{"id":7942,"date":"2018-03-24T18:22:51","date_gmt":"2018-03-24T18:22:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/?p=7942"},"modified":"2018-10-19T15:25:01","modified_gmt":"2018-10-19T15:25:01","slug":"free-giveaway-a-sneak-preview-of-the-prequel-to-the-dakota-stevens-mystery-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/free-giveaway-a-sneak-preview-of-the-prequel-to-the-dakota-stevens-mystery-series\/","title":{"rendered":"FREE Giveaway! \u2014 A Sneak-Preview of the Prequel to The Dakota Stevens Mystery Series"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The story of how Dakota Stevens and Svetlana Kr\u00fcsh met and became an investigative team is one that has haunted me for 15 years\u2014ever since I opened a fresh notebook and began the \u201cpre-production\u201d that became the first novel in the series, A Real Piece of Work<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I knew I wanted Dakota and Svetlana\u2019s introduction to mirror the first meeting of Mr. Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle\u2019s novel A Study in Scarlet<\/em>. Like other aficionados of Sherlock Holmes, I have always loved Stamford\u2019s introduction of them to each other in a chemistry lab, and Holmes\u2019 famous first words to Watson: \u201cYou have been in Afghanistan, I perceive.\u201d<\/p>\n

I began writing A Study in Crimson<\/em> before I knew how and when Dakota and Svetlana would meet. At the outset all I knew was, I wanted the title of the story to have \u201ccrimson\u201d in it as my homage to A Study in Scarlet<\/em>. However, early on I decided the word \u201ccrimson\u201d would refer to an incidental connection to Harvard University.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"
Harvard Square, Cambridge, MA. The center of the action in A STUDY IN CRIMSON.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"While living in Cambridge, Massachusetts after college, I spent many mornings writing at Au Bon Pain caf\u00e9 in Harvard Square<\/a>, and my afternoons playing chess there. \u201cWhat if,\u201d<\/em> I said to myself, \u201cSvetlana were the interim coach of the Harvard chess team, and she spent her free time crushing amateurs at the caf\u00e9?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

I have subtitled the novel \u201cA Prequel to the Dakota Stevens Mystery Series,\u201d but it would have been equally accurate to subtitle it \u201cThe Dakota and Svetlana Origin Story.\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019m pleased to announce that A Study in Crimson<\/em>, a prequel to the Dakota Stevens Mystery Series, will be available for pre-order this spring, and for download this summer.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, if you subscribe to my website below, you will receive a FREE PDF sneak-preview (the first 4 chapters) of the novel!<\/strong><\/p>\n

In addition to receiving the sneak-preview of A Study in Crimson<\/em>, subscribers\u00a0will have new blog posts emailed to them, as well as exclusive content<\/em> unavailable to non-subscribers, including bonus stories, writing tips, and insider essays on the world of a writer.<\/p>\n

Thank you,<\/p>\n

Chris<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The story of how Dakota Stevens and Svetlana Kr\u00fcsh met and became an investigative team is one that has haunted me for 15 years\u2014ever since I opened a fresh notebook and began the \u201cpre-production\u201d that became the first novel in the series, A Real Piece of Work. I knew I wanted Dakota and Svetlana\u2019s introduction … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7958,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[423,366,30,421,422,77,55,11,13],"tags":[429,442,433,223,428,262,98,99,440,425,426,115,432,438,435,424,443,436,437,441,430,431,434,427,150,439],"class_list":["post-7942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-a-study-in-crimson","category-book-promotion","category-chris-orcutt-books","category-free","category-giveaway","category-novels","category-sale","category-dakota-stevens-mysteries-series","category-writers","tag-a-study-in-crimson","tag-a-study-in-scarlet","tag-au-bon-pain","tag-chess","tag-crimson","tag-dakota","tag-dakota-stevens","tag-dakota-stevens-mystery-series","tag-dr-watson","tag-free","tag-giveaway","tag-harvard","tag-harvard-square","tag-holmes","tag-must-read","tag-pdf","tag-prequel","tag-sherlock","tag-sherlock-holmes","tag-sir-arthur-conan-doyle","tag-sneak-peek","tag-sneak-preview","tag-summer-reading","tag-svetlana","tag-svetlana-krush","tag-watson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7942"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7942\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8200,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7942\/revisions\/8200"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}