NEW Facebook page...

Hello, my friends and readers...

I know I haven't been the best blogger by far... there is so much promo to do, so little time! LOL.

So I will be migrating all of my promo efforts to an author page on Facebook, where I seem to spend most of my time!

If you would like to keep up with new releases, contest notifications, giveaways and more, please like my new Victoria Hamilton Mystery Author page!

https://www.facebook.com/VictoriaHamiltonMysteryAuthor/

Thanks so much, my friends!

Victoria

Muffin But Trouble Mini Blog Tour!

Hello, my Reader/Friends! Muffin But Trouble is NOW AVAILABLE!!

If you'd like to know more about it and/or me, check out my mini blog tour!

James Cudney Q&A: https://thisismytruthnow.com/2019/07/02/author-book-alert-muffin-but-trouble-by-victoria-hamilton/

Read Your Writes Q&A: https://readyourwrites.blogspot.com/2019/07/interview-muffin-but-trouble-by.html

Dru Ann 20 Questions (with GIVEAWAY!): https://drusbookmusing.com/2019/07/03/merry-wynter-3/

So... check these fine bloggers out, and watch for more!

Victoria Hamilton

How to Find the Agent of Your Dreams - A #BookEnds20 Tale

To celebrate my literary agency, BookEnds’s, 20^th anniversary this year, I thought I’d relate the story of how I came to be a client of the founder, the incomparable and awe-inspiring Jessica Faust.

I worked on getting published for years; I briefly had an agent who did absolutely nothing and quit after trying to sell one book to one publisher and failing. But eventually I made it, and became a published author of Regency romances. From 1999 to 2005 I wrote Regencies for Zebra, an imprint of Kensington.

Using that as a springboard, I found a great agent at a good agency. When the Zebra imprint closed I already had a wonderful deal to write paranormal historical romances for Berkley; Awaiting the Moon, a werewolf historical romance, came out in 2006, followed by two more books in the contract… but my series was not renewed after that. It just didn’t find an audience. I was thrilled to get a contract with Sourcebooks Casablanca to write a historical mystery series, beginning with Lady Anne and the Howl in the Dark. However… there was a fundamental misunderstanding between the publisher and I; I considered it a historical mystery series, but they marketed it as a historical romance series. That didn’t end well, and they declined to publish the 2^nd and 3^rd book of the series.

It was 2009, and, as you can see, I had been through a few rough patches in the publishing industry. I liked my agent very much. We worked together well, and I had gone with him when he left the agency he worked for. However… he was going in another direction, pursuing his love of agenting cookbook authors and chef biographies.

I knew what I wanted… I wanted (and had always intended) to write mysteries. So I talked to him (honesty and being upfront is always the best policy) and I think with a sense of relief we both came to the conclusion that I should start hunting for a new agent. I thought with my background it should be easy. So I came up with a mystery series idea (which I still love, and hope to work on someday) and fleshed it out to a proposal, and started agent-hunting.

Even with a decent list of published credits, trying to find an agent can be a disheartening process. I was careful and selective, only approaching agents who represented the kind of book I wanted to write. Of course, there was one agent who I wanted, and really ONLY her, but I wasn’t dumb enough to think I should only approach her. The one agent above all others was, of course, Jessica Faust, of BookEnds Literary.

After a reasonable time with my proposal, she wrote back that though she liked my voice, and was intrigued by the mystery, it just wasn’t quite right. Encouraged by her kind words, I wrote back, asking for advice, and asking if I came up with something else, would she consider looking at it?

First, she told me she was going on mat leave for SIX MONTHS… I was bummed. Six months? That’s a lifetime when you’re a struggling author with no money coming in. However, she also gave me some sage advice; she told me that if I wanted to write cozy mysteries (that’s what I’d told her I was writing, though I now see what I had presented to her wasn’t really a cozy at all) that I should get the first book of several series and read them.

So I did. Then I wrote (and rewrote, and re-re-wrote) the first chapters and a synopsis for the Vintage Kitchen Mysteries, taking my love of vintage recipes and collecting vintage kitchenalia, creating Queensville MI, and giving it a backstory (locations in cozy mysteries, Jessica told me, are like another character… a good location could sell a series) and I waited until a few days after she was back to taking submissions; I figured I’d be among hundreds, if I submitted the first day she was back. I submitted my fresh proposal and then I waited.

The email came back pretty fast; she had some suggestions, but she loved it, and she took me on as a client in January, 2010. It was the best day of my writing career, bar abso-freaking-lutely none. From there, once we signed, she presented it to Berkley and they bought the series, and the rest is history.

I’m a lucky LUCKY writer, and I know it.

Thank you Jessica, and all of BookEnds, and congratulations on #bookends20!

Birthday Bash Week of Giveaways

Dear Readers... to celebrate my birthday on the 26th I am going to do a WEEK of giveaways... something different every day, starting with my Killer Characters blog day, May 21st.

So... here is the schedule. Please pay close attention to each day's giveaway instructions!!
WATCH HERE for more information on each day's giveaway!

May 21st: Killer Characters Giveaway - Go to the Killer Characters blog and comment to enter to win YOUR choice of 3 Vintage Kitchen Mysteries paperbacks... leave a first name and email address so I can contact you, and tell me your choice of book! Click here to go to the blog post: Killer Characters!


I'll update the rest of these as I post them!!

Week of Giveaways:

May 22^nd: Facebook Giveaway

CD Audiobook Giveaway – Facebook Post

Prize: An audiobook copy of Muffin To Fear AND No Grater Danger

May 23^rd: Twitter Giveaway - Follow me on Twitter! @MysteryVictoria

Retweet my prize post on May 23rd to win!
Prize: Paperback Copy of A Gentlewoman’s Guide to Murder

May 24^th: Facebook Giveaway

Prize: A Gentlewoman’s Guide to Murder Audio book

I’ll send you a code and you will get a free audiobook download!

May 25^th: Facebook Giveaway

Prize: Ebook version of all three Lady Anne Addison Mystery books!

May 26^th: Facebook SHARE Giveaway

Prize: Amazon $20 US gift card

May 27^th: Facebook Share giveaway.

Prize: ANY ebook from my whole backlist, anything that is available as an ebook.

BIG audio book news!

Audio book sales have become the real boom area of publishing. I've seen it with my own work, and it's wonderful. Most of my mysteries have become audio books, and I just signed a contract to make one of my Regency romances, the Viscount's Valentine, into an audio book.

But wonderful news...

A Gentlewoman's Guide to Murder is coming out in audiobook form on April 9th from Tantor, who does all of my mystery novels!

Click here to pre-order: A Gentlewoman's Guide to Murder

And the special, really neat thing about this is... I was given the extraordinary opportunity to choose my own narrator/voice actress!

I was very deliberate about it... I went through Tantor's audio books and listened to clips... it was a little bit of a Goldilocks moment... one's timber of voice was too light, one too low, one too brisk. And then...

And then I listened to a clip of Heather Wilds voicing the awesomely talented Anna Lee Huber's The Anatomist's Wife, and I knew... she was the one!

But would she be available? Would she WANT to do it? And then I got the word... she was available, and she did want to do it!

And now, as publication day approaches... I'm afraid to listen to the sample. I don't know why, but it always makes me nervous. So... could someone have a listen and tell me how it sounds?? LOL.

Desktop Wallpaper

Hey, all... do you like fun and or funky wallpaper for your desktop or laptop computer? I do, and change mine quite often. Here are a couple I made for anyone to use, free! Right click, save one of them as an image, and use it! PLEASE let me know if you do, (and how it worked out for you!!)  and I'll make some more!!