Good luck on your very impressive blog tour.

G.M. Malliet said...

I'm exhausted just reading the list. You go!

Kathleen Ernst said...

I may have been a wee bit ambitious. But I also started planning the tour way, way ahead of time. Most of the posts are already written.

Now--I'm off to a ride-along, so please forgive me if I don't respond quickly to later comments!

Keith Raffel said...

Come on, Kathleen. We're your friends. Nothing can be that rosy. Go ahead. Unburden yourself. You can complain to us.

Darrell James said...

Congratulations, Kathleen. I was the youngest among my brothers and sisters and close to the age of my nephews and nieces. I understand the need to sit at the "Big Table".

Alan Orloff said...

Congrats, Kathleen! That looks like some blog tour--remember to get some sleep!

Kathleen Ernst said...

Thanks for the good wishes. And Keith--I'll admit, I'm already tired, and I can hardly walk through my office because of all the piles. Feel better?

Keith Raffel said...

Kathleen, do I seem like that kind of schadenfreude-y guy? Well, serves me right. Good luck with everything.

Kathleen Ernst said...

Keith - I'm just yanking your chain.