WOW! ALMOST THE END OF THE YEAR

 

It seems that the months of October and November just flew by and here we are in December. Fall has come to Las Vegas and the summer heat is gone. 

Even though it was a small group of five--me, my friend Hal, my son Jason and his girlfriend Monica and her son Jack, Thanksgiving was finally a family affair at our house instead of Hal and me celebrating in restaurants as in the past. Jason, the gourmet chef made a non-traditional meal of exquisite salmon and side dishes worthy of the best 5 star restaurant.

It made me think of all of the huge family meals we had back in California when all of the older generation were still with us. Depending upon the year, Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners were always anywhere from 20 to 30 people. The biggest challenge was telling the various people different times so they would all arrive around the same time. My Mom was always at least half an hour early. My cousin was about an hour late. My sister-in-law and her family could be as much as two hours late and then there were the friends. A math challenge. Five people is much easier. Not only that, but now I'm the older generation and so many of those wonderful people are gone.

My latest book, Watson Falls, a suspense novel involving a small, remote town in Washington state with a deadly secret will be released on December 9 in Kindle and Paperback. Look for a Kindle promotion. This is the first book in a new series, Mack Peters Mysteries. Mack's business is modeled after that of a man I met many years ago. A very clever guy who made millions and hardly worked at all. When asked what he did (this was back in the 70's) he simply said, "I go to my mailbox and collect checks." Things have changed a bit. Mack gets direct deposits. You will love how simple his business is.

Looking forward to booking several more appearances in 2025. The first one is on my website under the Appearances tab. The Authors and Artists Fair on January 25 at Clark County Library. My son Jason will also be one of the artists exhibiting his work.

SURVIVED THE LAS VEGAS SUMMER

 

WOW! Can you say HOT?

We have just been through one of the hottest summers I can remember in Las Vegas. Heat and wind. We are used to the summers being hot, but it seemed that there were more consecutive days of heat plus wind than ever before. It sort of felt like stepping into a convection oven.

Now, thankfully, we are into September and slowly watching the temperature drop. Needless to say, with days in the triple digits it wasn't the best time for appearances or book signings. So, that said, I have just updated my schedule of signings and talks. This time there is a bit of a variety. 

CHECK THE APPEARANCES PAGE AT www.morganstjames-author.com for more info.

I will be doing signings at Bad Owl and Coffee Class coffee houses as a member of Coffee House Tours. 

Added to that are two OPEN TO THE PUBLIC appearances at senior living facilities Legacy Living and Avamere at

 

Cheyenne. People are often curious about how after 20 years as an interior designer I became the author of 21 books beginning with the award-winning Silver Sisters series. It is fun to share, including the fact that my co-author for the series, my sister Phyllice Bradner, and I became best friends through our writing and the Las Vegas Review Journal even did a feature article on that in 2009.

 

Then there will be the multi-author Summerlin Book Fair in November. Las Vegas is the home to many fine authors, and this is a great chance to discover new favorites.

Have a wonderful day.

WHERE DOES THE TIME GO?

Living in Las Vegas, summer's soaring temperatures come with the territory. We have had one of the hottest summers on record and that is not great for inspiring creativity. Sure we huddle in our air conditioned homes or apartments, get into our air conditioned cars and drive to our air conditioned destination but it just isn't the same as when our weather morphs into wonderful days.

Today I finally got the ambition to update my appearances on my website, www.morganstjames-author.com, I couldn't believe how much time had passed since my last blog post or update. Yes, I did venture out into the oven a few times a week, but also stayed in my nice cool home much more often than normal and watched lots of TV and played games on my phone which is not typical for me. I assured myself that those games are wonderful for keeping my mental processes sharp, and they are. Besides, who can resist a Perry Mason marathon. I am up to Season 6.

Interesting little side note. My first job out of school was working as a receptionist for a Beverly Hills theatrical business manager. One of the clients was the then story editor for Perry Mason which was in its second year of production. The producers had been reluctant to hire Raymond Burr for the lead because he was quite overweight. However, he lost a considerable amount of weight and it is hard to imagine anyone else in that part. Not only that, but my first new car was a 1959 Ford Galaxy Convertible and guess what Mason drove in several episodes---yep, a car just like mine. I was 20 years old with long black hair and kept the top down as much as possible. If it was cold, I blasted the heater.

Anyway, an A-Type like me can kick back for only so long, so here is the update. I have been booking new appearances and just updated my website. Two new books are partially written, but they have been on hold for a while. I am considering doing some TikTok book videos injected with humor and we will see how that goes. My son Jason is a real commedian and he suggested including the comedy along with  snippets about some of my books and those of other authors. 

Some of you might remember my wonderful late dog Dylan who crossed the Rainbow Bridge . The current canine members of our household are my rescue dog Cucumber and Jason's rescue bulldog Junie B Jones. Both of them are characters.

CURRENT NEWS & UPDATED MY WEBSITE-CHECK IT OUT

Thanks for stopping by. One of the major changes I just made to the BLOG section on www.morganstjames-author.com was to move the section with links to the Writers Tricks of the Trade magazine I published through 2019 closer to the top of the Home page. 

Yeah, even though publication stopped almost five years ago, the issues are all still available on Joomag so I posted the link. Some of the things are outdated now, but there were so many fine articles by contributing authors, editors, and marketers that it would be a shame to waste them. They are still very valid, so check out the issues.

The Appearances & Media page was updated. My next book signing is with  J.D. Neil on April 13 at Coffee & Rock, a very cool rock & roll themed coffee house. This month I shared a book signing with Alan Geik at Bad Owl Coffee. There was lots of "traffic" and we met some great booklovers and had nice chats. 

I have said you can teach an old dog new tricks, and since I'm technically "old" I am going to embark on recording a series of short videos to place on TikTok/BookTok. Some will be about me, some about my books, trailers or writing techniques, and some will be reviews of other books. The page is LuvMysteryBooks at TikTok. Check it out and follow me. I expect to begin loading videos in the next few weeks. Got the tripod, light ring and some excellent advice from my son Jason Pransky. Lights, camera, action!

#books #writing #MorganStJames #booktok #booksignings

NEVER STOP LEARNING

My philosophy has always been never stop learning. Just because you are getting older, it is no excuse to just kick back and do nothing but watch TV. Having turned 84 last month, (how did that happen?) I love learning how to do new things.

I made some book trailers a few years ago, but since joining Authors Den I decided to learn how to make them slicker since we can post videos for our books. I'm in the process of listing all 21 of my books, but at this writing only have 9 on the site.

My first attempt at this was the trailer for my latest book FATAL ENCOUNTER.

I felt pretty good about the result and decided to learn how to do more. This was the result. Although it still needs some tweaking, it is a great feeling to keep at something and learning from your mistakes instead of giving up.

 

ALMOST BACK TO NORMAL

 After feeling like a hermit for almost three years thanks to Covid, it looks like things are almost back to normal.

As a Coffee House Tours author I have book signings for almost every one of the coming months. Last Saturday I was at Bad Owl Coffee in Henderson with table-mate RJ Waters. We had a good time chatting with some of the customers and thank those who purchased copies of our books.

I just updated the appearance schedule on www.morganstjames-author.com and suspect even more dates will be added during the year.

And, GOOD NEWS. My latest book, Number 21, is approaching the finish line. It will be available in Kindle, Kindle Unlimited and Paperback.

NEW BOOK SIGNING APRIL 7, 2023

Coffee House Tours has several new author and venue members. The rest of 2023 will be very active with signings and events throughout Las Vegas and Henderson. This is my latest one and it sure would be fun to see  you there. April is child abuse awareness and prevention month, so although I will have copies of my funny mysteries, I will also have copies of memoirs I co-authored for two amazing abuse survivors. They go through so much, that pouring their hearts out, raw and unvarnished, not only tells their stories in the hope victims will be helped, but is a healing tool for them.