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Friday, 25 August 2023

JO. B. CREATIVE!: BUT IS ALIAS JEANNIE DELANEY - BOOK 1 - GO WEST, G...

JO. B. CREATIVE!: BUT IS ALIAS JEANNIE DELANEY - BOOK 1 - GO WEST, G...: The first book of this epic western trilogy, Alias Jeannie Delaney - Book 1 - Go West, Girl! is now available on Amazon. This is the life s...
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BUT IS ALIAS JEANNIE DELANEY - BOOK 1 - GO WEST, GIRL! ANY GOOD?



The first book of this epic western trilogy, Alias Jeannie Delaney - Book 1 - Go West, Girl! is now available on Amazon. This is the life story of a devastating & charismatic pants-wearing cowgirl who's the fastest gun in the west and bisexual. A crack shot story that blazes across the wild west!

It all feels a bit surreal at the moment. I'm delighted! I've got fans! And a lot of people have bought Alias Jeannie Delaney - Book 1 - Go West, Girl! and some have sent me their photos with the novel! Thank you so much for all this! 

                                     

                                     

😄  So tell you what - if you're reading this and have bought the novel, take a selfie with the book (or your tablet) send it to me and I'll feature it on here. That could be fun! Also tell all your friends about it. 



ON MY BOOKSHELF,
NEXT TO DAUGHTER'S NOVELS!


REVIEWS


Yee-hah! I'm enjoying this soooo much! Not just because of the story but also because of the quality of the writing, and the loving detail put into it. Clearly a lot of research - Kit Mackenzie writes as though she's actually been there. I so enjoyed reading the novel in detail, and relishing the nuances of the fab writing. Rereading it and absorbing the world and the atmosphere she's created. It's a terrific story with strong characters (to put it mildly!) and a powerful arc.

YouTube video trailer.
https://youtu.be/50nD0cruN5E

Oh blimey! - just watched the video trailer, and my goodness Kit MacKenzie does know how to captive an audience ... (Never seen anything like it. Terrific!:-)
CAROLINE, CORNWALL UK


I'm just reading the preview at the moment, it's great! I just love kit Mackenzie's descriptions of where Jeannie is, so atmospheric 😌 I've got to chapter 12 and loving it! A fascinating angle .
ANNE, WEST SUSSEX, UK


I'm already deep in Chapter 1 of the book and loving it!
JANA, USA.


I am loving the book so far !! Good on my phone too as had long break yesterday and Jeannie and her Dad are so happy to be moving West !!
This novel is a refreshing change from the usual western. Easy to read and I'm thoroughly enjoying it!
PHILIPPA, HAMPSHIRE, UK


Finally, a brilliant review from Booksprout!

A unique western read. Five stars.
This is a different take on a western and I really enjoyed it. Jeannie is an independent woman focused on living her life on her terms before it was socially acceptable to do so. It is well written and entertaining!


I've had a lot of feedback, and all extremely positive. My readers ('my readers' - love it!) are really enjoying the story and the fact that it's a western with a female protagonist and written from a completely different perspective. 

Again I'm delighted, and immensely relieved! For years I worked on this thing, not knowing whether it was any good or not. Then hubby read it and told me that it was good, a bit like after God created the earth and liked it. Whether or not he (hubby, not God) personally liked it was not the point. He's been reading avidly since he was a kid, is classically educated so knows his stuff and knows a good story from a mediocre one. He told me to keep going. So I did. 

But I only had his word for it that it was any good. Finally, long after our decision to self-publish on Amazon, we sent a synopsis to a professional editor. She loved the whole idea. The first time a professional had positively endorsed the story. I was over the big yellow planet that had been bombarded with meteors forever and is now covered in big craters and mountains that hangs in the sky on a clear night. We hired the editor and she read the first book. She loved my writing and loved the whole story. 

We were aware that editors can be pretty brutal and return physical manuscripts (in days of old) covered in red ink amendments. These days virtual manuscripts are returned on your screen with black amendments and suggestions in the margins and it's a whole lot more complicated than it used to be. I was so pleased that there weren't nearly as many amendments as I was expecting. 

After making the changes came the decision regarding the cover design. Yeah, yeah, yeah I wanted to design and create the cover myself, just to prove I could do it and to be able to say: 'Yes, I wrote the whole thing and created the cover artwork myself. Aren't I clever?' Well, yes. Yes I created a design, and it was good. Hubby took the cover artwork away with him when he travelled up to Warwickshire to do a bit of boat maintenance on Dotterel, our narrow boat, and mull over the design. On his return he suggested - bravely - that  it wasn't really up to standard. He honestly thought I was going to a) hit him. b) yell at him. c) have hysterics. He's used to all of that. All at once. Really? Oh god. I hate that. 🙄 That's what depression and anxiety can do to you. 

Anyway, the long and the short of it was that I calmly agreed with him. He was a little astonished that I was so calm about it. You see - I can be like that. Anyway we hired our designer, who took my ideas and polished off a fabulous cover artwork. We loved it! The result was brilliant. So you can thank hubby for that! 

Weeks and weeks and weeks and weeks later  hubby pressed the 'Go' button on Amazon and 'Bing!' I was published and launched. Then we had to wait. Oh crikey. I've spent my life waiting with bated breath (a nervous and excited state anticipating what will happen, so Google tells me) to see what would happen. 

It happened. Loads of messages and contacts from people everywhere on Facebook who bought the novel and are loving it! A five star review on Booksprout! 

I'm now marketing like a marketeer on speed and I don't mind marketing. An interesting challenge. I know that out of the umpteen zillion promotional Gmails I send to lgbtq and feminist reading clubs and groups and libraries, one of two might reply. A library in Canada, I think it was, replied saying that they would check the novel out with a view to adding it to their reading list! 😲

I know the novel is a niche within a niche (lgbtq and a western) which can make things awkward to sell, but so far so brilliant. Even the graphic adult juicy bits aren't putting people off. 'Tastefully done.' I'm told. That's good. 

I'm a bit up and down. Delighted then 'Aw...'. It's to be expected. Breathing and balance, I'm told. Breathe in, breathe out... And balance. Go snorkeling. Do some artwork. A long walk. I walked almost eight miles the other day. I was knackered and crackered but fine. Physically good. That's all it takes. 

So, best foot forward and all that. 🦶...













Alias Jeannie Delaney - Book 1 - Go West, Girl! 
Video Trailer


















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Monday, 21 August 2023

JO. B. CREATIVE!: THE LOOK OF JEANNIE

JO. B. CREATIVE!: THE LOOK OF JEANNIE: I've had an image of Jeannie in my head for many years, and I know exactly what she looks like. I worked on her image to get her the way...
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Friday, 18 August 2023

JO. B. CREATIVE!: I'M A RENAISSANCE SOUL, A SCANNER & A POLYMATH ALL...

JO. B. CREATIVE!: I'M A RENAISSANCE SOUL, A SCANNER & A POLYMATH ALL...: I'm a renaissance soul . A scanner. A polymath. I'm one of those people who has a zillion interests and hobbies. I love learning.  L...
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I'M A RENAISSANCE SOUL, A SCANNER & A POLYMATH ALL AT ONCE!

I'm a renaissance soul. A scanner. A polymath. I'm one of those people who has a zillion interests and hobbies. I love learning. 


LEONARDO DA VINCI

While I've been a tad busy on the launch of Alias Jeannie Delaney - Book 1- Go West, Girl!, I've had to sideline a lot of my other stuff. Besides being a writer and wild west enthusiast, I'm also an artist, and much of that has gone by the sidelines for a long time while my PA (my soulmate hubby) and I worked on getting the novel out. 

As an artist I want to aspire to be multi-disciplinary. What on earth is that? Some folks might ask. Over the years, when folk find out that I'm an artist, they invariably ask me what kind? What sort of art do I do? Anything and everything, I respond. 

Sort of true. Multidisciplinary art covers a lot of sins. There's film work, art installations, for example. 



There's sculpture. Concrete, bronze, wood. I'm not bad at sculpture but not brilliant, but I do love it. There's printing. I never got on with that at college, but now I want to tackle it. I've discovered YouTube and SlideShare. I love taking digital photos. And so on.  

Now I'm marketing my novel like bonkers and my art and design will come into its own. It's an interesting challenge. 

So, this renaissance soul biz...  

This year I learned to snorkel.



Absolutely fabulous! Hubby and I (and sometimes son Tom) take our canoes out for a paddle, whether it be on local canals, rivers and the sea. 

We're mud larkers. Those strange folk who, using a gardening trowel, pick around river/sea beds and uncover pieces of pottery and unidentified bits of metal. We're not certified archaeologists. We're not Indiana Joneses. We haven't got insurance and we're not members of a club. We decided that mud larking is easy and more fun. Just turn up and do it. 


A SELECTION OF 'FINDS'


I love my garden. Three ponds, a waterfall and a frontier cabin. Second largest garden on our estate. The largest is near the main road. I'm not a gardener like my Mum was (plants die when I look at 'em, poor sods. Never give me a plant) but I love pottering in our somewhat wild garden, tidying it up, pruning and trimming. Quite therapeutic sometimes, and when Lulu the cat joins us and pounces after butterflies (and misses!) and rustles around in the undergrowth, it's lovely. 


LULU, GARGOYLE & OUR WATERFALL


I'm fascinated by the paranormal. Hence my blog post I Love a Good Ghost Story.   



Steampunk - we love dressing up in the gear and attending events. There are no rules beside being splendid to one another. 





Yoga, Cycling, walking...

Science - medical matters, space research... it's utterly fascinating too. Social history...

I hope to return to archery one day. I'm always saying that.  A difficult one. I've got the gear, but it's hard if you suffer from social anxiety within a competitive, strictly controlled 
environment. 




And so on and so forth...













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Wednesday, 16 August 2023

JO. B. CREATIVE!: MY PIG-HEADED NOVEL COVER STORY

JO. B. CREATIVE!: MY PIG-HEADED NOVEL COVER STORY:    HERE'S JEANNIE IN ALL HER GLORY... . ...AND HERE'S JEANNIE AS I'VE IMAGINED HER FOREVER I call this post pig-headed because t...
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Thursday, 10 August 2023

ALIAS JEANNIE DELANEY - BOOK 1 - GO WEST, GIRL! (SAMPLE)

Here, ladies & gentlemen, is a sample from Chapter 2 of my novel. I hope it'll entice and inspire you to buy the trilogy. 



 


The first book of this epic western trilogy, Alias Jeannie Delaney - Book 1 - Go West, Girl! is now available on Amazon. This is the life story of a devastating & charismatic pants-wearing cowgirl who's the fastest gun in the west and bisexual. A crack shot story that blazes across the wild west!

CHAP 2 

(sample. Told from the POV of Kate, the young New York reporter who has hopes of meeting and interviewing her heroine, Jeannie Morgan).


The Aces Saloon proclaimed its name in fancy writing at the top of its false front. The clap board building was painted yellow with brown trimming and was adorned by a balcony on its second floor. It stood tall and wind-whipped on the corner of crossroads. And silent. We mounted the steps onto the board walk and approached the firmly closed semi-glazed double doors. I looked questioningly at Mac.

'No custom?'

He unlocked and opened a door.

‘Closed to business, Miss. Mayor runs a temperance town, damned hypocrite. Has a private stash, himself.’ He adopted a scheming grin. ‘So we use an ol' miner's cabin in the foothills where he and his cohorts won’t find us too easy.’ he regarded me and his smile vanished. ‘Ah...perhaps you don’t approve, Miss?'

I chuckled. ‘Far from it – I like a decent drink myself.'

He smiled and led me inside. I gawped at the dark wood surroundings. Old booze stains marked the floorboards. Dust lent the place a haunted look. A fancy candelabra hung above us. A long, rich wood bar lined one wall, behind it a row of filled bottles. A piano stood at the far side. A carved staircase led to a balcony above. Mac strode to a door beneath the balcony and showed me into a small, dark parlour. He moved to a bookshelf lined against a wall and removed a tooled leather bound book. He placed it on a table in the centre of the room.

‘Our scrapbook. Everything we’ve collected as regards our gal, including the not so good. Should have thrown them out – don’t know why we haven’t.’ He winked at me. ‘Should keep you busy, Miss. If you need anything, you’ll find me back at Flora’s. Happy reading.’

My heart beat faster and my fingers trembled as I turned the pages. The book was stuffed with original photographs, newspaper photos, news clippings and 'wanted' posters. I sat at the table and immersed myself in this tome. Many articles detailed crude intimacies, abject jottings. Unfair, prejudiced. To me, at any rate. I was no doubt biased after my single, brief encounter. She was my heroine, after all.

On the first page was a newspaper clipping:


The Wyoming Tribune

Wyoming, January 1891

'Jeannie Morgan, notorious and iconic female cowboy, outlaw and jailbird, has single handedly fought off a gang of outlaws led by Isaac Sorenson, a psychotic bully, who were terrorizing her home town, Coyote Creek, Wyoming. Sorenson sought revenge against Morgan for his brother's murder when the latter challenged her to a fast draw contest during her outlaw days.

Sorenson's gang looted stores, vandalized properties and interfered with townsfolk. The gang were aware that the people would demand Morgan's release from prison in the hope of her leading them to freedom. Miss Morgan would then be the gang's for the taking. The authorities refused her release. However, her escape was engineered by her brothers and members of her old gang. She was appointed deputy sheriff, an unheard of situation among womankind, and used the force of her powerful persona and phenomenal gun to dispense of the gang. She was wounded at one point. Authorities have agreed to give her amnesty and she has since been assigned the deputy role permanently.'


An hour passed. I turned the final page of the scrapbook. A fine photographic portrait appeared. I was surprised, considering her famed hatred of photographers, and her well known intolerance – a cool, uncompromising expression, starkly contrasted to her equally famous joky, fun-loving persona.

According to notes scribbled at the side of the photograph, she had been been pressed into this by loved ones. I could see the poor photographer trembling as that cobra lidded, luxuriously lashed almond pale blue gaze cut him in two. Her weathered tan emphasised their luminosity. Some of her features were fine, almost effeminate.

The sepia photograph showed smooth, feminine brows arced gently, then sloped. High cheekbones, lightly dimpled cheeks, perfect nose and wide, curved, generous female mouth proclaimed beauty. The lips were sensual but unsmiling above a gently squared chin and hero’s jaw. Her thick hair tumbled over her collar at the back and curled in front of her ears. Her open shirt exposed feminine throat and chest, narrowly plunging to tease, barely revealing womanly cleavage.

It seemed futile to resist studying every facet of Jeannie's physique. She was magnificent and irresistible and she knew it. Coyote Creek knew it too. I imagined the response that her presence provoked. Acknowledgements and calls from everyone, not all necessarily friendly.

Yes, I was jealous. Yes, I wanted her like mad. And yes, I wanted to enter her domain.









             FINALLY - MY VIDEO TRAILER!

REVIEWS

Yee-hah! I'm enjoying this soooo much! Not just because of the story but also because of the quality of the writing, and the loving detail put into it. Clearly a lot of research - Kit Mackenzie writes as though she's actually been there. I'm relishing the nuances of her fab writing. I so enjoyed reading the novel in detail, and relishing the nuances of the fab writing. Rereading it and absorbing the world and the atmosphere she's created.

https://youtu.be/50nD0cruN5E

Oh blimey! - just watched the video trailer, and my goodness Kit MacKenzie does know how to captive an audience ...  (Never seen anything like it. Terrific!:-)

CAROLINE OF CORNWALL


I'm just reading the preview at the moment, it's great! I just love kit Mackenzie's descriptions of where Jeannie is, so atmospheric 😌 I've got to chapter 12 and loving it!

Anne of West Sussex

I'm already deep in Chapter 1 of your the book and loving it!
 
Jana USA

Finally a brilliant review from Booksprout!

A unique western read. Five stars.
This is a different take on a western and I really enjoyed it. Jeannie is an independent woman focused on living her life on her terms before it was socially acceptable to do so. It is well written and entertaining!

And here's the Amazon link to Alias Jeannie Delaney - Book 1- Go West, Girl! 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/West-Girl-Alias-Jeannie-Delaney-ebook/dp/B0C9YT6DVR/

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JO. B. CREATIVE!: WHAT IF ALIAS JEANNIE DELANEY WAS A MUSICAL...

JO. B. CREATIVE!: WHAT IF ALIAS JEANNIE DELANEY WAS A MUSICAL...: What if  Alias Jeannie Delaney was a musical... I love all kinds of music. A lot of classics (some of it makes me swoon!), some jazz, rock ...
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Wednesday, 2 August 2023

JO. B. CREATIVE!: I LOVE A GOOD GHOST STORY

JO. B. CREATIVE!: I LOVE A GOOD GHOST STORY:      I mean real stories. Stories from people who have had unexplained experiences.       There are folk in my family who have the 'thir...
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