Books, Blood and Banacek

Almost ten years ago, I put pen to paper and started writing CLAW: A Canadian Thriller. I never imagined where it would take me when I released it at the end of 2019. I have been a writer all my life, but I also wanted to be an author for just as long. And now, thanks to you, I am living that dream each day.

I wrote my first thriller in grade two. The teacher wanted us to write a short story, and I wrote a three-page murder mystery with a hand-drawn cover featuring a cute little house with a white picket fence and a huge pool of blood on the sidewalk out in front. Thinking of it now, I realise it is something that would have been flagged by a school psychologist, had such a thing existed in elementary school at the time. Thankfully, I got a B+ and fondly remember the experience to this day.

Just an FYI, my parents were huge fans of the weekly NBC Mystery Movie with the likes of Columbo, McLeod, Banacek, McMillan and Wife, et al. And so, the murder mystery story I wrote was a natural offshoot of that exposure. I still love catching those shows today when I can—it’s so much fun to see the seventies come to life again with those great stories and the wonderful acting all around.

And now, I am working on my tenth novel, CLAW Resurrection. Things are going quite well, and I believe this novel will be a worthy successor to the first two in the present-day CLAW series. As much as I want to keep you in the loop, I don’t want to spoil any surprises, so I’ll just say that things are progressing smoothly.

But I wanted to share something else if I could. And that is to say how much I appreciate all of you!

According to my recent calculations, I have sold over 75,000 copies of my novels worldwide to date. I look at that number and feel disbelief that so many people have read and enjoyed my stories. I literally could not have done any of this without you and I am so deeply grateful. So, thank you, one and all, for coming along on this literary journey and for sharing your excitement and enjoyment through reviews and posts on social media.

The future looks bright for those eager to read more of my mind’s musings. After CLAW Resurrection is released (still looking like late spring), I have five more novels planned, two in the CLAW series and two in the Lively Deadmarsh series, along with a crossover. And there will be many more after that which are, at the moment, only sparks of interest and intrigue somewhere in the back of my mind.

Oh, and speaking of the back of my mind, before I forget, I finally have a release date for the audiobook of CLAW Emergence 3: Return to Darkness. Tantor Media will unleash it upon the world on August 13th, 2024, across 60+ retail and digital distributors, including Audible, Apple, audiobooks.com, Google Play, and many more. Once again, the immensely talented Alex Knox narrates this final exciting book in that prequel series.

With all of that said, it is now time for one of my favourite activities each month: giving away audiobooks and paperbacks! And so, without further ado, the winner of this month’s audiobook is: stonecoldnf@XXXXXX.ca. And the winner of the autographed paperback is: helenlarab@XXXXXX.com .

And finally, I would like to thank you all once again for trusting me with your email addresses in return for updates and prizes each month. And if you are not yet a Katie Berry Books Insider subscriber, then you really are missing out. Join here, if you want a chance to win one of the two great prizes each month, including bonus prizes: https://katieberry.ca/become-a-katie-berry-books-insider-and-win/

That’s it for this month! I will leave you to enjoy some of the hopefully nice spring weather wherever you are in the northern hemisphere, and if you are on the southern half of the world, enjoy your fall!

Good health and great reads,

-Katie Berry