Spooky Special!

If you're someone who likes stories of ghosts, goblins, and things that go bump in the night, you're in for a treat. THE COMPANY YOU KEEP is only $0.99. If you prefer to listen an audiobook, the audio version is also available. Diane Tugman of The Romance Studio said, "With each chapter you'll be drawn into a tangled web of the supernatural. Anastasia Castella-Young of Mind Fog Reviews said, "I highly recommend this paranormal romance to those interested in demons, spirits, adventure and love. Penelope Marzec hits the mark dead on!"

Purchase the Kindle Editon at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00WQ77NSW.

The audio book is here: https://www.amazon.com/Audible-The-Company-You-Keep/dp/B0FBH2CBH8/

Download it now so you have something to read on a cold, dark night when the moon is full and you hear the wind whistling through the trees. 😱

👻 👻 👻 👻 👻

Ocean Waves

I've always lived near the ocean. I love the smell of briny air--whether it's winter, spring, summer, or fall. I believe a walk on the beach is the antidote for many ills. "The vast majority of water on the Earth's surface, over 96 percent, is saline water in the oceans." (https://water.usgs.gov/edu/earthhowmuch.html) Of course, humans cannot drink ocean water, but the ocean provides fish, lobsters, clams, shrimp, mussels, and other delicacies humans enjoy.

I feel like I'm standing at the edge of the world when I'm at the beach. However, I would never want to live on the beach. I know the power of an angry ocean and the damage it can do. It is far, far better to live on high ground.

Since I'm a Jersey girl, water figures prominently in many of my books. I got the idea for Sea of Hope while walking on the beach one day. Heaven's Blue came about when my sister's job inspired me to write about a mosquito researcher. Irons in the Fire resulted from frequent rides in hubby's motorboat.  In Daddy Wanted, the heroine's hobby is surfing. I never tried surfing, but I've spend hours watching surfers catch waves--and when there's a storm coming I always go to the beach to watch the daredevil surfers brave the awesome power of the ocean.

Humans are supposed to care for the earth and the environment. It's a job given to us by God. We haven't done very well in obeying that command. The beaches in New Jersey are being swallowed up by the ocean. The storms are becoming more violent. The earth is warming, the ice caps are melting, and I worry that I might soon be living on oceanfront property. As much as I love a walk on the beach, I don't want the ocean at my door.

But I still find the beach a wonderful place to spend an afternoon. I can watch the gulls and the fishermen. I can pick up shells and marvel at their beauty. I can make up more stories to write. It's a great place to relax and simply be.

AI Books Flooding the Market

Image by SCY from Pixabay

 It has become more difficult to sell books. I LOVE writing books. Several of my books have won awards and the books get good reviews. I know that there are people who don't read books--at all. I cannot understand why anyone would not want to read a book. There are folks who watch movies all the time. To me, the book is always better than the movie. 

But perhaps the most difficult problem with selling books at the current time, is the influx of AI generated books. The book market is currently being flooded with novels generated by artificial intelligence. This all began when genuine, human authors’ books were fed into computers so the machines could learn how to put together a plot. The machines learned quickly and now there a books being cranked out by the thousands. 

I haven’t read any AI generated books. I always read books by authors I know who are real people. I am currently reading Hilltop Wedding by Kathleen Bailey. I received an advanced copy because the author knows me and I know her. I’ll give her a good review because it is a wonderful story. Helping a genuine, human author is fun and inexpensive. 

This problem with AI worries me and brings to mind the haunting story “There Will Come Soft Rains”written by Ray Bradbury, It’s a short story. You should read it. It may change your mind about some things.

I am not against computers. I use one all the time. It does make writing a novel easier. When I first started writing, I used a manual typewriter. Making corrections was exhausting. But I do believe humans are better at writing stories. 

There are plenty articles that can help you know whether you might be buying an AI generated book. One of them is https://www.library.pima.gov/blogs/post/did-a-robot-write-this-tips-for-identifying-ebooks-written-by-ai/

Also, go to Kathleen Bailey’s website at https://kathleendbailey.weebly.com/ and watch for the release of Hilltop Wedding. Read a great story written by a genuine human.