BB's Mini-Mystery #4

must have stumped you all! I had no winning entries this week! In light of this, I have decided to hold off on selecting a winner until noon tomorrow. So, if you still want to take a shot at it, get your guess in to me by noon on Saturday, February 2nd.

Surely someone out there can figure it out!

Good luck!

A Guest Post!

I encourage you to check out Nikki's website for valuable tips on book promotion!

Thanks,
Rebecca

New Virtual Book Tour Site Launch on February 1

Many people have heard about virtual book tours, sometimes called virtual author tours or virtual blog tours. They are a new and exciting way for authors to "tour" the internet - without leaving their home.

Imagine... you can meet potential readers from all over the internet and potential all over the world and you don't need to leave your home and family. In addition, a virtual tour is much more reasonably priced than the plane tickets, hotel rooms, meals etc that you need to buy for a book tour on the ground.

Authors and readers are all invited to visit the new virtual book tour site. There are over 100 articles and interviews to help authors learn more about book promotion. There are a number of web pages that were created by our tour site sponsors - they offer many products and services that could be beneficial for you. (If you would like to become a sponsor, please contact me at nikki_leigh22939@yahoo.com for more information.)

What's different about this book tour option? While our featured authors will visit other blogs throughout the month, each tour stop will be posted on the book tour site. Visitors who come to the site have the option of reading any or all of the information about the books and the author in one central location. So, whether you arrive at the tour on day 1 or the last day, you can easily catch up on all the details that each author wants to share with you. Each visitor has a choice about how they want to learn about the feature authors. I encourage you to visit the site frequently to find out what new information has been posted. The links which are posted below, take you to each author's tour page. All posts about their books are linked to these pages and are easy to access.

So, what books are we featuring in February? Here's some information about the authors you will meet during the month. They have all posted some information on the site and much more will be posted throughout the month.



Earl Ofari Hutchingson - The Ethnic Presidency: How Race Decides the Race to the White House http://www.inspiredauthor.com/promotion/Earl+Hutchinson+-+Feb+2008

The Ethnic Presidency is an explosive look at how racial and ethnic conflict has openly and covertly played a crucial role over the past three decades in influencing, shaping and ultimately deciding who bags the world's biggest political prize, the White House. It explains how racial politics is playing an even bigger role in the 2008 presidential election and future elections.


Steven Clark Bradley - Nimrod Rising
http://www.inspiredauthor.com/promotion/steven-clark-bradley-author-nimrod-rising


Have you ever felt that the world was guided in ways that are beyond man's control? The constant changes in the world since the time of Nimrod 4000 years ago until today and all the events that have shaken the world have been to bring the universe back into the hands of the Prince of Darkness, Lucia, a world that he had ruled with his Watchers before it was all ripped from his grasp when man was created. Nimrod Rising paints a diabolical picture of how the Prince of Darkness executes his evil plot to take the world back by force and destroy civilization in the process. From the Great Builder Nimrod in 4000 BC to today, 666 generations later, you can ride the storm of Nimrod Rising and experience the death of a world and the birth pangs of another. You will swear it is really upon us!

Virginia Vassallo - Unsung Patriot: Guy T. Viskniskki How The Stars and Stripes Began
http://www.inspiredauthor.com/promotion/Virginia+Vassallo

The Unsung Patriot is the biography of Guy T. Viskniskki, the dynamic first officer-in-charge and editor-in-chief of The Stars and Stripes newspaper. Based in part on Guy's unpublished autobiography describing the first difficult months of the paper, his granddaughter's knowledge of the family verbal history paints a picture of a complex man. A devoted husband and father, Guy was unable to show the love he felt for his family. Guy poured his time and talent in the newspaper business. His knowledge and energy made the Army's newspaper a reality and his doctrine of "by and for the soldiers" still is the guiding light of the Stars and Stripes.

I want to extend an invitation for each person to visit the site and learn more about each of these authors and their books. I invite readers and authors to register on the site and create a profile page to tell us more about yourself. Also, feel free to post a comment about any of the posts or post an introduction on the forums. If you have questions, feel free to contact me at nikki_leigh22939@yahoo.com.

I look forward to meeting many new people.

Nikki Leigh
Author of the Book Promo 101 Series
www.nikkileigh.com/promo.htm

BB's Mini-Mystery #4

Here you go:

An Ounce of Prevention
By Rebecca Benston

Erika Johnson was a pharmaceutical sales representative. She worked for one of the big names in the pharmaceutical industry and had a large client base that had been built up over the course of five years. She had started out wanting to be a social worker, but when she figured out that she wouldn’t be able to make enough money doing social work, she answered an ad in her local paper and the rest was history. As a sales rep, she made good money and she still felt like she would be helping people because she was offering samples of medication which doctors could then pass on to their patients. At least, this was how she rationalized it.

She had just dropped off her usual week’s worth of samples to the largest medical group in town and was waiting for the elevator, when she encountered an elderly woman who asked her, “Are you able to give samples to individual patients?”

“Oh, no, ma’am, I’m sorry,” she had responded, “I’m not qualified to make the diagnosis required to dispense the samples. You can ask your doctor for samples the next time you’re in.”

“Well, my doctor won’t give me samples, I’ve asked him,” the lady said in a feeble voice, “I can’t afford the regular medication and they tell me if I don’t take it, I could have a heart attack.”

“I’m really sorry, but I just can’t,” she had said to the woman. She thought for a moment and then asked, “Which doctor is it that you go to?”

“Dr. Reed, up on the third floor,” she answered.

“What medication was it that you needed?” Erika had asked.

The lady gave here the names of her medications and Erika had told her that she would check with the doctor to see if he wanted some samples to hand out. The two parted ways with the older woman thanking Erika profusely for making the effort. Erika made a note in her calendar to visit Dr. Reed and then got in her car and drove home.

Although it was a little unusual, Erika called Dr. Reed’s office and asked if she could speak with the doctor regarding a patient of his. She told him of her encounter with the elderly woman in the elevator and he agreed that he would talk with his patient about the medications. Two weeks later, Erika paid a visit to Dr. Reed’s office, dropping off samples of the medications that the older lady had requested. She only had two of the three medications, but it was better than nothing. When she left the building, she felt like she had really done something useful and so she went out and treated herself to dinner at her favorite Mexican restaurant. Dr. Reed had been pretty easy to talk to and he had agreed to pass on samples to those patients in his practice who might benefit from the drugs. Satisfied that she had done the right thing, she ate her dinner and then went home to prepare for work the next day.

As was her usual ritual, she put her suitcase and materials by the door so that she would be ready to start early in the morning. She set up her coffee pot to brew at 5:30 a.m. and then set her alarm clock to wake her at 5:45 a.m. Generally, she got up and showered before having coffee. She grabbed a cup to go and then headed out to the garage with her briefcase and samples. She usually ran into the same few people in the morning on her way to work. The neighbor, Essie Holtz was usually out walking her little dog in the courtyard. Her husband, Mr. Holtz was usually headed to his car at the same time as Erika. He often offered to help her with her bags and she usually refused. There was also Mrs. Taylor who lived across the street from the apartment building. She was usually up sitting on her porch waiting for the newspaper delivery boy.
On this day in particular, Mr. Holtz wasn’t heading to his car. Erika noticed that Mrs. Holtz wasn’t out walking the dog either. Mrs. Taylor said hello to Erika and waved her over. She told her that Mrs. Holtz had been rushed to the hospital last evening and that Mr. Holtz hadn’t yet come home. Erika told Mrs. Taylor to let her know if anything else happened while she was at work today. She wasn’t terribly close to her neighbors, but she felt terrible hearing of Mrs. Holtz’s illness.

Exactly one week later, Erika heard that Mrs. Holtz had passed away. As it turned out, she’d suffered from a severe heart attack and the doctors hadn’t been able to help her. She hadn’t been taking her medication because her husband’s insurance had run out after he’d retired from his job three months earlier. Erika went to work feeling depressed and just plain disgusted at losing her neighbor. She berated herself for not having been a better friend to the Holtz’s and for not checking with Mrs. Holtz to make sure she’d had everything she needed. She could have gotten her some medication if only she’d have asked.

The day didn’t improve much when Erika encountered the same old lady in the elevator she had met last week coming from Dr. Reed’s office. The old lady didn’t speak to her this time and Erika felt an uncomfortable silence as the elevator moved slowly down towards the lobby of the building. Feeling obligated to check, she turned to the older lady and asked her, “Were you able to get your samples from Dr. Reed?”

The old lady gave her a sharp look and then said, “He’s never offered me any samples, you probably didn’t even give them to him.” She didn’t say anything else to Erika and when the elevator doors opened, she shuffled past Erika and out the front doors of the building without looking back. She got into a car that was waiting by the entrance to the building. Stung by the exchange, Erika stood there in the elevator as the doors closed again. She waited for a moment and then pushed the button for the lobby so that the doors would open again. When they opened, she was staring down the barrel of a gun. Without a word, the person behind the gun fired and Erika’s lifeless body dropped to the floor.

The police were at the building within minutes and the investigation was on. They spoke with everyone in the building and got a list of everyone who had come and gone within the last two hours. They also got the security camera’s videotape for the lobby area. The whole thing was just bizarre and ask Detective Mathis was finding out, there was absolutely no reason for something like this to have happened. Erika was well-liked by all of the doctors and their office staff. She was generous and had a great personality. She wasn’t overbearing and she seemed to genuinely care about the work she was doing.

“It was as if she hoped she was making a difference,” said Nancy Atherton, the receptionist at Dr. Powell’s office. She cried as she spoke to the police, wiping her tears as she spoke of Erika’s visits to their practice.

Another receptionist, Judy Cook said, “I can’t imagine who would want to hurt someone like Erika.”

The building was shut down for the day while the crime scene was investigated. It was a Friday, so they had the weekend to try and figure out what had happened before people started coming back through on Monday.

What do you think? Who was this elderly woman? Did she have anything at all to do with Erika’s murder? If not, then who killed her? Take a shot! You could win a $10 gift card! Send in your guess by Friday at 5 p.m. EST!