Karen Wiesner is an accomplished author with 46 books published in the past 9 years, which have been nominated/won 58 awards, and 18 more titles under contract. Her books cover such genres as women’s fiction, romance, mystery/police procedural/cozy, suspense, paranormal, futuristic, gothic, inspirational, thriller, horror and action/adventure. She also offers writes children’s books, poetry, and writing reference titles such as her bestseller, First Draft in 30 Days, available from Writer’s Digest Books, and the upcoming companion, Cohesive Story Building. For more information about Karen and her work, visit her websites at karenwiesner.com, falconsbend.com, firstdraftin30days.com, and JewelsoftheQuill.com. If you would like to receive Karen’s free e-mail newsletter, Karen’s Quill, visit groups.yahoo.com/group/KarensQuill or send a blank message to KarensQuill-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.

In 2008, Karen Wiesner is giving away an autographed trade paperback every month to subscribers of her newsletter, Karen's Quill!

Winners will be chosen from Karen's subscriber base on the 27th of every month and contacted via e-mail. USA and Canadian winners only for tangible prizes; if the winner is outside the USA or Canada, Karen may, at her discretion, substitute a download in place of the original prize. Only those subscribed to Karen's Quill will be eligible to win prizes. All members currently subscribed and set to receive mail (not "no mail" or "special announcements only") will automatically be eligible every month. Please note that some books may be slightly used.

Subscribe to Karen's Quill by visiting Karen's website at karenwiesner.com or by sending a blank e-mail to KarensQuill-subscribe@yahoogroups.com!


Hard Shell Word Factory



Tears on Stone
Book 2 of the Falcon's Bend Series

Is murder ever justifiable?

Falcon's Bend Police Department Investigator Pete Shasta's brother Jordan is recently divorced and intent on putting his life back together for himself and his daughter. Jordan discovers that people have moved into the house next door to him and one of them is MaryEmma Gold, who'd lived in the house he now owns when he was a boy. Jordan soon finds that his shy "Marigold" has become an even more withdrawn woman. MaryEmma's sister Shelley sleeps all day and parties all night. Seeing bruises all over MaryEmma's arms, Jordan asks his brother to check into her past. Pete and his partner Danny Vincent discover that Shelley's husband died in a fire only a week before they came to Falcon's Bend. The women left their jobs and lives behind abruptly.

Meanwhile, Shelley's new boyfriend is found near the dam, bludgeoned to death. As they uncover murder in the form of a conspiracy, Pete and Danny can't help noticing that Shelley Wilson leaves a trail of dead men behind her wherever she goes...and Jordan may be next.

The Fifteenth Letter
Book 3 of the Falcon's Bend Series
July 2008

Sins of the father...

For the past fifteen years, on the anniversary of his arrest for armed robbery, Zeke Carfi has received a threatening letter signed by the wife of his deceased partner in crime.

Zeke's daughter Amber, Falcon's Bend Police Department's newest patrol officer, has spent fifteen years holding onto a secret that could further condemn the father she'd worshipped as a child. When Zeke is released on parole, Amber finds herself questioning everything she's ever believed. Is Zeke the good man she once knew? How could the father who'd made her the center of his world for the first seven years of her life be a criminal? Is it possible to turn from a life a crime, or is it true that once a criminal always a criminal?

Their reconciliation is cut short when Amber discovers the fifteenth letter...and the key to a fifteen-year mystery that could lead to murder.

Samhain Publishing



The Bloodmoon Curse

An unsuspecting nurse is lured to an ancient family mansion—said to hold both ghosts and horrifying secrets—in order to care for three recently orphaned children.

Amberlyn Lyons has recently suffered a devastating miscarriage that has torn her marriage apart and shaken her faith. She quietly takes a nanny position at an isolated mansion without electricity, telephone, or ease of passage. The moment she walks into Bloodmoon Manor, Amberlyn deduces that all things aren’t as they seem. The eerily similar owners distrust doctors who, in thirty years, have been unable to cure their severely deformed daughter Katerina. Katerina both idolizes and despises Amberlyn for her beauty. Childishly cruel, Katerina enjoys tormenting the orphans by telling them tales of the malicious ghost that haunts the decaying mansion.

Amberlyn discounts the paranormal legends as made-up stories until she hears the shuffling of footsteps in the cold, dark halls and feels that she’s being watched at every turn. She knows the ghost is real and she must protect the children. But when she discovers a graveyard behind the mansion filled with babies who died at birth or shortly thereafter, she realizes the ghost of Bloodmoon Manor is really a family curse and she was brought there to uphold the family legacy of that curse. Either she finds a way to escape with the children…or she becomes the next Bloodmoon bride.

Baby, Baby
Book 1 of the Family Heirlooms Series

Book One Family Heirloom: Accepting God’s will

A Proverbs 31 wife wonders, does “submissive” mean giving up having anything of her own?

Thirty-seven-year-old Tamara Wolfe married her childhood sweetheart, Robert, right out of high school and proceeded to have a passel of children who fill her life to capacity. With the last of her children in preschool, Tamara decides to make a business out of her long-time love of creating designer gift baskets. She doesn’t expect Robert to be against it from her first word.

Robert has always prided himself on giving Tamara the option of staying home to raise the children, just as his father did before him. Since birth, it’s been drilled into him that a man who doesn’t provide for his family is the worst kind of loser. What will happen if her business takes off? She won’t have time to take care of the family. Worse, maybe she won’t need him anymore. Although they’d agreed years before their family was complete, Robert considers that perhaps the cure for Tamara’s restlessness is another baby.

Tamara prays for wisdom. All she wants is a small space of time for herself. Is she being selfish? Or is God leading her to continue being an outdated model of the Proverbs 31 wife--submissive, but never equal?

Twilight Times Books



The Power of Promotional Groups
October 2007

Most authors—regardless of whom they’re published with and how long they’ve been published—use a loose-cannon approach to promotion. They fire at anything that appears in their marketing scope. They live for the moment promotionally because the moment is a lot cheaper than the long haul. While the author who promotes nada makes nada for royalties, the author who promotes as much as possible but can’t afford either the time or money to do it long-term still makes considerably modest royalties. The author who promotes heavily over a long period of time either goes broke or sees a surge in their royalties.

Successful authors have two things in common: Their marketing is focused and long term, and they have an irresistible lure. So how do authors get their books into the hands of readers all year round without breaking the bank?

THE POWER OF PROMOTIONAL GROUPS will teach authors how to jumpstart their careers by advertising in long-term, affordable ways within the safety and strength of a promotional group. These groups of authors accomplish together what few can do alone: they share the cost of long-term promotion and market their releases individually and as a group.

No other book currently on the market comprehensively explains how authors can set up a promotion-specific group. The innovative plans for group and individual promotion included are both flexible and affordable for nearly any budget. THE POWER OF PROMOTIONAL GROUPS also makes full use of the most valuable promotional resource available to all authors—the internet. Nearly 700 links to Websites where authors can find promotion are included, along with dozens of unique marketing ideas. Promotional groups offer authors the means to gain focused, irresistible promotion—indefinitely!

Whiskey Creek Press



Bounty on the Rebel's Heart
Book 3 of the Incognito Series

Rebel Porter is a man on the edge. His wife was killed to silence evidence he uncovered on a dangerously corrupt man of power. Now Reb is in hiding, and he’s as afraid to lose someone else to the bounty on his head as to lose his heart to another woman.

Corrupt head of Network operations, Giles Jameson has gone MIA. As a boy, he’d been brought in with the choice: join or die. Giles joined, vowing secretly to bring down the Network. Working with an organized crime ring, Giles had killed a senator. The son of that senator was Rebel Porter, who grew up to be an investigative reporter who spent his life searching for Giles and the covert organization he believed he headed. When Reb disclosed his findings on public radio, Giles covered up the breach and silenced Reb by arranging to have his wife killed. Now 16 years later, Giles has begun his life-long mission to destroy the Network for good.

Network operative Natalie Francis goes undercover, posing as Reb’s former lover--investigative journalist Adrienna Kelly--to find Reb and his evidence against Giles Jameson and the Network. Together they uncover a conspiracy that could upset the wrong people and silence both of them for good. And, when Natalie realizes she’s fallen for the man she’d been protecting, she considers the impossible--escaping the Network.

Dead Drop
Book 4 of the Incognito Series

Roan Emory, Network operative, was inducted against his will. Parris “Perry” L’Engle, an FBI agent and the only woman he ever loved, has never been convinced that the car accident that took Daniel Sands’ life was legitimate. Just before his disappearance 25 years earlier, Daniel had been approached for recruitment by a covert agency. Now the scenario that had seemed like the catalyst to tragedy is taking place again. Outside her son Danny’s office, Perry hears a familiar voice she’d overheard the day before Daniel disappeared, giving an identical recruiting pitch to her son. Horrified, she vows this cipher won’t get him...but he can lead her to Daniel. When she finds the man Roan Emory in Chicago, she has to face the fact that Daniel had willingly given up her, their love, and the child he’d never known she was carrying.

Roan is a man on the edge with the face of a fallen angel and the heart of a machine. Denying his emotions is how he’s existed all these years. Better not to feel when he can't change his circumstances. He’ll never be free of the Network. Even if they willingly let him go, their enemies will see him as collateral. His presence outside could cripple them. Only legitimate death can free him. Ironically, though he’s found his heart again with Perry, he knows the only one who can save their son from the same fate that destroyed their lives is Roan Emory--the most dangerous man in the world.

Under the Spell
Book 5 of the Incognito Series
October 2007

Alex Lynch has spent a lifetime working hard toward the goal of owning the Triple Aces Ranch in Fever, TX. His dream has finally come true when Gina Calhoun—a girl he’d loved all his life, despite her penchant for looking for trouble and his penchant for bailing her out—drops back into his life, seemingly out of nowhere.

Network Communications and Systems Analyst Justine Fielding, the former Gina Calhoun, is all grown up, more beautiful than ever...and even more restless.

Little does Alex know that the woman he’s falling under the spell of all over again is there on a mission to uncover and stop the dangerous men who killed her father—Alex being her chief suspect. This time, Gina may be the only one who can bail him out of the trouble about to come down on him.

Renegade's Rose
Book 6 of the Incognito Series
March 2008

Network Operative Hunter Savage is nearly at death’s door when he turns renegade to save his sister, kidnapped by the Black Pope, Rex Kovac, leader of the covert terrorist organization R.E.D. Hunter’s only means of saving Celine? Steal Kovac’s most prized possession—his wife.

Renowned belly dancer, Tanya Kovac is nowhere near as innocent as she seems...and Hunter is nowhere near as indifferent to Tanya’s charms as he wants and needs to be to save his sister.

Shadows in the Heart - "Papa"
Book 1 of Woodcutter's Grim Series

For the ten generations since the evil first came to Woodcutter's Grim, the Guardians have sworn an oath to protect the town from the childhood horrors that lurk in the black woods. Without them, the town would be defenseless…and the terrors would escape to the world at large.

A wickedly horrifying rendering of the classic children’s story “Hansel and Gretel”, in which modern revenge is served up sweet...

Less than a year after Randall Parker left his family for elementary school teacher, Amy, the unthinkable happens—his ex-wife and two children are killed in a car accident. Ever since the accident, Amy has had terrible nightmares in which Rand’s son and daughter return to exact revenge on their father and Amy herself (the wicked step-mother) for abandoning them. When Rand convinces her to come away with him for a healing respite to an isolated cabin in the woods, Amy’s guilt-filled nightmares turn into pure horror.

Blood of Amethyst
Book 2 of Woodcutter's Grim Series
March 2008

For the ten generations since the evil first came to Woodcutter's Grim, the Guardians have sworn an oath to protect the town from the childhood horrors that lurk in the black woods. Without them, the town would be defenseless…and the terrors would escape to the world at large.

A blood-curdling answer as to why the childhood-nightmare creature Rumpelstiltskin so wanted a child of his own...

Amethyst Phillip’s father—her only family—disappears in Woodcutter Grim’s evil woods. Town Sheriff and Guardian Gabe Reece sends out a search party and eventually they find the body, completely drained of blood. A devastated Amethyst refuses to do anything but carry on all by herself in the isolated area she grew up.

But something strange is happening, and Gabe realizes it every time he drops by to check on the woman who’s held his heart for long years. She’s grown pale, cold. She’s sleeping all the time, waking only in the night, when her taste for blood overwhelms her. Then Gabe becomes aware that something in the woods is calling to her, something that’s stealing her life...

Gabe will face his deadliest foe yet when the woman he loves falls prey to a nameless creature who wants her very soul.

Adventures in Amethyst Series

Contains Karen's previously published books in her Adventures in Amethyst Series: "A Rose for Romeo" (Story 1) and "Revenge in Amethyst" (Story 2) plus two bonus stories in the series never before published: “Reckless Rose” (Story 3) and “Christmas in Amethyst” (Story 4)

Dame Amethyst Treasures

Contains Karen's previously published "The Amethyst Angel," "A Home for Christmas," and "The Amethyst Star" with a bonus novella "Creatures of the Night"

Writer's Digest Books



From First Draft to Finish Novel
September 2008

A builder knows the best supplies to use to produce a sound house, just as a plumber and electrician follow the guidelines and regulations of their professions. And a home decorator would never put together elements that are grossly at odds. Her job is to create something that’s both pleasing to the eye and perfectly suited to the individuals in the home. In the same way, the three main story elements of character, plot and setting must be cohesive and work together in such a way that taking away a single element would be impossible because they’ve seamlessly become a part of each other. They complement and strengthen each other. The process by which a writer builds cohesion like this is one of layering and building up and bringing together the strengths of all aspects within his story.

For more information about this book, visit here.

Pre-order this book from Amazon.com and you will receive an additional 5% off at checkout ($13.59 instead of $19.99!). Also, if the Amazon.com price decreases between your order time and release date, you'll receive the lowest price as well as the 5% pre-order discount. For more information, visit Amazon.com.