Julia Fairchild Mystery Series – The Book Diva's Reads

Good day, book people. Can you believe we’re beginning a new month? With all that many folks around the world are going through at the moment, it’s amazing what motivates them through harrowing situations. For some it’s faith, for others it’s family, and for some it might be verse from a religious text or a quote from a favorite person or book. It doesn’t matter what it is that motivates us, we all occasionally need that little something extra to uplift our spirits and help us push through. I’m pleased to welcome P.J. Peterson, the author of One Will Too Many, a Julia Fairchild Mystery, to the blog today. Ms. Peterson will be discussing her favorite motivational quote with us. I hope it motivates you to grab a copy of her latest book (hint, hint). Thank you, Ms. Peterson, for taking the time to join us today. I’ll now turn the blog over to you.

My Favorite Motivational Quote
by PJ Peterson

My favorite motivational quote is a variation of a statement by someone unknown: “A year from now you’ll be glad you started today.” The original quote was “A year from now you’ll wish you had started today.” It was in a stack of cards that made up a year’s worth of sayings meant to motivate me, or whomever was reading them.

In a conversation with my adult daughter, she noted that it seemed like a negative statement. I realized she was right and decided to change it to something more positive. Then I printed it in a pretty font and taped it to my laptop where I see it every day.

I tend to be a procrastinator. Give me a deadline and I’ll meet it, but not by much. For years I had told myself something like “Think how good you will feel when you finally” do whatever it is that I had been putting off. I diligently wrote out to-do lists, and the easy tasks got done. It was those items that required more of me than I was willing to tackle at the time that stayed on the list, and the next one, and the next one. My former motivational trick wasn’t working anymore.

Changing those few words has been a life-changer for me in my life as an indie author and self-marketer. Nothing is going to happen unless I initiate an action. No one is going to buy my books if I don’t have a plan to get them in front of their eyes. No one cares about my books as much as I do. The adoring audience in my hometown or my good friends or my (short) mailing list is not enough to sell thousands of books.

So, I remind myself that “a year from now I will be glad I started today.” I schedule a book-sharing event on one of the websites; I schedule a giveaway; I schedule a book blog tour. I hope I see masses of book sales as a result of these steps.

One thing I know for certain is that waiting for people to buy my book if I don’t do anything is a fantasy. I will continue to do my research and learn from others about marketing, doing advertising, and following through.

And a year from now I’ll be glad I started today. ♦

One Will Too Many

by PJ Peterson

March 1-31, 2022 Virtual Book Tour

Synopsis:

A wealthy banker with a long list of secrets dies.

The bizarre crime scene stumps the local police…

… but a young doctor could be the key to solving the case.

Internist Julia Fairchild encounters banker Jay moments too late – the poor man is near death in his own dining room. At first no one can figure out what killed him, but the coroner soon confirms that it was homicide: Jay died of methanol poisoning, and now a murderer is on the loose. Julia knows how to catch a killer and she can cut through the noise like a scalpel through skin. She agrees to help the understaffed police force solve the case, but each clue only complicates her investigation further.

Can Julia dissect the deadly riddle and nail the perp, or will this be the first time a monster succeeds in giving her the slip?

If you love Louise Penny, Kelly Oliver, and PC James, you need this medical mystery! Find out why fans say, “I love the character Julia Fairchild!”

Don’t wait – Click the BUY button now!

Book Details:

Genre: Cozy Mystery
Published by: Finngirl, LLC
Publication Date: December 2021
Number of Pages: 206
ISBN: 9781733567572
ISBN: 9781957127002 (Paperback)
ASIN: B09MT5CRJQ (Kindle edition)
Series: A Julia Fairchild Mystery, #4 || Each is a Stand Alone Novel
Purchase Links #CommissionEarned: Indiebound.org | Amazon | Amazon Kindle | Barnes and Noble | BookDepository.com | Bookshop.org | Goodreads

Author Bio:

PJ is a retired internist who enjoyed the diagnostic part of practicing medicine as well as creating long-lasting relationships with her patients. As a child she wanted to be a doctor so she could “help people.” She now volunteers at the local Free Medical Clinic to satisfy that need to help. She loved to read from a young age and read all the Trixie Belden and Nancy Drew books she could find. It wasn’t until she was an adult that she wrote anything longer than short stories for English classes and term papers in others. Writing mysteries only makes sense given her early exposure to that genre. Sprinkling in a little medical mystique makes it all the more fun.

Catch Up With PJ Peterson:
www.PJPetersonAuthor.com
Goodreads
BookBub – @mizdrpj1
Facebook – PJ Peterson

Tour Participants:

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Pickled Pink in Paris by PJ Peterson Banner

Good day, my bookish peeps. I hope you’re all having a wonderful month of December so far. Have you ever wondered about all of the careers held by the authors we read? I know authors that are former (and current) teachers, librarians, lawyers, doctors, law enforcement officers, military personnel, actors, athletes, etc. Thankfully, these highly creative souls also provide us with hours of reading pleasure by crafting such wonderful stories. I’m pleased to welcome P.J. Peterson, a former internist and author of Pickled Pink in Paris, a Julia Fairchild Mystery, to the blog today. Ms. Peterson will be discussing using her medical knowledge and expertise in her writings. Please help me welcome the accomplished, P.J. Peterson. Thank you, Dr. Peterson for joining and sharing with us today, the blog is all yours.

"Guest Post" with books divider

Readers, especially my friends, have asked if I write from my experiences or do I make everything up in my head. The answer is that I do both. In each of my first four Julia Fairchild books (Number four will be published in December 2021, I hope), a number of the adventures are true to life, although modified to fit the pretend situation.

Some things that are true: I won a limbo contest years ago, am a certified scuba diver, have been on a half-dozen tap/jazz dance cruises, and am a (retired) Internal Medicine specialist. I have never been in a helicopter or an underwater cave with blind fish, or captured a bad guy, although I’ve helped the police a couple of times when someone tried to pass a forged narcotic prescription.

I have been to all the locations in my books which helps to be able to use all the senses when describing a setting. The one exception is that I didn’t get to visit Paris until after I finished writing Pickled Pink in Paris because my trip was cancelled three times. I had to use Rick Steves’ travel guide and maps to make sense of Julia’s adventure there. I relied on online resources as well for detail. Most of my writing otherwise arises from my creative imagination, although often there is a smidgen of truth lurking beneath the surface.

Because of my training as a physician, I like to insert something related to the practice of medicine in each of my stories. My heroine, Julia Fairchild, is a young internist, and is loosely based on a much younger version of myself, although I portray her as much braver than I think I am. It makes sense to me to have her use her astute diagnostic skills as she solves the puzzle in front of her. I told my patients regularly that a physician is a detective who uses patients’ symptoms and physical findings to identify the diagnosis. Sherlock Holmes was created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, a British physician, as many of us know.

When I am writing a scene that is purely fiction (in the truest sense of the word), I picture myself in the setting that I’ve created and imagine what I would be seeing, smelling, hearing, feeling, and touching. For the catacombs scene in Pickled Pink in Paris, for example, I imagined what it might be like to be in complete darkness, in an unfamiliar place, cold, and very frightened that I wouldn’t be found before I became a pile of bones.

I write dialogue by talking aloud as I write to make it as realistic as possible. In high school debate my specialties were extemporaneous and impromptu speaking. That background of learning to speak off-the-cuff is helpful when making up conversations.

When my readers read one of my Julia Fairchild mysteries, I hope they feel as though they are right there with my characters, experiencing the moment, and immersed in the story. Then I will have done my job as an author. ♦

PJ Peterson