Diana Rigg

I just read of the death of the great British actress Diana Rigg. Her talent was enormous and her passing is a huge loss for the world.

As I write my mystery novels, I often see my characters. They write their own stories; I merely type. There have been occasions when I have seen Diana Rigg across my field of view. I remember very well what I regard as one of the best mystery shows I ever watched on television, Mother Love, in which she starred. I dare not say more in case you take this note and go look for it and watch it. No spoiler am I. It is a brilliant performance, that one that she gave. The show is difficult to find but I managed on Youtube not long ago. I rewatch it.

We will miss you, Dame Diana Rigg! Rest in well earned peace. Send a note now and then, please.

One more note, having nothing to do with the demise of such a talent. I am trying to move this blog to my new website LindaFerreri.com. It turns out that is not easy, so what I may have to do is ask all of you, for a while now, to go there and read the blog that will simply start up there where it leaves off here, with some overlap of course.

Thank you for reading. Isabella in Red is out for preorder now on Amazon! Yay!

Vellum Software

This post could be described as an ode to Vellum software. It is used to format books and move them instantly into any of the many available formats for publishing, in paper or digital format. Oh my goodness, what a gift!!! To those of you who designed it and made it available to authors, proofreaders and editors, deepest thanks!

Vellum is said to be very easy to use. That is an understatement. The choices there for font, format, etc. are all elegant and limited. One points and clicks, and there it happens in the blink of an eye.

Vellum is said to be expensive. I don’t think so, especially as I went through a long corridor in Hades formatting my last books (with errors) for digital and then paperback formats. That was the very worst aspect of self-publishing and I am willing to be that many authors similarly situated would say the same. Vellum, which is not aware that I am writing this and most definitely not paying me to do so, offers two packages for sale. One is more expensive than the other, and covers both paper and digital formats. There is none of that annual subscription nonsense that I dislike. You buy it and it’s yours. And away you go!

One last note: The author or editor or proofreader can make corrections in Vellum, i.e. it is not necessary to return to Word or Pages or wherever the manuscript was created. I love that. And yes, it is true that this software operates on a Macintosh computer only and not on others and not on mobile devices. Fine by me!

Good signs so far!

The early readers of Isabella in Red are saying mighty good things. Good job, Linda! Even better than the last one! This is good news, and I thank them. I, too, confess that I like this book. The story is more psychological, I guess.

Isabella d’Este herself was quite a character. She was exceedingly vain, rich, power-hungry, controlling, and acquisitive. It was not always a lovely experience to deal with her, it seems. So much the better for the reader. We wonder about her, her big red velvet dress and how the correspondence back and forth between her and Titian must have gone.

My new website is not yet live, but that’s because there are transitioning elves at work in cyberspace. Soon. I’m thinking about moving my blog over there to LindaFerreri.com. That would make sense, but I like this website because I am especially fond of the painting on the cover, the Mary Magdalene in the Rijksmuseum by Carlo Crivelli.

Reviewers and book bloggers are very very welcome. I will be happy to send the digital version of Isabella in Red immediately. Blogs and reviews help readers. They want to know what they are about to read. Me too.

Here comes the new novel!!!!

It certainly has been a busy time here. My new mystery novel is finished now and in the hands of Amazon, soon to go to Apple Books also. My new website is finished and I am waiting for all sorts of mysterious things to happen in cyberspace, those things relating to domain names and urls.

Now comes more heavy lifting. I need reviews and this is an open request for those. The book will be very modestly priced at first as a Kindle edition, and I will happily cooperate with any reviewer.

I have enjoyed this process enormously. What author doesn’t like writing?

As soon as the site is live, I will share the title and cover. The story is a good one!

Website

While my new novel is in the capable hands of my proofreader, I am working on the technical aspects of self-publishing. This post is about identity, my own. Heretofore, I have given each book its own presence on the internet. The number of my books has reached the point where the website has to be my own, LindaFerreri.com. I cannot say that this pleases me because I have always wanted the light to shine on my work, not on me. When I give a lecture, I ask the control booth people to be sure to record the lecture and its images, not me. That plan simply breaks down when it turns out that people look for my books using my name. So I have to make that work now.

My website, this one, ACloudofFraud.com is going to move to LindaFerreri.com where my new novel will get top billing, a it should. I hope I can move this blog smoothly, right over to the new web site, but I can’t promise that. All of these doings involve a learning curve for me, one that I don’t dislike. It’s an adventure and I can’t promise a terrific outcome.

The new novel, by the way, pleases me. Claire Bliss and Baldo are there, waiting for my readers. I hope that they and their adventures delight and distract, as they are meant to do.

Sale!!

I just lowered the price of my Kindle version of A Cloud of Fraud to $2.99 for readers stuck in this pandemic mess. Please enjoy the sale and leave a review when you read it. Thank you very much.

Book bloggers welcome!

As I finish the writing and warm up for all that’s coming next, I know how important book bloggers are. Many readers appreciate a suggestion and a review. Do they or do they not want to plow into that particular story? Does it strike the mood? A good book blogger is wonderful when you find the one who suits you.

The great folks who ran my book blog tour for the last novel are overwhelmed by the COVID crisis, and I’m putting the world out that book bloggers who enjoy a sophisticated mystery are more than welcome to give me a shout. I love cooperating. One of my favorite experiences with the last novel was Fran Lewis’ interview on her podcast radio show about books. Thank you again, Fran! It was a lot of fun.

It's been a while

I admit I’ve been a bit stupefied by the pandemic. So I took to knitting. But the new mystery novel is coming along very well and will be in publishing shape really soon now. Claire Bliss is back but all of my books are stand alone novels.

In the meantime, I see there are nicer easier, if more expensive, means out there for self-publishing authors to format their books. The formatting can be a nightmare.

There is something else I have to take care of, after finishing the novel. My books can’t have their own web pages, I am told. It’s got to be about me, the author. I don’t really like that idea, but it seems to be the way. So keep an eye out for LindaFerreri.com because that’s the spot.

Stay well. I hope everyone is well. My heart broke for my beloved Italy but we are all on a healing path now, thank God. That too, like self-publishing, can be slow. But we press on with the necessary parts of that.

New Year's resolution

It’s been two months since I have posted, for which I am sorry. The reason was travels. I went to Le Marche in Italy, Claire Bliss’ and Baldo’s home, for more inspiration. The muse called, and I most certainly needed to respond. While on the way there and back, I stopped in Paris to visit Le Bon Marché in Paris which plays no small part in my beloved girlie novella (with the pink cover) entitled The King of UNINI. Both visits did me a world of good.

There are difficulties in carrying characters through each novel. I have one in the novel that is “in the typewriter” who is commanding. And I might have to excuse some others. I’m working on that because it is an obstacle. I confess that about this book. I really like this new character. What to do?

Hoping all of my readers have a very happy and healthy 2020. I thank each of you for your generous support as I plow forward in my writing. My new year’s resolutiion is to win the lottery but the truth is that I would much rather have a best seller. Hmmmmm.

The King of UNINI is available on Amazon or directly from LuLu.com.

Podcast interview with Fran Lewis

This morning Fran Lewis interviewed me for her podcast radio show about books. It was a wonderful experience. She is quite an amazing reviewer in that she is not only bright and fun but she reads every word of every book and then interviews the author for a full hour. I loved talking to her and would enjoy meeting her in person one of these days.

So here is the link. I am honored. This was a first for me as an author and, I hope, a sign of good things to come.

Thank you Fran and the wonderful women Cheryl and Gina at Partners in Crime Tours.

https://www.blogtalkradio.com/fran-lewis/2019/11/06/cloud-of-fraud

The King of UNINI

The King of UNINI is a novella, a romance, that I published some years ago. It’s just as charming now as it was then, I must say even though it’s my own. A sophisticated romance, set in Paris, with a pink cover. What more can you ask? Well, it’s got just what it takes to make an afternoon the reason for big smiles. Read it or give it to a girlfriend as a gift. It’s wonderful.

Blog talk radio

Isn’t this nice? On November 5, Fran Lewis will have me as her guest on her blog talk radio show. For a whole hour! I think I will have to reread my book the day before that interview. Many thanks to Fran. You can listen live, or later.

Here’s the link: https://www.blogtalkradio.com/fran-lewis

Ferragosto

Every year, Italians throw all work to the side and celebrate Ferragosto…August 15th. Many go to the beach, or to a family picnic, or head for the hills as those in the little medieval towns in Le Marche can testify. Today, Castello Piceno was packed full of happy people wandering the narrow streets, having an ice cream in front of the Brunforte Arco and waiting for the music to start.

After a very hot few weeks, today was beautiful. The moon is full, also, which made last night’s medieval music in the Piazza Alta until midnight especially delicious. Today, starting at 5 AM, the great bells of the towns towers rang, together, until noon. It was, in a word, glorious.

I think about Claire and Baldo and just what they will be doing on Ferragosto in the book that I am writing now. Seldom do I situate them in a story there in Castello PIceno in the height of summer; mystery novels seem to go better in the autumn, with a chill and some rain. But under all those heavy velvet robes that the revelers wear the week of Ferragosto, many a secret can hide. So I’m not sure…I’m thinking about that.

Claire's house

Claire’s house in Castello PIceno is only 400 years old. And she is doing some redecorating. Nothing major because the house is in wonderful shape, but fresh paint and some new furniture.

The house is stucco over stones on the outside which makes it one of the only houses in the centro storico that is not stone and/or brick. It’s pink, besides. So in every picture taken from that side of the beautiful hill town, it stands out. There it is, directly across the street from the little chapel of San Filippo, with its lovely garden of roses and fruit trees right beside portico. No wonder Claire loves it.

Inside the old houses of these beautiful medieval hill towns, one finds narrow hallways, wooden beans and brick ceilings, and lots of stairs. Stairs up, stairs down, cantinas for keeping food, and more. Claire’s kitchen floor is original handmade marchigiana brick which are gorgeous except when she’s mopping, but maybe even then.

Every August, the hill towns of Le Marche come alive with their inividual festivals in which they celebrate their individual histories. Castello Piceno has its own, too, the week of ferragosto which is Italy’s most sacred holiday, on August 15th. There is a procession through the medieval part of town in which people dress in the velvet robes and beautiful elements of their history. It’s wonderful to see. Nearby, San Ginesio has its pallio with real men, on real horses, and real javelins. Claire thinks that nobody knows a good local party until they have enjoyed life in a house like Claire’s in a town like hers.

This is the view out Claire’s kitchen door.

Italian summers...location, location, location

Claire Bliss, my heroine, certainly knows her stuff when it comes to finding a blissful (sorry) place to live. The hills of Le Marche are stunning and on a day like this with a gentle breeze and a temperature in the high seventies (F), who can find fault with anything?

This weather in this location, however, can lead to laziness. Claire and Baldo are anything but lazy, and they do their sleuthing in less luxurious weather. On days like this, one can lie on one’s back and allow the apricots to drop directly from the tree into the lap. The olives are showing now on the trees…green of course. Roses are putting on their second performance and the humans are packing up the car for the great August get-away.

The opera season is on in one of Italy’s great venues…here in Le Marche, at Sferisterio in Macerata. An open-air theater built in the 1820’s, it’s grand. This season, Rigoletto was amazing with one of the finest sopranos we have ever heard, Claudia Pavone. The great and the good, and the ordinary, all convene to take in the most beautiful music on summer nights when the stars are out and the heat of the sun is gone.

The medieval hill towns all have their individual celebrations of their traditions and their histories. Some have a pallio (e.g. the beautiful stage-set town San Ginesio), and then there are the parties such as the Vino Cotto Festival in Loro Piceno that happens to be one of the settings in this novel. Loro Piceno happens to know exactly how to put on a fantastic fireworks display. Thank you!

Contrary to popular believe, Italian people do actually work in August, but not if they can help it. Many take a vacation in July so as to be at the ready for the onslaught in August. The beaches are jam packed, as are the most beautiful spots in the Sibillini Mountains.

I could go on and on…have you noticed?

Philadelphia

In early March, I mentioned that the story in A Cloud of Fraud opens in City Hall, in Philadelphia. It does. In th chambers of a judge about whom I will leave you to form your own opinion as the plot unfolds and the characters develop.

Philadelphia is a wonderful city, and it’s beautiful. I used to make my W. C. Fields joke about it, decades ago, by saying that nobody ever cared enough about it to tear it down. That was in the days of what was called “urban renewal.” In the city itself and all around the perimeter are gorgeous trees and buildings. And so much history! Wow!

There is no “Little Italy” in Philadelphia as there is in New York. Instead, there is a part of the city called South Philadelphia, famous for its Italian-American residents who built a community there in row houses with kitchens that were the scenes of all family events, as in the film “Moonstruck,” and were the locations of some of the best cooking in the United States. To say it’s colorful is an understatement.

The cultural institutions of Philadelphia are astounding, and so very numerous. Liberty Bell and Independence Hall aside, everyone should visit and spend days there. My favorite was always and may still be The Philadelphia Orchestra that now calls Verizon Hall its home.

When this book becomes a film, I trust the filmmakers to take full advantage of all that glorious scenery and character. Alas, the story does not feature the Philadelphia Eagles, but they, too, are just great!

One book at a time

You would think that the sale of self-published books is a simple matter….write it, edit it, put it out there. Hardly. Like everything else, the books sell one at a time. When I see another great review of the book on Amazon, or another sale of a paperback or digital copy of the book, it thrills me. I feel a relationship with the buyer and reader and hope that they know that. I’m hoping they enjoy every bit of it. And I cherish each one of them, believe it or not.

Book writing is not a sales exercise. It’s a creative endeavor that absorbs every last bit of attention and energy the author can pour into it. The process is hugely rewarding, whether or not the book is ever published. As with releasing any newly created “baby” out there into the world, naked, there is hesitation and fear. Mostly there is hope. But the author really does not know until readers actually buy a copy and dive in, and then say they enjoyed it.

So to every single reader, and blogger who directs readers to my books, thank you very much!

Soccer tournament

I took a big break from writing novels to watch the Women’s World Cup soccer tournament. What a joy! Thousands of congratulations to all those women whoi played so well. They played with dazzling talent and skill, but also with such dignity and grace. Of course, the winners were the best. How could they not be? And they richly deserved the prize. But to every one of the players from everywhere in the world, keep it going, girls!!! Very well done, you!!!!!!

More great reviews!

So many thanks to the bloggers who have taken the time to read this book, and then even more time to write genuinely helpful reviews…and I mean helpful to the reader. When they help me, well that’s just the cherry on the sundae, isn’t it?

Here are the latest two. I love them both.

https://www.cywyss.com/2019/06/review-of-a-cloud-of-fraud-by-linda-ferreri/

https://itsallaboutthebook.org/2019/06/17/a-cloud-of-fraud-by-linda-ferreri/