MY NEXT NOVEL - SOMEONE LIKE THEM

Thanks to everyone who responded to the half price sale of my books on Smashwords during the month of July.  It went well.  Over the next few months (maybe years), I hope to re-release several of my previous novels from the Sin series. 

I'm presently working on the last book in the Stillwater series.  The title of the book is Someone Like Them and I hope to finish the first draft of the story by the end of this year.  

In the Stilllwaters series, each one of the three sisters that I follow in the storylines finds the strength in themselves to overcome their life circumstances.   Wanda Carson is the oldest of the three sisters in this series, and to say that her life goes from rags to riches is any understatement.   Here's a preview of the book's opening.    

SOMEONE LIKE THEM

PROLOGUE

Wanda stood bathed in the glare of the brilliant spotlight with tears streaming down her face.  What was being sung was a love song, just for her.

Should auld acquaintance be forgot…

How could it ever be?

And never brought to mind?

Not brought to mind?  That was impossible. 

Should auld acquaintance be forgot…

This was the end. 

And auld lang syne?

This was her last performance. 

For auld lang syne, my friend…

The most important people in her life were out there beyond the lights.  Her mother, Faith, her younger sisters Melanie and Jolene, her granddaughters, Raven and Racine…

For auld lang syne,

And of course, her beloved godmother Miss Emma.

We’ll tak' a cup o’ kindness yet,

Yes, everyone she loved was present, except the ones she loved beyond comprehension—Armand, Davon and Christa— her children.

For auld lang syne.

As the audience at the Broadway theatre finished the song for the woman who they felt was just like them, the chant that followed Wanda Carson’s extraordinary rise to stardom began, reaching a crescendo.

Lady C!  Lady C! Lady C!

She stood center stage, a vision in gold, bathed in the spotlight, amid a shower of flowers, chants of adulation and deafening applause.  The curtain came down slowly.  Torrents of tears washed her glittering makeup away.  No one would have guessed that they weren’t tears of joy.

For the past eighteen months, she stood on this stage, eight times a week, singing her heart out.  Every song that she sang was for her children.  Every tear that she shed, in the past and in the present, onstage and off, was for the three of them.

The curtain came down.  The spotlight faded.  The last performance was over.  Or was it just beginning?

HALF PRICE BOOKS ON SMASHWORDS!

The  11th Annual Smashwords July Summer/Winter Sale is back! From July 1, 2019 - July 31, 2019 you can purchase all of the ebooks in the SIN series and Someone Like Me , the first book in the STILLWATERS series at HALF PRICE. 

That's right during the entire month of July you can read it all! The sale even includes my latest re-release in the SIN series, Singing a Song. Start with Sin (Book #1) and fall in love with Reverend Nedra and bad boy, Sinclair.  Meet their best friends, Brandon and Sash, on their exciting adventure in Sweet Sacrifice (Book #2).   Cheer for Nedra and Sin as they fight for the life of their child in Sinful Intentions (Book #3).  In Singing a Song (Book #4)  follow the battles between superstars Darnell and Thad, and catch your first glimpse of the mysterious, Mr. Hardman, whose deadly past is painstakingly revealed in Secrets (Book #5), Strangers (Book #6) and uncovered completely in Shadows of Love (Book #7).  Enjoy the first book in the STILLWATERS series, Someone Like Me , and meet Melanie, the sensible sister in a trio of bodacious women. 

The GRANDMOTHERS, INCORPORATED  cozy mystery book series, which I co-write with fellow author/playwright, L. Barnett Evans, is also on sale on Smashwords during the month of July.  Grandmothers, Incorporated, Saving Sin City, There's Something Wrong with Miss Zelda and Whose Knife is it Anyway? are all available.  Read one of these novels and you'll laugh until you cry!  go to our website, www.grandmothersinc.com, and read all about us. 

 

 

SINGING A SONG IS BACK!

It's here, the second edition of Singing a Song has been released and it's better than ever.  In this updated version of the romantic suspense novel readers will once again be introduced to a mysterious character who eventually becomes instrumental in two more Sin Series novels:  Strangers and Shadows of Love. 

Singing a Song is the fourth novel in the Sin Series.  Read the SINGING A SONG synopsis below:    

www.smashwords.com/books/view/941897

Diva, DARNELL CAMERON, and playboy, THAD STEWART, are both superstars. She is a singing sensation and he is an actor extraordinaire. When their cars accidentally collide so do they, and war is declared. The battles between them are epic, and both are intent on declaring victory. These are two American idols who openly despise each other. It would take a major miracle to get them together, or perhaps the mysterious stranger stalking one of them and intent on killing the other one might hold the key to their mutual destiny.

SINGING a SONG is available in ebook format on Smashwords.com and Amazon.com.  The paperback version will be published soon.  CLICK on THE LINK ABOVE and read an excerpt from the novel.

IT'S A NEW LOOK!

I almost missed my post this month, but I made it and it's a short one.  I'm working on the re-release of Singing a Song, and Someone Like Them, the latest book in the Stillwaters Series, so I'm super busy.  However, I did want to take the time to invite anyone who reads this post to view the new look on my website.  I've got all of my books listed, past and present, as well as upcoming releases.   I've even added a photo gallery.  I also added information about my playwriting. 

Just CLICK www.crystalrhodes.com.  Hope you enjoy the new look.

FROM THE PAGE TO THE STAGE

As stated in this blog last month, I am a playwright as well as an author, and one of the plays, Grandmothers, Incorporated, which I co-wrote with fellow author and playwright, Lillie Barnett Evans, enjoyed a production by   

The Theatre Arts Club of Detroit on March 15th and 16th. The Theatre Arts Club (TAC) is a Michigan non-profit organization established in 1910 as an all women's theatre group.  The TAC produces two shows a season.  We were happy that Grandmothers, Incorporated was one of them.

In the Two Act play, the  four amateur sleuths, who call themselves Grandmothers, Incorporated go to an isolated cabin in the woods for a  weekend of peace and quiet and, unexpectedly, encounter a notorious drug dealer hiding in the cabin.  The result is less than peaceful or quiet, but it is hilarious. 

The play, which is also the title of the popular cozy mystery novels of the same title, made its debut Off Broadway in 2010 at the Billie Holiday Theatre, and enjoyed a successful run just as it did in Detroit.  Below are  some of the photos from the Detroit production. 

The CAST of Grandmother's Incorporated (Seated-Left to Right, seated), CAROL WOTRING (Bea Bell), MARIANNE SHRADER (Chevron Harris), ERIN ANN DISANTE (Hattie Collier), (Standing-Left to Right) MARY STELMARK (Connie Palmer), PATRICIA O'BRIEN (director) and SHEILA WADE KNEESHAW (Fanny Collier)

The ladies of Grandmothers Incorporated in action

 

Playwrights with the Cast, Producer, Director, and Staff of Grandmothers, Incorporated  

THREE MONTHS of MARCH MADNESS!

These last few months have been moving like a freight train.  I am an award winning writer who doesn't like to be put in a box, so I write romantic suspense novels, cozy mystery novels, plays (both comedy and drama) and anything else I feel like writing, and I'm blessed to have been successful at it.  Oh, I don't mean famous successful, but able to make money successful, and I am grateful for this talent that has brought me so much joy.

In January I went to St. Petersburg Florida after having won the 2019 American Stage Theatre New Play Festival competition with my latest two act play The Diary of Annie Mae Franklin.  There were 544 entrants.  The trip included a stipend, three days of hotel accommodations, and a staged reading of my play.  It was awesome!  The play was well received by the standing room only audience and I had so much fun. 

In February, I worked on, and finalized, a new cover for the re-release of one of my most successful romance suspense novels, Singing a Song. I've been re-editing that novel for weeks.  Look for the re-release of that novel soon.

New Singing a Song Book Cover

Then this month, I traveled to Detroit, Michigan, with my writing partner, Lillie Barnett Evans.  She and I write the hilarious Grandmothers, Incorporated cozy mystery series together.  Go to our website:  www.grandmothersinc.com to find out more about that. The book covers are featured below.  Years ago, we wrote a play with the same title that placed the characters from our book series on stage.  In 2010 the play appeared Off Broadway to full houses and enjoyed an extension.  We've been marketing the play ever since to theatre groups.  In March, The Theatre Arts Club in Detroit produced the play. Lillie and I traveled there to see it.  The ladies in the theatrical group were most gracious and we thoroughly enjoyed the trip.

Lillie (l) and Crystal (r) with Theatre Arts Club play producer, Lisa (m) 

Yes, the past three months have been busy ones, and I love every minute of it.  Oh, and next month one of my other plays will enjoy a production in the Midwest.  I love the writing life!!!  

A NEW BOOK COVER!

Book #3 in the Stillwaters Series

Here it is, the cover to my latest new romantic suspense novel, SOMEONE LIKE THEM, the third and last installment of the Stillwaters Series.  Each of the novels in this series tells the story of one of the three middle aged Carson sisters, each  of whom experiences extraordinary circumstances that completely changes their lives. 

The first novel, Someone Like Me, tells Melanie's story.  She's  the middle sister, the "fixer" in the family.   The second novel, Someone Like You, is Jolene's story.  She's the youngest sister, the "tough" one in the family.  SOMEONE LIKE THEM, is about  Wanda,  the oldest sister and the family "protector".  What happens to her in SOMONE LIKE THEM is perhaps the most spectacular story of all!  It's an absolute delight creating this work and when it is released, I hope that readers will enjoy it  as much as I am enjoying writing it. I really like the cover, it conveys the majesty of the woman who Wanda Carson becomes.    

Meanwhile, click on the covers and that should take readers to the sites where the other two Stillwaters series novels can be purchased.  Acquaint yourself with the Carson family. I think you'll like them. The plan is for SOMEONE LIKE THEM to be released later this year, after the re-release of several of my former romantic suspense novels, but more about that in future blogs.