I published Cordelia’s Journey, my first book in the Pierce Family Saga series in 2015. In 2021, I finished the fifth book in that series. I started a spinoff series in 2022 with Uprooted: The Adventures of Hannah True, starring the aunt in the Pierce series. Now, I will be bringing characters from the original series together in my next book. My problem: I can’t remember all the details about all the characters in the first series. I am going to have to read them again and take notes this time.
I Don’t Want to Read Alone
I am starting my trip down memory lane with the first book, Cordelia’s Journey. If you would like to join me, the eBook is on a free promotion from February 13-17, 2026. Click here to get your copy.
Reputation, the fourth book in The Adventures of Hannah True, is set in January 1861, so as much as we would both like to, neither Hannah nor I can escape the Civil War. My problem with writing about the Civil War is how big it is in time and battles and geography. With all the possibilities, where will I find Hannah’s story?
Finding a Time
Research revealed that fraud was rampant in the Civil War, so much so that the False Claims Act of 1863 was signed into law by Abraham Lincoln on March 2, 1863. Corrupt contractors delivered shoddy merchandise in the form of uniforms and shoes that fell apart in rainy weather, sick horses and mules, grains infested with weevils, broken rifles, and more. The act provided rewards for information that led to bringing the fraudsters to justice. Upon the passing of the law, Vance Hollandar and his agency at once began investigating. Hannah, with two years of experience as a detective, is part of the team.
The novel will begin on July 10, 1863 at Aunt Gertrude’s house in New York City. Possible family members who will be part of the story are Cordelia, who is driving a photography wagon and taking battlefield photographs for Mathew Brady and Darcy Haynes, and Lucy, who has dressed as a man and joined Jake, the man she loves, on the front lines.
Finding a Place
Research is still needed to determine the place of the investigation. I am hoping for a Kansas/Missouri connection to bring the story closer to other members of the Pierce family.
Research
I found the following resource published in 1864. I couldn’t make a screenshot work, but the link will work. If you are interested, Click here
NURSE AND SPY
IN THE
UNION ARMY:
COMPRISING
The Adventures and Experiences of a Woman in Hospitals, Camps, and Battle-Fields.
By S. EMMA E. EDMONDS.
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS.
Published by Subscription only by W. S. WILLIAMS & CO., HARTFORD, CONN. JONES BROS. & CO., PHILADELPHIA AND CINCINNATI. J. A. STODDARD & CO., CHICAGO, ILL. 1865.
Entered According to Act of Congress in the year 1864, By W. S. Williams & Company In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States, For the District of Connecticut.
Reputation is everything to a woman and her team of detectives in 1861 St. Louis.
Reputation has arrived!
I have learned a lesson: Get books before scheduling a launch party. Today is August 30, and the book launch party at Middle Ground Books in Emporia, Kansas, is tomorrow, August 31 at 2pm. The books arrived today at 10:41 a.m.
Needless to say, I have been a total wreck all week.
Reputation is my thirteenth published novel, and I am having my first book launch on August 31 at 2 pm at Middle Ground Books in Emporia, Kansas.
So how did I launch the first twelve novels?
Previous new book announcement process:
Research and write book.
Publish book.
Order copies.
Receive copies.
Put copies in car.
Tell friends, “Hey, I have a new book!”
Friends say, “I’d like a copy,” and pay me.
I sign the book, toss it to them, and the launch is complete.
With the help of friends
While I have attended several book launches in the past, I’m still not sure what I should do at mine. Fortunately, my Emporia Writers friends, Tracy Million Simmons, Deb Irsik, and Lindsey Bartlett, have volunteered to help. With their experience in launching, I am less anxious and looking forward to my first book launch ever.
What is Reputation about anyway?
Reputation is everything to a woman and her team of detectives in 1861 St. Louis.
From the top floor of the Gates Hotel to the caves beneath it, the search for a murderer takes Hannah True and her team into situations that compromise their reputations as women and as novice detectives. Meeting a man alone might be enough to ruin her reputation, meeting him in a saloon would definitely destroy it.
Reputation is the fourth book in the Hannah True series. If you happen to be in Emporia, Kansas, on August 31, I’d love to have you celebrate its publication with me. If you prefer eBooks, visit my Reputation book page on Amazon or visit my Amazon Author page to view the first twelve.
It is summer, and the weather has been wild. There is even a conspiracy theory floating around about weather modification by bad actors of the deep state targeting certain areas and people. Because my best friend and writing buddy, B.J. Myrick, loved this particular conspiracy theory, she wrote a novel with characters engaged in controlling the weather to wipe out undesirables.
This year’s summer harvest: A bumper crop of humans
Under the cover of climate change propaganda, Hanson Monroe is carrying out a secret U.S. government weather modification program to launch a series of cataclysmic events. The goal: wipe out four billion people who are a drain on Earth’s resources. Garrett Potmeyer, a low-level new-hire, is unaware of the program’s goals until two coworkers barge into his apartment, press a stolen flash drive in his hand, and reveal the sinister plan. Now it is up to Garrett to get the word out and halt the destruction to come. As Garrett flees for his life, he meets a young woman and five retired military geezers who offer to join forces with him. Are any of them trustworthy, or are they Monroe’s minions? And what about the so-called prophet who keeps showing up and giving advice? Is he for real or an escapee from a lunatic asylum? With only his faith to guide him, can Garrett stop the final phase of Summer Harvest before half the Earth’s population is destroyed?
Putting Reputation on pre-order on Amazon is more about giving myself a deadline I have to meet than it is about selling books. If I were not such a procrastinator, I could probably have written another dozen books by now.
The Final Cover
Notepad Contents
Deciding what items to list on the notepad and in what order of each Hannah True book is always a challenge. Now, as I look at what I have designated as “the final cover,” I’m wondering if it is. The current order is
poisoned pastry
hotel thefts
a dead owner
cave explosion
a missing detective
As I examine the list, I realize hotel thefts should come before poisoned pastry. The thefts come first in the novel and should on the notepad. Just when I think something is done, I find something else to fix. Make the above the next to final cover. Or maybe the next, next to final cover. The good news: I have until August 1 to upload the final book documents.
The Book Description
Reputation is everything to a woman and her team of detectives in 1861 St. Louis.
From the top floor of the Gates Hotel to the caves beneath it, the search to find a murderer takes Hannah True and her team into situations that compromise their reputations as women and as novice detectives. Meeting a man alone might be enough to ruin a reputation and meeting him in a saloon would definitely destroy it. Besides, Hannah has the reputation of her employer, the Hollandar Detective Agency, to think about.
When the owner of the Gates Hotel hires the Agency to find the person who has been stealing from guests, it appears to be a low danger job suitable for training three new female investigators. But upon discovering the man who hired them has been murdered, the stakes rise.
When the widow of the hotel owner hires a Pinkerton to crack the case, Hannah and her team have to rise to the challenge and show they can outshine the Pinkerton. They must reveal the murderer first, as well avoid becoming targets themselves.
The Formatted Novel
Here is the biggest challenge, and I am still tearing my hair out over getting both the eBook and paperback pages to conform with publishing requirements. However, I am determined to meet the deadline for the eBook pre-order. The paperback will be available on August 16.
The eBook preorder page is live now, and the publication date is August 5. Check it out here.
I started Book 4 of the Hannah True Series in January 2024. As a pantser (seat of the pants writer), I have done a lot of revising and checking to make sure I haven’t changed a crucial detail, or even a minor one, about Hannah and her band of detectives. That is an ongoing process.
Titles
I have changed is the title. I went from False Fronts to Buried Truths to Reputation. I settled on Reputation because previous books in the series have one-word titles and my main character, Hannah True, is concerned about hers
The Cover: A Work in Progress
Now I need a cover. When I was playing with Buried Truths as a title, I had a cover image in a cave. I’m not sure about that image for Reputation, but I’m hoping the book description will make it work.
Reputation Book Description
Reputation is everything to a woman and her team of detectives in 1861 St. Louis.
From the top floor of the Gates Hotel to the caves beneath it, the search to find a murderer takes Hannah True and her team into situations that compromise their reputations as women and as novice detectives. Meeting a man alone might be enough to ruin a reputation and meeting him in a saloon would definitely destroy it. Besides, they have the reputation of their employer, the Hollandar Detective Agency, to think about.
When Frank Gates, the owner of the Gates Hotel, hires the Agency to find the person who has been stealing from guests, it appears to be a low danger job suitable for training three new female investigators. But upon discovering the man who hired them has been murdered, the stakes rise.
When the widow of the hotel owner reveals her lack of faith in the Hollandar Agency and hires a Pinkerton to crack the case, Hannah and her team rise to the challenge, vowing to outshine the Pinkerton and solve the murder. Can Hannah and her team prove their skills, outwit the Pinkerton investigator and reveal the truth behind the murder of Frank Gates?
Publication Date
Publication of the eBook version of Reputation is scheduled for August 1, 2025. The paperback version will follow shortly after. At least, that’s the plan.
Three books in the Hannah True historical series are available now on Amazon and at Middle Ground Books in Emporia, Kansas. To celebrate my return to blogging, I am making the eBook version of Undercurrents, the second book in The Adventures of Hannah True series free on Amazon from May 24-May 27, 2025.
To get your free eBook copy of Undercurrents from May24-27, 2025, click here now.
Book 4 of the Series
At this moment, I have a rough draft of Book 4. My goal is to publish in August. However, I still don’t have a title or a cover. Here is what I know:
In January 1860, Hannah True, an apprentice detective with the Hollandar Detective Agency, joins her mentors to solve a series of thefts at the Gates Hotel in St. Louis, Missouri. Nothing too dangerous, she thinks. But then the hotel owner dies of poisoning, there is an explosion in the cave beneath the hotel, and Hannah’s young co-investigator goes missing. With fear of her friend’s fate driving her, Hannah begins a frantic search for the missing woman.
Possible Titles:
Uncovered Submerged Subterranean Secrets Buried Truths Beneath the Surface
I am leaning toward the first two titles because the match the one-word titles of the first three book in the series. Have you a favorite or any thoughts on a great title? If so, leave a comment.
Back in 2011, my best friend and writing buddy, Bonnie Eaton aka BJ Myrick, and I were trying to figure out the world of eBook publishing, and we found Smashwords. We published four books which are now a part of the Smashwords End of Year sale. Two are free and the other two are $1.49 from today through January 1, 2025.
When I wrote this book of short stories, talk shows were all over daytime television. Hosts included Maury Povich, Jerry Springer, and Sally Jessy Raphael among others. If you watched them, the opinions of the hosts and guests may have influenced the way you thought about the topics they covered. The Nancy Nolan Show, a collection of short stories about a fictional talk show and its host, Nancy Nolan, will get you thinking about the influence talk shows had on the lives of guests, would-be guests, and viewers.
In this long short story, a woman inherits an Egyptian mummy with instructions for activating its powers and making her every wish come true. Then she learns the mummy has wishes of its own, wishes that put the future of her beloved niece in danger.
A father wants to save his children from a corrupt world.
In The Night before Christmas, a suspense novel, Wes Myers seeks to save his three small daughters from the pagan beliefs of a sinful world. After promising Jesus he will do anything to save their souls, he hears, “If I should die before I wake….” Can anyone save Wes’s daughters from a father who loves them more than life? This was my first novel which took thirty years from idea to published novel. Caution: This is not a warm and fuzzy Christmas story.
Lock the door and journey into fear: Two women move into their dream home to find it inhabited by a demonic angel in “Edge of Nowhere.” An obsessed young man commits “Deadly Sins” when he plots to kill a beautiful woman. A professor of mythology fears her twin is dating a werewolf. Can she convince her sister this is more than a case of “Cry Wolf”? A man’s desire to escape poverty prompts him to marry the homely daughter of a rich rancher in exchange for a career in “A Laugh like Rolling Stones.” A twelve-step group, “L.O.V.E. Anonymous,” encourages a single woman to answer a personal ad. Plus other unforgettable tales from…the dark side.
More free and discounted books
As mentioned above, Smashwords is having an End of Year sale with over 60,000 indie authors participating. The sale starts December 12, 2024 and ends January 1, 2025.
Series in Progress 