Uncle and Ants by Marc Jedel Book Tour and Giveaway :)
Uncle
and Ants
A
Silicon Valley Mystery Book 1
by
Marc Jedel
Genre:
Cozy Mystery
Mysterious
attacks. Mischievous nieces. Can
a clueless uncle catch a tech-savvy killer … and be home before
bedtime?
When
a freak accident hospitalizes Marty
Golden’s sister and condemns him to
babysitter duty, he thinks it’s just another case of hardwired bad
luck in Silicon Valley.
Until a suspicious murder suggests the mishap was no mere
coincidence. Something must be done.
Too
bad this quirky, fashion-backward
uncle isn’t exactly hero material.
Convinced
his sister is in mortal danger, this
amateur sleuth follows clues to an
oddball array of suspects. Armed with nothing but an eye for detail
and powers of self-delusion, Marty
tangles with gangsters, a cantankerous school secretary, and a
perplexing woman he can’t help but fall for. Glitches in his
investigation seem like a piece of cake compared to dinner-prep and
bedtime stories with his two precocious, pre-teen nieces.
Can
Marty catch the culprit, save his sister, and get his life back in
order before he gets unplugged?
Uncle
and Ants is the first novel in
a refreshingly modern mystery series set in Silicon Valley. If you
like clever humor, sassy side characters, and average Joes facing
extraordinary circumstances, then you’ll love this twisty mystery.
Buy Uncle
and Ants to login to a fresh,
funny mystery today!
I
realized I hadn’t updated my own, college-aged kids, Amanda and
Eli, on their Aunt Laney’s status in the hospital.
GROUP
TEXT TO AMANDA, ELI
MARTY:
Girls at my place. Laney will be fine soon. Ice cream truck driver ok
but truck totaled
AMANDA:
Glad she’ll be ok
ELI:
Yea. Good that both will be ok. Truck got what it deserved.
AMANDA:
You used to like ice cream trucks :) Best prank ever! #EPIC
ELI:
Childhood trauma
AMANDA:
Never saw you run so fast
ELI:
Thought truck had finally stopped at our stop sign and I could catch
it
MARTY:
She really got you
ELI:
Who knew I had such an evil sibling
AMANDA:
*insert evil laugh here*
Amanda
had burned Eli with an impressive prank in middle school. Every day
that summer, the ice cream truck raced past the house after lunch
with the loud, iconic music creating an almost Doppler-like effect as
the truck roared past. Ten years old at the time, Eli desired nothing
more than to have the experience of buying an ice cream cone from the
truck all by himself. He’d rush out the door, cash in hand,
whenever he heard the truck, but never managed to flag the guy down.
The driver must have used his truck to practice for Nascar.
One
July weekend afternoon, Amanda found the ice cream truck music
online, then set her speaker in the hallway outside the bathroom door
while Eli showered. She hit play just as the shower turned off. He
raced out the front door with his towel barely hanging on, only to
discover no truck in sight and his sister’s riotous laughter
thundering from the doorway. She’d pulled a world-class prank on
him. Eli got over it, but not the disappointment of his futile
endeavors to score an over-priced, freezer-burned Drumstick.
Although
his mother and I would never have let him, Eli would have succeeded
if he’d stood in the middle of the street waiting as the truck
raced toward him. The truck’s automatic emergency braking system
would have stopped it without hitting him … Like Laney’s car
should have stopped on its own without hitting the truck.
How
could Laney have broadsided a truck? Today’s cars all have
automatic braking with advanced radar systems, not like the early
versions when I grew up. And, for that matter, didn’t delivery
drones also have autonomous controls to steer them away from
collisions? Laney’s accident was starting not to feel very
accidental.
I
scrambled to locate Sergeant Jackson’s card and call him. It went
straight to voicemail. I left him a rambling message asking him to
check out what went wrong with the drone’s collision prevention
system. I also suggested the ice cream truck driver could be a
possible suspect, although this only made sense if Laney was part of
a bizarre conspiracy/thriller movie. In the real world, ice cream
trucks didn’t target people or have problems driving. Unless they
were on a Rocky Road. Heh
heh.
Chutes
and Ladder
A
Silicon Valley Mystery Book 2
Can super-agent (in
his own mind) Uncle Marty solve not one, but two mysteries without
becoming a victim himself? Will he ever be forgiven for bringing
Buddy, the Labrador, into his sister’s house?
All your favorite
characters from Uncle and Ants are back in a crazy, new adventure.
Plus, introducing a new member of Marty’s family!
Coming
Soon!
Marc
Jedel writes humorous murder mysteries. In his high-tech marketing
roles, he's also written fiction. These are just called emails, ads,
and marketing collateral.
In
his family, Marc was born first — a fact his sister never lets him
forget, no matter what milestone age she hits. For most of Marc’s
life, he’s been inventing stories. Some, especially when he was
young, involved his sister as the villain. As his sister’s brother
for her entire life, he feels highly qualified to tell tales of the
evolving, quirky sibling relationship in the Silicon Valley Mystery
series.
Family
and friends would tell you that the protagonist in his stories, Marty
Golden, isn't much of a stretch of the imagination for Marc, but he
proudly resembles that remark.
Like
Marty, Marc lives in San Jose, the heart of Silicon Valley, where he
writes within earshot of the doppler effect of the local ice cream
truck. Unlike Marty, Marc has a wonderful wife and a neurotic but
sweet, small dog, who much prefers the walks resulting from writer’s
block than his writing.
Visit
his website, marcjedel.com, for free chapters of upcoming novels,
news and more.
Guest
Post by Marc Jedel, Author of Uncle
and Ants: A Silicon Valley Mystery (Book 1)
How
I Write (aka Where my books hang out before they come to me)
People
always ask me how I get the ideas for my books. I’m always
interested in understanding how other authors find their ideas. Some
authors seem to swim in an endless supply of plots and characters,
effortlessly plucking out one plot twist or character arc after
another until they’ve burned through their keyboard. Those are the
lucky authors.
So
how does it work for me?
Research.
That’s a fancy term for my process. I start by collecting funny
anecdotes, interesting people or snatches of overheard conversations.
As I go about daily life, I capture notes on my phone. Over the last
few years, I’ve noticed that I pay much more attention to my
surroundings than I ever did. I also have become more willing to
approach strangers and ask them questions. Who’d have expected that
the solitary life of a writer would make me more social?
Plot.
At some point, I start adding plot ideas. My extensive research into
writing clearly highlighted the importance of having a plot. All
those other successful authors must be on to something. I try to come
up with ideas for problems to throw at Marty (my protagonist).
Sometimes ideas hit me on how he’s going to solve the case through
his powers of self-delusion, attention to detail, and the inability
to leave a coherent voicemail message.
Characters.
Once I developed the concept for a few of my regular characters, I
find myself wondering how one of them would react to a specific
situation or whether I can make life more difficult for them during
the course of the book. Having Uncle
and Ants
take place over the course of just one week was a deliberate approach
to force myself to increase the pace and make the characters act and
react more often.
Jokes,
Dad Jokes, Puns, and Lyrics as Humor.
These make me laugh as I’m writing the book. My humor is
spontaneous. Sometimes that spontaneity happened months ago and I
wrote it down and sometimes it strikes as I’m writing. Typically,
the use, or misuse, of parts of music lyrics as dialogue hits me on
the spot. Same for most of the puns. Fortunately for the readers, my
editor is awesome and she removes the humor attempts that don’t
make it across the finish line.
Outline. Some writers are
‘pantsers’. This means they fly by the seat of their pants,
writing without a detailed plan. Not that they wear pants. Some
authors probably do wear pants when they write. That’s kind of a
personal question best unasked during an author’s tour.
I outline. I admit to it. If I didn’t,
I’d still be trying to figure out how Uncle and Ants would
end, or who gets killed. Creating an outline with each scene on one
line of a spreadsheet helps me to look at holes, try to spread out
when different side characters show up, and make sure the action
keeps moving forward at a good clip. Then I go through all my notes
and put most of the notes into the relevant scene so I can include
all the right amount of humor as well as balance humor vs tension.
Once that’s done, there are no more excuses. It’s time for the
next stage.
Write and Edit. This part sounds
simple — write, edit, repeat. Eventually magic makes it good.
My
book, Uncle
and Ants: A Silicon Valley Mystery,
is a humorous murder mystery. Silicon Valley is not your typical cozy
mystery locale and Marty Golden doesn’t fit the normal profile of a
mystery protagonist. Despite finding himself thrust into challenging
situations, Marty isn’t exactly hero material. He has a wonderful
combination of wit, irreverent humor and sarcasm mixed in with nerdy
insecurities, absent-mindedness, and fumbling but effective amateur
sleuthing skills. With an active, inner voice and not a lot of
advanced planning, he throws himself into solving problems.
Now’s
a great time to read Uncle
and Ants
(available on Amazon and free via Kindle Unlimited) because Chutes
and Ladder,
book 2 in the Silicon Valley Mystery series, will be released soon.
Read the first chapter of either book free, learn more about the
author or books, and find out about special offers at
www.marcjedel.com.
Follow
the tour HERE
for exclusive excerpts, guest posts and a giveaway!
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