Writing in a variety of genres.
Ace publicist Nick Wale commissioned a painting of the six top selling western authors at DS Productions, and I was astonished to be included in that number. I’m the buckaroo on the left in the purple shirt. All I can say is Yee-haw!
I was born in rural Shelby County, in East Texas, in the 1940s, a time of rigid segregation. Parking in my hometown of 715 people was segregated by race and I went to a separate school where books and desks were hand-me-downs from the town’s white school. The first new textbook I ever laid hands on was a physics textbook in high school when the school district included physics for the first time and had to buy a sufficient quantity for both schools.
After graduating from high school in 1962, too poor to attend college and refusing to accept the employment available to black people in East Texas at the time, I joined the United States Army to see the world that I’d been introduced to through crinkled pages of old National Geographic magazines.
In the ensuing fifty-plus years, I rose from the poverty of a small farming town to prosperity, from tending the pigs on our small farm to meeting with kings in their palaces and presidents in their state houses.
Thanks to the urging of my daughter, Denise Ray-Wickersham, I have finally put down stories from my life in written form—stories that I bored her and her brother with when they were growing up and her children with during the past few years.
I Believe I Can Touch the Sky: Stories From My Life is not your usual memoir. The focus is not really on me, but on the incidents and events that impacted on me in my life. Short and to the point, much like the novelettes I write, it is a series of stories that stretch back over seven decades. Stories about the famous and infamous, the well-known and the unknown. It is a story of the persistence and patience of a young boy who refused to accept that the pine-covered clay hills were all there was to the world, or that he was limited to what other people said he could do because of the color of his skin.
Available in hardcover, paperback, and Kindle version on Amazon. Get your copy today:
Hardcover: $15.99 https://www.amazon.com/Believe-Can-Touch-Sky-Stories/dp/B0B2J26KVD/
Paperback: #$7.99 https://www.amazon.com/Believe-Can-Touch-Sky-Stories/dp/B0B2HQ7KLC/
Kindle version: $0.99 https://www.amazon.com/Believe-Can-Touch-Sky-Stories-ebook/dp/B0B2QV1BW1/
Excerpt From The Water’s Fine
“Polo likes to tell stories about the Sea of Cortez. His favorite is about El Lavadero, Las Animas. Las Animas is named after the church bells which ring to summon the lost souls, and El Lavadero means the washing machine. The dive site is often referred to as the washing machine of lost souls.Before we dove at El Lavadero one morning, I overheard Polo telling Bertie that the thousands of silver jacks schooling in the water are the lost souls. She twisted her ring and looked spooked while our group waited its turn to descend at the site. I thought maybe she wouldn’t come, but she did. Afterwards, she told me that when she saw the mass of circling jacks and thought of them as lost souls, she felt more sad than scared. I knew what she meant. I always say a prayer when I see the swirling fish, the sun glinting on their silver scales.”
Water’s Fine: Suspense Novel by Janice Coy
Publisher: Independently Published (April 22, 2019)
Category: Suspense, Family Fiction, Women’s Fiction
Tour dates: January/February, 2020
ISBN: 9781795669047
Available in Print and ebook, 312 pages
Bertie Clark is excited for a week-long scuba trip with her husband exploring the underwater wonders of an ocean teeming with life – the Sea of Cortez.
But a tragedy on their dive boat sends both women into uncharted territory, questioning what they’ve always thought to be true, and fostering an unlikely friendship. Will either trust the invitation to “come on in, the water’s fine” again?
“I just finished The Water’s Fine by Janice Coy which means I am must bid farewell to the characters I have become attached to and I must close the cover on a plot that kept a firm grasp on my attention and continued to surprise. The act of reading this book can cause laundry to pile up, dust to gather and dirty dishes to dry crusty because one cannot stop reading from chapter to chapter – – from scuba action, to mystery, heartache, friendship, suspense and self discovery.
The author is artfully descriptive in all areas of scene and character development which draws you in and holds you! In fact, I would like to invite you to do a little scuba diving and not get wet? Slip on those fins, adjust your mask, get your regulator set and start reading The Water’s Fine.”- Kjans, Amazon
“Oh wow, what a well written book! Being someone who thinks that scuba diving is too scary to try I was drawn in by the author’s imagery. It captured all the anxiety of “breathing underwater”, the suspense of what dangerous creatures you could encounter as well as the absolute beauty and serenity you could feel while exploring the deep blue sea. I fell in love with her characters and was sucked into the mystery and suspense and enjoyed joining them on their journeys of self discovery, life and loss. I really enjoyed this book.”-Amazon Customer
“Thanks to Coy’s descriptive, immersive world, the waves of Agave Beach leave a distinct impact in The Smallest of Waves. – Indie Reader
“A seaside mystery with an appealing heroine…Coy uses her beachside setting well, contrasting Agave Beach’s innocent sand castles and clueless tourists with the mysterious ocean – so foreign with its dark depths, sharks, kelp forests, and sea caves.” Kirkus Reviews
2017 Finalist San Diego Book Awards Association
Award winning Janice Coy is the author of five suspense novels. Her work is also published in four anthologies. She was a finalist at the San Diego Book Awards Association annual contest. She’s received the IndieReader Seal of Approval. A former journalist, Ms. Coy has received several awards for her reporting including a national award for best feature story in a community newspaper.
Ms. Coy is an advanced certified scuba diver; she’s run five half-marathons and summited Mt. Kilimanjaro. She lives in Southern California with her husband.
Website: http://janicecoy.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Janice-Coy-182435188445057/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/janicecoyauthor/
This giveaway is for the winner’s choice of one print or ebook copy of the book. Print is open to Canada and the U.S. only and ebook is available
Teddy Rose Book Reviews Plus Jan 6 Kickoff & Interview
Catherine Cuzinlogic Jan 8 Guest review & Excerpt
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Lu Ann Rockin’ Book Reviews Jan 10 Review & Guest Post
Charles Ray’s Ramblings Jan 13 Review & Excerpt
Michael Amazon Jan 14 Review
Becky What U Talking Bout Willis Jan 15 Review & Excerpt
Dee Donadee’s Corner Jan 16 Review
Teddy Rose Book Reviews Plus Jan 17 Review
Ruth Amazon Jan 20 Review
Lisa’s Writopia Jan 21 Review
Lisa’s Writopia Jan 21 Guest Post
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My Review of ‘The Water’s Fine
Catalina Rodriguez and Bertie Clark have nothing in common but a love of scuba diving when they meet on the Calypso for a diving trip in the Sea of Cortez, but a tragedy during the trip, when another member of the party, Gordon Baker, on the trip with his wife and two daughters, dies during their last dive. As the dive master, Catalina feels responsible for his death, even though she learns later that he was suffering from a terminal disease, and chose to die. A certified rescue diver, Bertie also feels a sense of guilt for not doing something to prevent the tragedy. The two women have bonded during the trip, and even after Catalina gives up diving and returns to her home in San Diego, they stay in touch by phone.
Shortly after returning home, Catalina begins to suffer a string of seemingly unrelated catastrophes, but attributes them at first to stress as she tries to cope with the Calypso incident. But Bertie thinks otherwise, and is determined to help her get to the bottom of what’s going on.
The Water’s Fine by Janice Coy is a subtle, but intriguing story that defies neat categorization. The author moves readers slowly through a chain of events that become more deadly with each occurrence, weaving a deft mystery that will keep the reader guessing until the startling climax. I was put off at first by the switch from first person point of view (Catalina) to second person (Bertie), but as I continued to read, I discovered that this only heightened the tension, as I tried to solve the mystery ahead of the author’s disclosure. I failed, and the author succeeded. The answer to Catalina’s problems came as a surprise—a delightful, and skillfully-done surprise.
I received an advance review copy of this book, and I recommend it highly, even if you’re not a mystery fan. A true page-turner, it will grab your attention and hold it until the end.
I give Coy four stars for an entertaining read.
Fans of the half-breed vigilante Jacob Blade are in for a treat in 2020. Thanks to the creative ingenuity of renown publicist Nick Wale and the fantastic art of Kevin Diamond, the entire series is being reissued this year with a new and exciting cover that’s sure to appeal to fans of the ‘shoot ‘em up’ western genre.
Jacob Blade was a simple farm boy living with his mother and father in Indian Territory until he came home from a trip to local markets one day and found his parents slaughtered by a group of itinerant outlaws. With his dying breath, Jacob’s father asked him to avenge their deaths, a task that he took on with relish. In the course of his quest, he discovered that there was a lot of evil infecting the western frontier, evil that he determined to help eliminate, one dead outlaw at a time.
This is just one of several series that I currently write, and is second only to the Deputy U.S. Marshal Bass Reeves in the joy it gives me to write.
The new covers give a sense of continuity to the series, and, in my humble opinion, illustrates the protagonist most effectively. I sincerely hope that readers will find them as attractive—and seductive—as I do, and welcome any comments. In the meantime, I’m currently working on another Jacob Blade adventure, with Jacob coming to the rescue of a small community of settlers in Nebraska who are being tormented by a greed rancher who wants to take their land. Keep an eye out for Sins of the Father, coming soon to Amazon.
Unless you’re independently publishing and overseeing every aspect of your book’s launch, you probably don’t give a lot of thought to the cover. I do both, independent, and through small publishing imprints, and until recently paid little attention to the covers the publishers chose to affix to what I’ve submitted to them.
I did not book, Toby Giles: Tarnished Badge, the story of a runaway slave who is appointed sheriff of the all-white town of Jericho, Ohio, at the suggestion of publicist Nick Wales, which was published with the cover below:
Not a bad cover actually, and I had no complaints. But I so enjoyed the story, and based on sales, so did a large number of readers, I decided to do a sequel, Toby Giles: The Walls of Jericho. Here’s the cover chosen, and, in my opinion, it is perfect for the subject matter of the book.
The publisher thought so as well, because shortly after the release of this one, book one was reissued with a new cover:
Now, the two covers are identical except for the book title, but they’re clearly related to even the most casual shopper, and adorned with covers that are guaranteed to catch the eye.—don’t you think?
Kudos to DS Publications and Nick Wale for bringing a whole lot of cheer to one author’s life this holiday season.
Jacob Blade, a half-breed with a desire to avenge the murder of his parents, cuts a wide swath across the west in the first three books of the Vigilante series. After a long journey to find those who slaughtered his family, Jacob decides that it will be his life’s mission to rid the west of as much evil as he can.
This series, published by Dusty Saddle Publishing, came to fruition thanks to the encouragement of my publicist and friend, Nick Wale, an Englishman who knows more about the western genre than any man alive, and who has a natural (almost preternatural, in fact) instinct for what readers will like.
If you like your western adventure with diversity, but with the same hard as flint style of stories from the early 40s and 50s, this is a series you’ll want to read. Of course, as the author, I’m biased. I’d be real tickled to hear from readers. Tell me what you like about the series, and what you’d like to see.
Books one and three are also available in paperback, and book four is currently in the early stages of being written.
There are few people who are not familiar with A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. The story of Ebeneezer Scrooge, and how he learned to love Christmas, has delighted readers for generations. Sitting at my keyboard one day a few weeks back, I had this brilliant idea; this tale has been parodied, adapted, and otherwise used and misused dozens, if not hundreds, of times, but I’ve never seen anything in the western genre on it. So, why not me. I played around with it for a few days, developed a list of characters and a general plot, and started writing. Out of all that came A Cowboy’s Christmas Carol, the story of Ed Summerfield, a man with a heart of stone who hates Christmas, and how visits from three spirits changed his life. It’s now available on Amazon for the amazingly low price of 99 cents (for the Kindle version), and will be available in paperback before Christmas, just in case you want to give that book lover on your gift list a special treat.
Here’s the link for the Kindle version: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07KV81H84
and the paperback is at: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1790310253
or you can click on the photo below.
I’ve been writing since my teens, and I’ve always used my real name (without the middle initial usually) on what I write. When I was in government, it was a way of showing that I wasn’t breaking any rules, or disclosing information I wasn’t suppose to. It was also, I suppose, a form of rebellion.
Well, life catches up with us all. I’ve been doing westerns lately, more even than my mainstay, mysteries–lots and lots more–and when I did a kind of experimental western, The Cowboy vs the Sea Monster, the publisher suggested that I sue a pen name. Seems my list of westerns is getting quite long, and I suppose he worries that it might confuse western fans–I do a series on the Adventures of Bass Reeves, Deputy U.S. Marshal, as well as short stories for anthologies, all your typical western.
I believe in being a cooperative writer, as long as I don’t have to sacrifice my integrity or warp my artistic vision, so I went along. The name I chose, Ben Carter, happens to be the main character in my Buffalo Soldier series, which I thought quite appropriate, and the publisher agrees.
So, if you’re a western fan, and you’ve read any of my other stuff, look for Ben Carter’s books, and you’ll be treated to even more good stuff.
Available for 99 cents at https://www.amazon.com/William-Coburn-Monster-Western-Adventure-ebook/dp/B07H4Y8631/
I decided to take a short break from writing about Deputy US Marshal Bass Reeves, and revive a couple of characters I wrote about several years ago. Esau Brown and Jacob Hardin are a couple of bounty hunters who have trouble adapting to the changes in the west, so they go off to hunt treasure in the mountains. But, town calls, and they’re tired of sleeping on the ground. The only problem is, the closest town is Purgatory, New Mexico. Not an auspicious name, but what choice do they have? Get a copy of the eBook and see how they deal with it.
