When I first began this blog, I was preparing to launch my first children's novel - Mystery at Dead Man's Ridge ... set in Otago, New Zealand, involving a spate of sheep rustling, cannibis growing and a bit of friendly, cousinly rivalry ... when city born and bred, Maggie Mackenzie is forced to spend part of her summer holidays, with country relatives she doesn't know - including her irritating, cousin Tom. Maggie's Mum is in hospital, preparing for tests for skin cancer, and possibly needing further treatment. The stress of this, adds to Maggie's drama, as she prepares for the bordom of living in the country. However farm life proves to be far from boring ...
It is designed for the 8 to 12 year old age group, but could be enjoyed by a variety of ages, depending on their reading ability, or whether they have a keen parent or older sibling, willing to read it to them.
It is very exciting to have published my first book, and I look forward in the years to come, to look back on this and think - this is where I started, and I have loved writing ever since.
A big thank you to Janis van der Laan and Des Hunt for their proofreading and editing advice; Des for formatting it into an ebook for me; and all my friends at NZIBS (New Zealand Institute of Business Studies) who encouraged me along the way.
Des Hunt is a well established author; both traditionally published and electronically published - and I thoroughly recommend his books for children; and for adults who enjoy reading engaging, interesting books that reflect who we are, and how we connect with each other; that are 'true to life', and extremely entertaining.
Here is the link to Mystery at Dead Man's Ridge. Why not download a sample, and see what you think!
Mystery
at Dead Man's Ridge - Kindle edition by Amanda Edwards, Des Hunt, Janis van der
Laan, Amelia Hamilton. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC,
phones or tablets. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting
while reading Mystery at Dead Man's Ridge.
The cover illustration was painted by Amelia Hamilton, aged 15 who is the daughter of an old school friend of mine. She was one of the first children to read my book and was inspired to paint a cover, and draw some wonderful illustrations for each chapter. One day I hope to publish this book in the traditional way, and make full use of Amelia's talents. Thank you so much Amelia - you are amazing and I loved discussing the book as if it were a 'storyboard', using your illustrations. It gave me so much enthusiasm to get this finished.
