P is for Publishing

I’m taking a break from my story for two reasons:

1.)    I’ve been writing this mini-mystery on the fly and I left poor Pepper in a possibly bad situation and I can’t decide what to do with her.
2.)    I have a website to finish for a conference on Saturday, and I can’t worry about Pepper right now.

Today’s word – P is for Publishing – was chosen for me by Ed Martin. And honestly, I haven’t decided what I want from it—fiction publishing wise I mean.


I only started writing fiction in the last few years. I’m really a non-fiction history writer. But when I read for pleasure, I must have a mystery, so I thought why not try writing one? Hence The Milk Carton Murders for NaNoWriMo in 2009. The story I’m writing for the A-Z Challenge/Camp NaNoWriMo is sort of a prequel to The Milk Carton Murders. I currently have a YA adventure in the works.

But what about publishing? I self-published a book about 10 years ago, Bread & Butter: The Murders of Polly Frisch, that I co-authored with  a friend. True story set in the 1850s of a woman who murdered her husband and children with arsenic. I'm in the process of formatting that for the Kindle, etc.

Since then I've been writing local history, mainly for our quarterly publication through work called Historical Wyoming. But, the first thing that must be done book wise is to finish editing my book on Indian land issues in New York State. I had a weekly column for 2 ½ in a Native American newspaper called the Akwesane Phoenix Sundays. I talked about history, their land rights, and did some tongue-in-check humor picking on our New York State politicians. The articles on land I expanded upon and put into a book that I will be self-publishing.

I made a major decision today to split my book into two. I really have no choice. Because the 1838 Treaty at Buffalo Creek is so complex, and I have issues with Mary Jemison’s (the white woman of the Genesee) land to resolve, that will be in book #2.

Book #1 will be on the St. Regis reserve, the land and treaties, which is primarily Mohawk territory.  I have researched their land back to the treaty of 1796. I have unknown information on the land that I think is important to share now, and I don’t want to hold it up any longer because of issues with what will now be in book #2.

Although I will need to change the subheading, the cover of my book is below. The artwork is by a brilliant artist friend of mine, Frank Vando. His website is here. He sells prints and original paintings by the way, so visit his site. Cover layout is my design.



If you would like to catch up on my mini-mystery, here is my 2013 A to Z Mystery Recap. 

This post is part of April's Blogging From A-Z Challenge and Camp NaNoWriMo. The rest of the A-Z bloggers can be found pinned in the links section of my sidebar.
Hope to see you tomorrow!