Nadine Doolittle

The Final Book in Cosy Mystery Series is Released!

2023-12-04T11:29:00.000-05:00

WOW. Four years ago when I began the St. Ives Book Club Mystery Series with Advertisement for Murder, it was a fun project that kept me busy while I was submitting my Young Adult manuscript to agents and publishers. Amateur sleuthing in small town Ontario was supposed to be a little side gig while I got on with my real writing.

Hah! Ten books later, I learned so much and had a great time in the process.

In the four-year span of writing the series, I experienced personal tragedy, immense joy and a global pandemic thrown in just to keep things interesting. Through it all, I had the St. Ives book club to keep my spirits up.

But now we come to the end. The last book in the series is launching December 5, 2023 on Amazon and in Kindle Unlimited.

The Final Chapter

An iron-clad confession. A closed case. But the wrong man is in prison.

Elliot Marks is convinced the real killer of a missing CSIS agent is still at large and will kill again if he isn't stopped. The amateur sleuthing of the St. Ives Book Club comes full circle in the Abercrombie library at will be their final meeting. As he did in the beginning, Elliot suggests they forgo reading about murder and prevent one instead.

But when the deductive genius of Marks leads him to brand a harmless and respected member of St. Ives society a serial killer, Avery Holmes and the book club wonder if they made a mistake.

Elliot will not be talked out of testing his theory to the limit. Time is running out. He knows he must act swiftly to prevent another murder before the final chapter.

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Thank you for sticking with me for all these years. I'm going to take a break for a year (2024) to work on other projects, returning in 2025 with a new mystery series.

I wish you peace and joy in this holiday season and in the New Year.

Best wishes,

Nadine

Young Adult Speculative Fiction Releases!

2023-11-02T10:07:00.001-04:00

I wrote these titles between 2019 and 2021 for traditional publication. When they didn't find a home in the big bad pandemic world, I brought them back to live with me on my hard drive.

In October, after launching The Missing Foote Mystery (Book #9 in St. Ives Book Club Mystery), I opened the manuscripts to take a look. Both had gone through several editorial passes; I felt confident they were ready for prime time.

And I still liked them so here they are! A Sorta Fairytale is a standalone novel. Dawn at the Edge of the World is complete but I originally planned it to be a trilogy so the sequels will be written and published in 2024. Click on the covers to read the blurbs for each. They are fresh out of the oven.

Both titles are in Kindle Unlimited and exclusive to Amazon until January 10, 2024. Then they will be published on all the ebook retailer platforms. Print is Amazon only, I'm afraid. I was going to do Ingram Spark as well but since they don't distribute to Chapters in Canada, I decided to postpone until I have the time to set up the files.

In the meantime... I am toiling away on the last book in the St. Ives Book Club Mystery series. The preorder is scheduled for November 8, 2023 and the book releases on December 5, 2023. Follow me on Amazon to be notified or watch this space for the pre-order link.

Kobo, Apple, Barnes and Noble and Google Play are getting a Cozy Mystery Series!

2023-10-17T08:58:00.001-04:00

Yep, I'm doing it. I'm taking the first three books in St. Ives Book Club Mystery Series to Kobo, Google Play, Barnes and Noble and Apple iBooks this Fall 2023!

Advertisement for Murder (Oct. 18)
Death Knocks Twice (Oct. 30)
Dead to the World (Nov. 27)

For those of us who don't understand what this means - Kindle Unlimited is a subscription service for book lovers. For a monthly fee, subscribers can borrow 10 (or is it 20 now?) books in a month. For big readers, this is an economical choice.

For authors who enroll their books in the program, we cannot publish anywhere else for 90 days. In exchange, we're paid a percentage for every page of our books that are read. It's a great way for a new author to gain readers and fans for their series. However, it means we are not spreading our wings to other retailers.

I decided to wait until St. Ives Book Club Mystery was almost finished and reads had plateaued in Kindle Unlimited before moving the series out. It's like seeing a series on Netflix but it's not available on Prime. That sort of thing.

I'm excited to introduce readers who frequent the other bookstores to the St. Ives Book Club amateur sleuths. The last book in the series, The Final Chapter, will be released in Kindle Unlimited Dec. 12, 2023 as usual.

If the series does find readers in other markets, I'll move all of the books out of Kindle Unlimited gradually throughout 2024.

IN OTHER NEWS:

The Missing Foote Mystery : Book #9 in St. Ives Book Club Mystery Series is out now!

On Amazon and in Kindle Unlimited

One country fair. Two dead bodies. Hundreds of suspects.

Avery Holmes is chagrined when the debut of her thriller, The Spy Wore Heels, is held at Northumberland County's Agricultural Fair but when a body is dug up during the plowing match, her book launch goes from bad to worse.

Agent Lannister Foote vanished last year under mysterious circumstances that CSIS analyst Elliot Marks refused to investigate. That the missing Foote turned up (literally) is not surprising to Marks. But who is the killer? A farmer's field hints at someone local. Someone they all know. Someone who is at the scene the moment the corpse is unearthed.

Then another body is discovered in the corn maze - this time bizarrely hung up like a scarecrow. The fair-goers and organizers are starting to panic.

With the sprawling five-day event under threat and pressure from the big commercial farming interests to solve the murders and fast, the St. Ives Book Club rally together to uncover a shocking secret.

LAST BUT NOT LEAST:

THANK YOU ARC team members (advance reader reviewers) for reading this series and leaving reviews on the various book sites that we all love. You have helped readers decide to take a chance on a new mystery (and me) and we all appreciate it!

I am looking for readers to review for Kobo, Google Play, Barnes and Noble and Apple. If you like to read murder mystery for free (that is on the cosy side of the spectrum), subscribe to my newsletter The Butler Didn't Do It and get a free short story, Long Shadows Fall, to sample the series and my writing style. Then, if you would like to read the first three in the series for review on the sites listed, contact me through the newsletter and I'll be in touch.

HOW TO BECOME AN ARC READER:

1. Subscribe to The Butler Didn't Do It

2. Download your free copy of Long Shadows Fall

3. Reply to newsletter with request to be added to the Team

4. I send you the link to download your books to review

5. Read. Review. Post on your favourite retailer site.

Traditional Cozy Mystery for October!

2023-09-18T15:23:00.003-04:00

Click here to PREORDER

RELEASE DATE: October 10, 2023

Amazon and in Kindle Unlimited

Book #9 in St. Ives Book Club Mystery Series

🔎

One country fair. Two dead bodies. Hundreds of suspects.

Avery Holmes is chagrined when the debut of her thriller, The Spy Wore Heels is held at Northumberland County's Agricultural Fair but when a body is dug up during the plowing match, her book launch goes from bad to worse.

Then another body is discovered in the corn maze - this time bizarrely hung up like a scarecrow - and the fair-goers and organizers start to panic.

A Psychic Paranormal Cozy Mystery Release!

2023-09-02T08:40:00.000-04:00

The idea for Sixth and Sensibility came to me way back in May of this year. Like its namesake, Sense and Sensibility, I thought it would be fun to put an impulsive psychic with a skeptical realist and see what happened.

With murder. And mystery. Because of course.

The third book in A Gracie and Gideon Mystery is out Tuesday September 5, 2023 on Amazon and in Kindle Unlimited. (Available for preorder now!)

One Vexed Vampire rounds out the trilogy, finishing the first chapter of Gracie Dare's story while leaving the door open for the series to continue at a later date.

I started the series as a fun writing project for the summer and it was a blast. I'm trying to challenge myself as an author to experiment with new genres. Paranormal mystery is not what I usually read. I don't like books with magic, for example. But a psychic amateur sleuth in a quirky book publishing company with an attractive but cranky book editor? Yep. I can get behind that.

ONE VEXED VAMPIRE

Just when I thought I was getting my psychic mojo back, a vampire has to stroll into town.
There is no such thing as vampires. Ghosts? Of course. Vampires? Please.
Unfortunately, Mortimer Drake didn't get the memo. The long-lost love of Hazel Ripe, one of Arcania Press's authors, stumbles out of the Maine woods claiming he's being hunted by a vampire. He disappeared fifty years ago and has been living as a hermit until he became the prey of a bloodthirsty man with fangs.
The non-existence of vampires is something my skeptical editor, Gideon Tate and I can agree on. However, my sixth sense informs me loud and clear that something dark is chasing the old hermit.
Gideon thinks my "gift" is on the fritz until Mortimer's body turns up - bloodless - in an old cemetery. Then dead chickens begin to turn up in Mirror Falls and suspicion falls on sweet Hazel Ripe! If it wasn't for the belladonna growing in her garden or the fact that she's an expert in bloodletting, she might have a chance of clearing her name.
For once, Gideon is forced to think outside the box and accept my help. Naturally, with my ESP, I'm confident I'll have the job done by sunset.
With the launch of Hazel's book fast approaching and everything on the line for Arcania Press, I soon discover there is nothing natural about this mystery.

PREORDER YOUR COPY HERE

Paranormal Cozy Mystery for Summer!

2023-08-05T10:19:00.001-04:00

Sixth and Sensibility 2: A Gracie and Gideon Mystery

Releasing August 8, 2023 on Amazon Kindle and in Kindle Unlimited

Preorder is available now!

One Wily Witch

Opposites attract when psychic, Gracie Dare, inherits a peculiar publishing house and a skeptical (but hot) editor is tasked with showing her the ropes.

A girls' night out in Mirror Falls is not like they are in Los Angeles. Mead is served instead of mojitos and spells are cast instead of karaoke. As a formerly famous psychic to the stars, I was confident these soccer-moms-turned-witches couldn't summon anything more than a hangover. How wrong I was. In the middle of an incantation, a 400-year-old witch makes an appearance, scaring the leader of the coven to death.

Or was she?

Gideon Tate, my skeptical editor and debunker of supernatural phenomenon says I'm wrong a witch was involved, and he's willing to bet Arcania Press on it. It's a bet he's going to lose because my sixth sense tells me that his fiancee is up to her neck in this mystery and he's going to need my help to get her out of it.

As if that wasn't enough, my ex-boyfriend has taken a sudden interest in me and a missing formula that promises to be worth billions. I really don't have time for a broken heart when my inheritance is on the line. You don't have to be psychic to know I may not have a choice.

Free Cozy Mystery June 15 - June 19

2023-06-15T13:18:00.000-04:00

Free on Amazon for a limited time only:

The Body in the Ravine: A St. Ives Book Club Mystery

When Veronica Wakefield-Brice finds a body hanging from a tree in the ravine behind her stately mansion, the matriarch is thoroughly put out. The victim was a teller of tall tales, and though his death appears to be a suicide, it's odd that he's missing his shoes. Too odd for Elliot Marks and the St. Ives Book Club who find themselves matching wits with a unexpected killer.

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Set in the tiny hamlet of St. Ives, Ontario, a murder mystery book club discovers they have a taste and talent for solving unsolved crimes. Led by the brilliant and eccentric Elliot Marks, five active retirees and two young reporters unearth secrets that certain residents of the cosy village would prefer remained buried.

New Series! New Release!

2023-06-07T18:16:00.001-04:00

Hey peeps.

What are you still doing here?

Head on over to the website for current events. www.nadinedoolittlebooks.ca

But since you are here, how about a little light reading for the summer? I started a new series mostly for fun and to let loose creatively. The first book in the series is out today!

Sixth and Sensibility: One Dead Devil

Psychic to the stars, Gracie Dare's life is falling apart when she inherits a small publishing company in Mirror Falls, Maine, and must contend with a grumpy (but hot) editor who has made it his mission to debunk psychics.
Publishing books on arcane knowledge wasn't how I imagined spending my newly-single mid-thirties either, but Gideon Tate seems hellbent on making me turn tail and run back to Los Angeles.
He wants to force me out so he can publish how-to manuals that solve real-world problems. Even though he can't solve his own real-world problem of how to get his fiancee to live in the same town as him.
There is something my smoking hot editor doesn't know about me. I'm psychic. His job? To debunk psychics, and he's very, very good at it.
So when one of our authors turns up dead, I know it's murder - mainly because the newly deceased won't stop talking about it.
How am I going to convince the deeply skeptical Gideon Tate of that? I said I was psychic - not a miracle worker.

It is a paranormal cozy mystery set in Maine with a dash of romance, quirky writers, small town, dead people, mystery and a few laughs. Book two and three will be released in July and August. If you haven't joined my newsletter, please do. You'll know what's going on delivered to your inbox.

Happy June!

History and Mystery Fiction Freebies!

2023-03-01T10:13:00.000-05:00

I know - I'm not here.Some readers who downloaded my books months ago and haven't to around to reading them until now, will click this link and isn't this nice - a free giveaway!

I have an historical mystery series in the works so I'm very interested in authors who are writing it and I thought some of my readers might be too.

History and Mystery offers six carefully curated historical mystery novels and novellas to choose from. Historical Fiction Freebies has over sixty Historical Mystery and Romance titles.

The giveaways are hosted by BookFunnel. You will have to give your email address and subscribe to the author's newsletter to receive your book, but you are free to unsubscribe at any time. Click on the image or the links above to be taken to the Giveaway page - and happy reading!

New Release for St. Ives Book Club Mystery

2023-02-09T12:03:00.003-05:00

NOTE: Some books out there contain links to this blog, so I'll continue to update it until January 2024 with series release news, but head over to Nadine Doolittle Books and bookmark it to stay up-to-date.

Now onto the news! Make Way for Murder is available for pre-order on Amazon! Release date is February 14, 2023 and is in Kindle Unlimited. The print edition will be launched at the same time.

Pre-Order Make Way for Murder Here!

It was an impossible murder with no solution.

When Elliot Marks and Avery Holmes come across the scene of a crime while snowshoeing, they have questions and for once, Detective Stewart Denton of St. Ives Police Department is happy to answer them. The case has baffled the department for 25 years. Fresh eyes could help.

As Denton recounts the details of the murder of Graham Wentworth, a Crown prosecutor, who was found shot through the chest in his cabin in 1998, the solution appears to Elliot Marks, but without proof, he refuses to name the killer. The book club dives in, sifting through clues to find evidence in a case that no one in St. Ives wants solved.

A parting gift for readers of this blog!

2023-01-16T08:07:00.000-05:00

I've joined with 48 mystery authors to promote our work to readers on the hunt for new mysteries without the price tag. Taking a chance on a new series is a lot easier when it's free. Some of the offerings are full books, some (like mine) are short stories, some are collections.

I participated in a mystery giveaway last year and came away with two authors that I love. You might get lucky! And if you haven't tried St. Ives Book Club Mystery yet, Long Shadows Fall features the cast of characters, a mystery and the general tone and purpose of the series. It's a chance to try it out on a short story.

1) Click this link: January February Free Mystery Promotion

2) Peruse the selections

3) Choose as many as you like! Enter your email address and a link to download your book will be sent to you.

4) If you decide later that the author isn't for you, simply use the Unsubcribe link at the bottom of their newsletter and that's it!

5) Come back as often as you like during the promotion to find stories and by all means, share the link with your friends and family.

6) Enjoy a month of reading without spending a dime.

Thank you, readers! Have a warm, safe winter!

I am moving on, folks!

2022-12-20T12:25:00.000-05:00

My trusty old blog at Blogger is retiring.

I have a new website with blog integration so I'll be posting there for the foreseeable.

Click the link below to check it out.

NADINE DOOLITTLE BOOKS

I'll leave this blog up for old times sake but to contact me, you have to trot over to the website and click the Contact page.

To get the real skinny on what I'm up to in 2023 (oh, the drama!) subscribe to my newsletter, The Butler Didn't Do It and receive a free short mystery for your pains.

Long Shadows Fall is set in the St. Ives book club world with all the characters sleuthing in the old Abercrombie mansion.

CLICK THIS LINK TO SUBSCRIBE TO THE BUTLER DIDN'T DO IT

I am grateful to Blogger for hosting me for free for a heck of a long time. I can't even remember when I started blogging about my writing-to-get-published journey. Rough times, a bit of bad language, tons of opinion and it's all chronicled in this blog.

Thank you for reading. I wish you a very Happy Holiday and a bright 2023!

Cozy Mystery Free Book Sale

2022-11-08T14:38:00.000-05:00

Dear Readers,

Maybe we're in a recession or maybe not. Maybe a pandemic is still raging or maybe not. Maybe the world is going to hell in a handbasket and maybe it'll keep turning awhile longer.

The nice thing about aging is you start to feel like you've seen this movie before, and while the storyline isn't your favourite, you know the ending and just can't get worked up about it.

Experience has taught me that it softens the ride when we all help each other out. My tiny contribution to the general well-being of my fellow humans is St. Ives Book Club Mystery, in which six retirees and two young reporters solve cold case murders. The tone is light but not melt-in-your-brain light. Some brains crave something to chew on that won't keep them up at night. Like a late-night snack that is both satisfying and digestible.

If you haven't started the series yet, but would like to, there is no time like the present. Advertisement for Murder is free on Amazon from November 9, 2022 to November 13, 2022.

Pick up your Free copy HERE:

Advertisement for Murder

The sixth book in the series, A Deadly Case of Blue, dropped today and is available until November 13, 2022 for $2.99. After that, the price goes up to $3.99. Dig through the couch cushions and place your order to save big.

The series can be read out of order if you are okay with getting to know characters mid-series. I know I am. I've read almost every series mystery out of order, just grabbing what I could from the library. St. Ives Book Club Mystery is in Kindle Unlimited if you have that service.

Pick up your Discounted Copy HERE:

A Deadly Case of Blue

St. Ives Book Club Mystery is also available in print from Amazon. My plan is to sell on other retailers in 2023 and look into audio books as well. Writing the series consumes most of my available brain cells at the moment ... which is the downside of aging.

Happy reading and I wish you a blessed Remembrance Day!

My COVID Baby

2022-10-13T17:11:00.000-04:00

Hey there! I finally caught the dreaded COVID-19 after successfully avoiding it for almost three years. Nothing took me out - not flying on a plane, walking the mean streets of Vancouver or plague-ridden grandchildren - hell no! I was felled by my extrovert husband who never saw a party that he didn't want to attend.

During the worst of it, I had one unholy fear that kept me alive: KDP's Pre-Order Rules. If you miss the deadline to upload your book, you're banned for a year from using pre-orders. Now, Kindle Direct Publishing has been flexible about this since the pandemic, but I didn't want to push my luck.

I wrote Isaac Asimov-style who famously said if he was told he only had a week to live, he'd type faster. Let me tell you, when you read something back that you've written during Covid Brain Fog, it's ... interesting. Suffice to say, I've been revising ever since.

And then there's the other stuff related to getting a book out. Promotion, marketing, contacting the proofreader - everything had to be pushed back from my original date of October 11 and then pushed again. But I'm not complaining. Thank you, scientists for paying attention in biology when I wouldn't!

Because I am on the mend.

Fans of the series can pre-order the ebook for $2.99 until November 8 which is its official launch date! After that, A Deadly Case of Blue will be $3.99. Save a buck and get yours now. (And it is enrolled in Kindle Unlimited as well so those folks can put it on their wish list.)

A Deadly Case of Blue Pre-Order on Amazon!

St. Ives has a new mystery!

2022-08-16T09:24:00.000-04:00

The Body in the Ravine

Book Five in the St. Ives Book Club Mystery Series is out today! This new release is on special offer for $2.99 until August 19, 2022 when the price reverts to the regular $3.99.

When Veronica Wakefield-Brice finds a body hanging from a tree in the ravine behind her stately mansion, the matriarch is thoroughly put out. The victim was a teller of tall tales, and though his death appears to be a suicide, it's odd that he's missing his shoes. Too odd for Elliot Marks and the St. Ives Book Club who find themselves matching wits with a unexpected killer.

CLICK HERE TO GET YOUR COPY ON AMAZON

Available in Paperback and Ebook

This summer has been incredibly busy and fun, and is far from over. I'm travelling this August to see family and though that part will be great, getting organized to travel is not. Plotting a murder is less stressful.

When I come back, I'm tucking into A Deadly Case of Blue, in which an elderly lady comes to the Book Club with an unusual request. She thinks she might have murdered someone but can't find the body. Sweet, befuddled Hattie Hudson asks Elliot Marks if he wouldn't mind looking for it?

Sign up for my monthly newsletter The Butler Didn't Do It to hear about sales and new releases, and pick up your copy of Long Shadows Fall, a St. Ives Book Club Mystery short story.

CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE TO THE BUTLER DIDN'T DO IT

Have a wonderful August and happy reading!

Amazon Prime Day Cozy Mystery Sale

2022-07-07T09:59:00.000-04:00

I actually had to Google when Prime Day was and if it was in Canada. I've never participated in a Prime Day sale before. I only started buying products on Amazon during the pandemic when we finally upgraded to a Smart TV. Before that we had our old analogue beast that met our entertainment needs.

A Prime subscription followed and the next thing I knew, I was one of those people who ordered stuff online and streamed Midsomer Murders.

And here we are. I have two books on sale during Prime Day (July 12 and 13).

Advertisement for Murder (reg 3.99) is going for 0.99 from July 11 - 13 and Death Knocks Twice (reg 3.99) is also 0.99 from July 14 - 16. That's two murder mysteries for less than the price of one and that is a very good deal. Stock up on some summer reading without feeling the pinch. Click the link below to be taken to the series page on Amazon where you'll find the books on sale.

St. Ives Book Club Mystery Series Page

Now, you may be wondering what's up with book 5 in the series. Am I pulling a George RR Martin (without the fanbase and significant sales history)?

The Body in the Ravine is delayed. I had to push back the release to August 16, 2022 because I'm lazy and stupid.

Not really, but I did shoot myself in the foot by overscheduling at this time of year. Summer is the worst for writing. Too much going on with all of us finally out of lockdowns and mask-wearing. We're out there hugging random strangers and going to festivals. How can I bear to sit in the office and write?

And the dog ate my homework.

Okay, so the book isn't finished, but it's close and I know who did it, but the St. Ives Book Club doesn't, however Elliot Marks does.

It is available for pre-order at a special discounted price of $2.99 (reg $3.99). So if you order your copy now, you'll save a dollar. Think of it as a bribe to say nice things about the book in the review you're going to leave. 😎

Click here to Pre-Order The Body in the Ravine for $2.99

That's all for now! I hope you are having a great summer. Subscribe to my newsletter to keep up to date on releases and other events I have coming up this year. Get a free short story for your pains.

Click here to subscribe to The Butler Didn't Do It

Why Writers Like the Rain

2022-05-27T10:16:00.003-04:00

It's raining now. The forecast is rain, baby, rain for days. The enemy to writing is beautiful weather. Warm, balmy days, blue skies, birds singing, people telling you to get outside and enjoy the day - bleh.

It's a guilt sandwich. Go outside and feel guilty that you're not inside getting words down. Stay inside and feel guilty that you're wasting a gorgeous day.

Rain fixes that.

I'm currently at work on book five in the St. Ives Book Club Mystery series, The Body in the Ravine, and I'm having a blast. It's due for release on July 12, 2022 barring Acts of God that knock out the power at the eleventh hour. Ontario was pretty badly hit by a major storm on the weekend and many people are still without power.

This one is a little different for Elliot Marks and the St. Ives Book Club.

While birdwatching with her group, Veronica Wakefield-Brice discovers a body hanging in the ravine behind her stately Ontario mansion. She is put out that the man chose her ravine in which to kill himself when there are so many other trees in St. Ives. His death is ruled suicide but when Elliot Marks finds a pair of shoes in Rainbow Lake, Veronica finds herself in the middle of the book club's murder-solving hobby.

---

A few more weeks of crappy weather and I'll be finished. My significant other bought me a new electric lawnmower yesterday. (I am the mower of the lawn in our household) Fortunately the rain prevents me from leaving my desk for a few days yet.

Hah! Foiled again, you people who want me outside!

From the Easter Bunny: Free Cosy Mystery Book!

2022-04-11T12:39:00.007-04:00

To celebrate the launch of The Killing of Honey Gable and to introduce new mystery lovers to the quirky world of the St. Ives Book Club, I'm running a free promotion of the first book in the series, Advertisement for Murder.

The promotion runs from April 16 to April 20, 2022. Available in Amazon marketplaces only and in Kindle Unlimited as well.

I hope you fall in love with the peaceful hamlet of St. Ives and its homicidal secret life as much as I enjoy writing about it.

New Book in Cosy Mystery Series Now Available for Pre-Order!

2022-03-14T08:52:00.001-04:00

After telling my newsletter subscribers I was nervous to put a book up for pre-order - I have put The Killing of Honey Gable up for pre-order 'cause that's how I roll!

The novel is almost finished. I have two chapters to write, then a final pass before it goes off to my trusty proofreader. Pre-order means I can let readers know it's coming but it also means if I drop dead before the final file is uploaded, it'll just be hanging there. The unfinished, not-quite-perfect novel.

This is the thought that plagues me at three o'clock in the morning. (That and what the heck are they putting in Temptations that the cat needs a fix at that hour??)

Pre-orders make me nervous but I bit the bullet this time because so many authors in my genre use pre-orders for their readers who are eager for the next book and might not be informed when it's released.

I'm also hoping the deadline refines my thought process (which is another way of saying I spend less time dreaming about the story and more time writing it) and I can make this a habit.

Pre-orders are not available for print (for indies) at this time but you can order your ebook now and it'll arrive to your Kindle or ereader on Launch Day - April 19, 2022.

The ebooks are Kindle Unlimited Select titles. The print version will arrive on April 19, 2022. If you enjoy what you have read so far in the series, please leave a review! We hate to ask but there is almost no opportunity to advertise books without reviews.

So I am asking. I love hearing from folks who enjoy the series - please let the world know through your social media or by writing a brief review. And thank you!

AND if you would like to get my books for FREE - subscribe to my newsletter and join my Advance Reader Copy team. If you enoy reading and writing honest reviews to post on Amazon and/or Goodreads, then come on down! I would love to have your input.

Subscribe to The Butler Didn't Do It Here (And get a free copy of Long Shadows Fall.)

Pre-Order The Killing of Honey Gable from Amazon Here

THE KILLING OF HONEY GABLE - DUE FOR RELEASE APRIL 19, 2022

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B09VFR93R2

A bus abandoned fifty years ago. A missing six-year-old boy. And a killer in danger of being unmasked.

The long, quiet winter is over. A decades-old hit and run cold case sparks the St. Ives Book Club to life when the bus involved in the accident is discovered abandoned in a forest. Folk singing sensation, Honey Gable, was on the way up when she was run down after a performance at St. Ives Theatre. A tragic accident? Or did one of the six people who fought with Honey that night take their hatred to homicide. A clue is discovered, leading the amateur sleuths on the trail of a killer who will stop at nothing to conceal his or her identity. Poking into this cold case will be like poking a hibernating bear.

Free Cozy Mystery Short Reads Promotion

2022-01-31T16:03:00.000-05:00

Cozy Short Reads for a Short Month

February 1st to February 28th 2022

Hello Mystery Lovers!

Over 20 authors have come together this month to offer mystery lovers a chocolate box of choice in short cozy mystery reads.

Click the coupon below and take your pick (as many as you like!) at no cost to your wallet or your hips.

Bookmark the link to come back again and again throughout the month and fall in love with a new mystery.

(Offer good until Feb. 28, 2022)

This is pretty exciting for me. It's my first time in a group promotion with other mystery authors, writing in the same vein. As The Butler Didn't Do It subscriber list grows by leaps and bounds, it's going to be fun and thrilling hunting down more freebies, giveaways, sneak peeks and special deals for subscribers. I love a bargain.

We'll talk mystery too. Lots to talk about there. For example: What makes a mystery a cosy? We had a spirited discussion about this in my writers' forum. Some felt cosies had broken free of cats, cupcakes and cartoons on the covers. I don't have animals or cooking in my series but I believe I still qualify as a cosy mystery writer.

It comes down to tone. There is a murder but it is how that murder is tackled and resolved that makes one mystery a cosy, another a hard-boiled and another a police procedural.

Food for thought! Subscribe to The Butler Didn't Do It and get in on the conversation.

And Happy Valentine's Day!

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Still Standing in Wakefield

2022-01-20T07:54:00.002-05:00

Oh my god, we're famous.

If readers of Iced Under, The Grey Lady and The River Bride have ever wondered where I got the inspiration for Stollerton, the CBC's hit show Still Standing with Jonny Harris has profiled my gorgeous little village in all its glory. You can watch it here:

Still Standing in Wakefield

Nikki Mantell, interviewed in the piece, was my former boss at the LowDown to Hull and Back News. It looks all slick now, but you should have seen the offices back in the day. Now that was a newspaper office. Her father, Art Mantell, gave me my first real piece of writing advice that I remember to this day: "Where's the story, Nadine? Start at the story!"

The whole town looks slick and happening now. The train was responsible for some of the economic turn around, but the real change (in my opinion) began with the purchase and renovation of the Wakefield Mill. When it was turned into a stunning boutique hotel, it signalled that the village was a place people would pay to visit.

From Iced Under (which was written back in the day):

Named for the family that founded it, the village followed the tips and bends of the Gatineau River with cramped carelessness, squeezed between the mountain and the old railway tracks. Its logging roots showed in the clapboard buildings that were hastily constructed, no one anticipating they’d still be in use a hundred years later. The population hovered perpetually at eight hundred and the economic health of the region was equally stagnant. Nothing to buy, nothing to sell, and what there was, nobody wanted. Like many quaint, picturesque towns in West Quebec, Stollerton hung on to existence with the tenacity of a weed.

Wakefield is likely to suffer for its unique physical beauty and easy-going nature. With COVID, we've seen a dramatic increase in tourist traffic, and while I'm happy for the business owners who have hung in there through the bad times, it makes the village less familiar.

I hope visitors get transformed by the vibe as I did, as so many newcomers did, into calmer, cheerier people who realize there is nothing more important than the person standing in front of you. I hope they slow down on the back roads and look at the turtles instead of running over them.

I hope they put their Tim Horton's cups in garbage receptacles instead of throwing them in the ditches. The ditches offer life to the most beautiful variety of wildflowers. They look scruffy and insignificant, a place to toss garbage--they are not.

I hope they bend to the Hills instead of trying to bend the Hills to them. As a former Torontonian, I can tell you it's easier to give in.

I told a dear friend years ago that Wakefield loved me into being. It's true. Residents believe nothing is impossible and take it on fact that the most remarkable things can be accomplished, and usually with no money. Community centre? No problem. Hospital? Hold my beer. Build a bridge? Just watch us. Heritage museum, parks, trails? No worries.

In my case, it was three crime novels and now a cosy murder mystery series.

(My crime thrillers were formerly subtitled Gatineau Hills Mystery until I realized no one outside of the National Capital Region knew what the Gatineau Hills were. It is now the name of my tiny publishing company.)

Jonny Harris touched on the enormous creative output in Wakefield. Seriously, you can't swing a cat in this town without hitting an artist. Famous authors and musicians have come to the village, but it's the "famous to us" artists, singers, poets, writers, chefs, gardeners, philanthropists, librarians, historians, visionaries and business owners that have kept us going. When no one was here, they were here.

Trains come and go. It's the people who make a place magical.

Fuck you Facebook or Meta or whatever you're called. This time I mean it.

2022-01-03T17:31:00.003-05:00

In the interests of trying to connect with family who only respond to shit on Facebook, I tried once again to open an account. This was the message I received after filling out the form with my real name:

We require everyone to use the name they use in everyday life, what their friends call them, on Facebook. Learn more about our name policies.

They don't tell you what those policies are or where to find them. I did a search in Help and found this:

www.facebook.com/help/112146705538576/?helpref=uf_share

As you can see, there is nothing helpful about the Help. So when prompted to respond to the query "Did this answer your question?" I bit back the foul language I had stored up (They only give you 500 characters to vent your spleen) and wrote this reply (paraphrasing):

I'm using my given-at-birth-name that is on all my government documents and is accepted by every social media site on the PLANET except Facebook. I guess you've never heard of Gen. James Doolittle who led the raid on Tokyo called the "Doolittle Raid". In the interest of connecting with family, I tried to set up an account and was given this message: We require everyone to use the name they use in everyday life, what their friends call them, on Facebook. Learn more about our name policies. Really? FFS.

So pathetic. They won't figure it out. Not now, not ever. I'm only posting this to let any random family member who nags me to "Join Facebook!" know that their addiction to the conglomerate that shuts out one of their own is why they'll never hear from me.

And friends who urge me to send documents to this fuckwit enterprise in order to get an account so they can contact me - that's a hard pass.

To all of the book marketers out there who email me daily hoping to get my enrollment fees in their Facebook courses - good luck with that.

To everyone with whom I might do business with if only you weren't Facebook exclusive with your advertising, I guess I'll never know what I've missed, but I'm a little richer today.

And to all of you who rant on Facebook daily about a long list of grievances now at work in the world - YOU are the problem because you feed the beast that LOVES keeping those issues alive and well and flourishing in the hearts of humankind. Well done, you.

Put in that light, Fuckbook has done me a favour. This Doolittle is out.

Cosy Mystery Book Release!

2021-12-07T09:12:00.001-05:00

Christmas has come to St. Ives and it is murder.

Tis the season of goodwill toward all men...

No one in St. Ives sheds a tear when the reviled Bernie Dixon falls to his death from the belfry of the clock tower right before Christmas. Murder is out of the question. The only access to the tower was locked and Bernie had the key in his pocket when his body was found. At first glance, death by misadventure is the obvious conclusion. But when the St. Ives Book Club is approached by his widow to investigate, the amateur sleuths discover first glances can be deceiving. As the villagers celebrate with parties and tree-trimming, Elliot Marks leads his gang of crime solvers on a hunt for a killer.

Buy it Now on Amazon!

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Seeking Cosy Mystery Reviewers!

2021-11-17T17:53:00.001-05:00

My Secret Weapon for 2022 - Plottr

2021-10-29T18:57:00.000-04:00

I've always been a pantser. I'd get an idea for a story, see the end or the main point in my head and off I'd go writing myself in and out of corners until I lurched to the finish line.

The "finish" line was followed by weeks of (hair-pulling, teeth-gnashing) editing until I could declare the book complete or too stupid to live.

My process was long, tedious and increasingly joyless. Worst of all, it did not result in book that was as tight as I would have liked it to be because I was exhausted and hated the thing by the end.

There has to be a better way, right? Well, there is. It is called drafting an outline which is something normal people do. I've tried to nail that sucker down for years without success. The act of writing an outline to write only led to me hating my story faster.

I can't even remember when I heard about Plottr or where, but on impulse I signed up for the online demo of the software. I am cheap. Some might even say stingy. I am immune to impulse buying or sales pitches. But I loved the demo. I could see instantly how this program could work for me. I could play with it, I could manipulate it to work the way my brain works. Sometimes I plot very tightly with it. Sometimes I follow one of the templates. Sometimes I use it for the timeline to shift scenes where I need them to be. I can see how the story is progressing in each box where I jot down everything from dialogue to clothing to weather.

The random bits that flesh out a scene get plugged into Plottr and make writing faster, easier and stronger. Less editing, less time wasted hunting around for where I put what. My daily word count went from an exhausting 2K day to a relaxed 5K a day.

I'm not sure how it does what it does. It's visual so that's a huge help when you're trying to figure out what comes next. It's also liberating because it's easy to plug in the bits that come to me and dump them if they're not working. I can move stuff around. It's not set in stone. There's room for some pantsing but I get a look at the dead ends before I start writing. I waste less time and brain energy when I'm cranking out the words.

To make a living in self-publishing, we have to produce and Plottr is my secret weapon to amp up production. I have five books planned and instead of feeling overwhelmed and discouraged, I have this cool little tool at my side to get the stories out.

If you are interested and want to check it out for yourself go to www.plottr.com. There is a rate for a lifetime license which is what I bought. The service is excellent. The thing works.

Nadine Doolittle

The Final Book in Cosy Mystery Series is Released!

Young Adult Speculative Fiction Releases!

Kobo, Apple, Barnes and Noble and Google Play are getting a Cozy Mystery Series!

IN OTHER NEWS:

Traditional Cozy Mystery for October!

A Psychic Paranormal Cozy Mystery Release!

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Free Cozy Mystery June 15 - June 19

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New Series! New Release!

Sixth and Sensibility: One Dead Devil

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New Release for St. Ives Book Club Mystery

Pre-Order Make Way for Murder Here!

A parting gift for readers of this blog!

I am moving on, folks!

Cozy Mystery Free Book Sale

My COVID Baby

A Deadly Case of Blue Pre-Order on Amazon!

St. Ives has a new mystery!

The Body in the Ravine

Amazon Prime Day Cozy Mystery Sale

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From the Easter Bunny: Free Cosy Mystery Book!

New Book in Cosy Mystery Series Now Available for Pre-Order!

Pre-Order The Killing of Honey Gable from Amazon Here

Free Cozy Mystery Short Reads Promotion

Cozy Short Reads for a Short Month

February 1st to February 28th 2022

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Still Standing in Wakefield

Oh my god, we're famous.

Fuck you Facebook or Meta or whatever you're called. This time I mean it.

Cosy Mystery Book Release!

Christmas has come to St. Ives and it is murder.

Buy it Now on Amazon!

Seeking Cosy Mystery Reviewers!

Read more. Pay less.

My Secret Weapon for 2022 - Plottr