Böcker av M J Simms-Maddox

This step-by-step approach is for authors who desire to publish their own work. Creative writing tips, a regimen for writing, and seven steps and detailed procedures essential to becoming a published author are provided. Emerging and seasoned authors are encouraged to establish a budget and obtain the proper writing tools. Retaining a professional editor is also crucial, no matter how well one writes. But the most critical step is publishing, for which there are many substeps, such as obtaining ISBNs, price barcodes, permission rights, and much more. But there is more. The most technical aspect of the approach is converting manuscripts into digital and electronic files, and this handbook also addresses audiobook conversion. Then, to bring attention to books, authors must actively promote them. Finally, authors are encouraged to modify these steps to suit their situations. 

The Mysterious Affair at the Met: Priscilla Plays in High Cotton in the World of Highly-Valued Works of Art-the fifth installment in the Priscilla Series-begins in the middle of May 1990 in the city that never sleeps. Although New Yorkers are experiencing tempestuous weather of howling gales and torrential rains, still, people are out and about, dressed in rain hats and trench coats, and other waterproof wear. Tourists are drifting in and out myriads of shops and restaurants and showplaces such as museums and theatres, any place to escape the wind and the pouring rain.A favorite destination-even for New Yorkers-is the venerable Metropolitan Museum of Art. On this particular day, "the Met," as generally known, experiences an unusually large number of visitors. Visitors have their choice of viewing over two million works of art spanning five millennia of cultures worldwide. But some among them are up to something more sinister.At one point the Met surveillance cameras'' lenses capture "a mysterious-looking couple" amid the many visitors strolling about the many galleries. The pair is dripping wet in their matching taupe Burberry trench coats. Just as the two of them walk past Soleil dans le Ciel de Saint-Paul, a masterpiece of Marc Chagall, a large tourist group-who, oddly enough, all are wearing distinctive red-and-white-striped vinyl raincoats-converges around them. But it is what happens next that baffles the museum''s surveillance crew. After "the mysterious-looking couple" pulls off their prank, they and the large tourist group walk out of that particular camera''s range, becoming submerged elsewhere in the interminable galleries of the gigantic museum.But when a docent notices "something strange" with Chagall''s Soleil dans le Ciel de Saint-Paul, in short order, the museum-goers inside the Chagall gallery hear "High Alert!" and watch in horror as a heavy metal grille drops down from the ceiling to the floor, effectively locking them inside the gallery.And thus began what later came to be called "The Mysterious Affair at the Met."Meanwhile, Priscilla has returned home to Columbus, Ohio, from a secret mission as a special envoy in the Middle East. There are no terrorists on her tail. Nor does she sport her government-issued G45. Yet, the newlywed of nearly four months is unable to resume her marriage because her agent-husband Carlton has sustained a severe bout with amnesia. How he contracted the illness would puzzle her for some time to come. So Priscilla decides to open a branch public relations office in New York City because it is closer than Columbus to her in-laws in Bow Lake, New Hampshire, where her darling Carlton is recuperating. As word leaks about the "high alert"at the Met and about Priscilla is setting up shop in the City, the Met board of trustees acts quickly and retains the savvy and discreet PR consultant, P. J. Austin-Bernhardt.Determined to get to the bottom of the matter, Priscilla uses her intelligence-gathering prowess and delves head-on into circumstances surrounding the mysterious affair.She learns that a French artist named Thibaut Francois is at the heart of it all; he is a forger of masterpieces, a thief, and an extortionist, too. But Priscilla learns more. She learns that this global art fraud racket also involves one of Thibaut Francois''s twin sons and a former associate who happens to be the current Met board chairman. The story takes off from here.

Priscilla J. Austin has been in training as a CIA agent since returning from her first time in Africa in the summer of 1986. Apart from continuing her public relations consultancy, "an excellent cover," her supervisor notes, she still has no notion of what the agency wants her to do. Meanwhile, her public profile as "an ordinary woman makes good" has been enhanced by her work as spokesperson for the Bernhardts of Bow Lake and her work with the Hollingsworth Presidential Election Campaign. But Priscilla does have her foibles-her tendency to be unpredictable and her phobias-which could threaten the success of any mission. Regardless, agency officials know that only someone of Priscilla''s particular personality and individual characteristics can complete the impending mission successfully. Even so, they give her a dry run. The opening scene is of Priscilla starting her regularly scheduled meeting with the Bernhardt Foundation for Boarding Schools for Zimbabwean and South African Girls. She is at a conference center in Harare, where, before long, the ceiling caves in, and some mysterious-looking men drop down into the room, clinging onto ropes. The men are not there to rescue her, either. While Priscilla takes cover under the conference table, she reminisces about how she got there in the first place. On the heels of her wedding, she''d been contacted for her first assignment "in service to her country." Her trial run was to deliver an official sealed envelope to the emirs in the United Arab Emirates. Apart from proving herself to the CIA, she''d also wanted to shake off pressure from her forthcoming wedding, which was less than a week away. Despite a bout with one of her phobia, her courier mission had been a success. She then led the top-of-the-line to be the special envoy. It was then that she''d headed off to Harare to conduct the board meeting, when onboard her flight she learned, for the first time, what the CIA had wanted of her as a special envoy. She hadn''t even minded dumping her husband for the trip, which proved how hardcore she was. And although her first experience in the region had made her a heroine, she was wholly unaware that remnants of the South African Nationalists Movement''s Patrol Guard-the enforcement arm of the gazillion-dollar diamond, gold, and platinum conglomerate-still existed. But, unexpectedly, her trip to Harare had been put off. It was time to initiate her special envoy mission, and it was clear that she had been surprised by it, too, and so soon. Nevertheless, as Priscilla prepared to meet with the first delegation, no one could have prepared her for what so easily could have aborted the mission. One can feel her disbelief when Abdul-Hakim approaches her in an "uncharacteristic manner." Yet, she pushes past her pain and moves forward with the meeting as if nothing had ever even happened. It was then that she''d resumed her trip to Harare. So it had been after starting her board meeting at the conference center in Harare that things had begun to fall apart, literally. When the ceiling in the conference room caved in, this time, unlike her experience with Abdul-Hakim, Priscilla declares, "I''ll be damned if I''m the damsel in distress." Henceforth, there is no letting up; so, too, does Priscilla''s ability to fend for herself. Along the way, from Harare to Amman-her final destination, Priscilla tackles gruesome circumstances. At the same time, a special ops'' unit of the CIA engages the very terrorists that are trying to obstruct her mission. Although Special Envoy 1 can be read as a standalone, it might be useful first to read the trilogy that precedes it: Priscilla Engaging in the Game of Politics, Mystery in Harare, and Three Metal Pellets.

In this the third installment in the Priscilla trilogy, it is time for Priscilla to become the woman she was meant to be.  It is fall, 1987, one year after Priscilla''s time in Africa. She has resumed her PR business in Columbus, Ohio, where she waits and waits for something of substance to come across her desk. Then, one day, she receives a handwritten note that reads: "Interested in spearheading the marketing campaign for the next president?" She does not even recognize the signature. So, she researches the presidential-hopeful.  Priscilla learns that the candidate is a fifth-generation Barbadian American and that his great-great-grandfather had operated a sugar export business in Barbados and eventually came to America, married a former slave, and raised several children. Over time, he''d diversified his import-export business to include banking and printing, thus began his quest for his family''s legacy-the American presidency!  At this point, Priscilla also had resumed her secret affair with her one-time lover, Carlton Elliott Bernhardt. While the couple is away on a visit back to southern Africa-where Priscilla now serves as the CEO of the Bernhardt Foundation for Boarding Schools for Zimbabwean and South African Girls-the subject of the presidential election campaign comes up. However, Priscilla is unaware that CarltonΓÇòa member of the special ops unit that rescued her during her first time in southern AfricaΓÇòhas confided her decision to work on the Hollingsworth Campaign with his CIA colleagues at Langley. Although her work on the campaign is hardly anything to write home about, it is unrelenting and sometimes troublesome. Priscilla is an outsider again, so her mettle is put to the test from the beginning to the end. But at each interval, she shows forth her political acumen, which annoys the campaign manager. Mostly though, like many others who know Priscilla, "There''s just something about her," said the campaign manager, but Priscilla hardly ever sees herself the way that others do. In the climax, an old personal secret comes to light, and Priscilla conducts the PR performance of her life.

In this, the middle story in the trilogy, Priscilla has resigned her post as the legislative aide in the Ohio Senate and set up a public relations firm. She prefers projects of substance, "earthy," as she calls them, such as the national premiere of the documentary Mandela. She also meets and agrees to marry a minister, something she'd vowed she would never do. Meantime, she continues her relationship with the senator, professionally, such that he is now considered a member of her extended family. Therefore it'd been due to the death of her loving father, Nelson, that Priscilla's family had agreed that the senator might serve as Liza's escort at the wedding. On Priscilla's wedding day, as the senator and Liza reach the foot of the aisle, he seats her. He then turns and, for some unknown reason, extends his hand to the groom. Then something even more unexpected happens, and, too, so fast. At the top of the aisle, someone grabs hold of the stunned bride from behind and covers her face with a cloth containing a substance that renders her unconscious. Then, stealth-like, her abductors hurry away with her to Port Columbus International Airport and, from there, to a villa in the South of France; there, they alter her appearance to resemble a Middle Eastern young man. Then, unbeknown to the heavily-sedated Priscilla, they head off to Harare, Zimbabwe. Armed with the knowledge about her precarious predicament, Priscilla and the men of the clandestine CF unit of the CIA-her protectors-then, also unbeknown to her, head off into enemy territory. For, the CF's mission is to take down the terrorists who killed an American civilian, Priscilla's fiancé, and who attempted to assassinate an American state lawmaker. But there is more to their rationale; one of the members of the CF unit and Priscilla are intimately close. Notwithstanding, Priscilla has little choice but to learn how to fend for herself in places and ways that she never before imagined. For sure, she never envisioned herself in early post-apartheid Zimbabwe and South Africa.

This prequel portrays a bright, carefree, and enterprising African American young woman who is almost always getting into a spot of trouble. Priscilla is her name. Called "PJ," "Missy," and "Miss Prissy" by family and close friends, she is self-centered, spoiled, and sheltered; and she hardly ever sees herself the way that others see her. She is also strongly bound to her father-a Methodist minister and consummate politician. And although Priscilla has four other sisters and one brother, her father has raised her differently than the others, especially from the other girls. Less admirable traits are her tendency to push the envelope to the edge and her unpredictability. The story opens when, on a flight to Tallahassee, Florida, Priscilla reminisces about how she ended up in the Ohio Senate. It had been early in August of 1970, and Reverend Austin took Priscilla on her first plane ride. They flew from nearby Buffalo, New York to Charlotte, North Carolina, rented a car, and then drove en route to Salisbury to enroll Priscilla in college. Although Priscilla's mother had wanted her to major in business, and her father had preferred "the noble profession of teaching," Priscilla's interest is in politics! She completed her undergraduate studies, and, early in the winter of 1974, she'd headed off to The Ohio State University. While in graduate school, she acquired an internship with a state senator. They had an affair. And although Priscilla completed the program for a doctorate in political science, she did not write her dissertation. Quite to the surprise of everyone who knew her, she instead joined the faculty at Florida A&M University. Even more surprisingly, after a mere two years on the job, her father asked a huge favor of her, to "relocate closer to home" (Prendergast, New York). But her father did not reveal the reason behind his request. In honoring her father's request, Priscilla contacts the Ohio state senator with whom she'd had an affair. The senator offers her a job as his legislative aide. She accepts. Throughout, the series' prequel takes a deep look at the forces which made Priscilla what she is: her family roots in highly-segregated Mississippi, her upbringing in upstate New York where subtle racism leaves its scars despite her loving father's protection, a campus date rape that leaves her with unhealed wounds and, a scintillating season as a high-powered legislative aide in a life-altering political scandal.