Slightly Off the Mark

 So, I have a request for all of you out there. Well, those of you who read. Well, those of you who read my stuff. Well, those of you who like reading my stuff.

Or even if you don't, what the heck.

As all of you know--well, some of you--we just re-released my first published novel, Storm Chaser. Thanks to Emily for doing ...

Everything. My wife did everything. Every now and then she'd toss me a proof copy, I'd leaf through it, and she'd go back to doing all that stuff she did. I did nothing, I admit it. Happy now?

Anyway, there's what it looks like. Yes, Emily put the cover together, based on the old one. But there's one thing she couldn't do: transfer all the reviews of the original edition onto this new one. Which is here:

https://www.amazon.com/Storm-Chaser-Mark-Hunter-ebook/dp/B0C7MB95NH

According to Goodreads, Storm Chaser collected 15 reviews and 27 ratings, which isn't great but beats the heck out of how many reviews I've gotten for Summer Jobs Are Murder (which hasn't been published yet). The problem is, according to Amazon I now have exactly three reviews. Which, at least, is easy to count. (Why those three stayed, I have no idea.)

So I'm asking everyone who has or does purchase the book, on Kindle or in print, to leave me a review. I don't know if Amazon will allow reviewers to post on the new book if they bought the old book, but if it doesn't you could at least leave yours on Goodreads, or the review place of your choice, up to and including bathroom stalls.

Just don't put my phone number there.

In return for your help I will ... hm ... dance.

No. No, that's a terrible idea. It's asking for another month of ice and ibuprofen. But I will be very grateful, because online reviews really do matter, especially on Amazon. No one really knows how Amazon's algorithms work, and I don't really know what an algorithm is, but I'm told the more reviews you have, the more likely you are to be seen.

People who see, buy. If enough people buy, I can write more. It's the circle of write.

This is the old version. You'll probably still see it here and there, so I should warn you it's probably more expensive.

• Website: http://www.markrhunter.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ozma914/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkRHunter914
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markrhunter/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarkRHunter
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@MarkRHunter
• Blog: https://markrhunter.blogspot.com/
• Amazon:  https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0058CL6OO
• Barnes & Noble:  https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/"Mark R Hunter"

 Remember, every time you don't leave a review, an angel loses his hair. You don't want bald angels.

Here's the interesting history of the "Riviera of the Middle West":

https://ndsmcobserver.com/2020/02/indiana-beach-gone/

For several years I got Indiana Beach tickets through my work, and would take my kids, and sometimes their friends, there. Later Emily and I went, once taking the grandkids. Like the local drive-in theater I've talked about before, it seemed like it was becoming a multi-generational thing. 

 Now, although there are efforts to keep it going, the almost century old Indiana Beach Amusement Park seems gone for good.

 The last time we visited was in rainy, dreary weather, which maybe I should have taken for a sign.  

I took the news personally, because I just finished changing the title and doing a few corrections to my so-far unpublished young adult mystery, Summer Jobs Are Murder (formerly Red Is For Ick, but I'd rather we all forget that.)

The story's protagonist is a teenager who investigates a murder while also working her first job--at an Indiana amusement park. Since Indiana Beach is the only amusement park of its size within easy driving distance, I used it as an inspiration and model for my fictional park. Details were changed, of course, to protect ... well, me. I'm getting ready to send that manuscript back out on the agent hunt, so I'll let you know.

This isn't my first time stealing, as the basic layout of the town of Hopewell, in my published novel Coming Attractions, is based on Kendallville, Indiana. In the immortal words of Thomas Edison, "Why invent, when you can steal?" (Kidding!)

So I'm taking this loss a bit hard, and I hope against hope someone will step in to get the park running again. Meanwhile, I'll continue my efforts to show non-Hoosiers that there is still more than corn in Indiana.

 http://markrhunter.com/
https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0058CL6OO
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/"Mark R Hunter"