One of the challenges of promoting a book is figuring out how to descrbe it for various venues. Peachtree was responsible for the following summary for the Library of Congress listing:
As the family gathers at her grandmother’s bed-and-breakfast for a murder mystery weekend, seventeen-year-old Jen confronts her ambivalent feelings about her mother, who disappeared fourteen years earlier, and about the possibility that she might be dead.
I thought about using that for the description for the SCBWI Michigan website. But after looking at some of the other entries, I saw that I could put in just a bit more flavor. Instead of starting from scratch, I went to the flap copy of my novel. Once again, this was generated by Peachtree. Clearly that was too long. But I saw some things that I could use. I won’t type all of that in here since it’s actually quite close to the product description on Amazon. You could read that here if you like, so you can see how I condensed it.
Jen is scheduled to spend the summer helping Grandma Kay run a Victorian bed and breakfast. But Grandma Kay’s plans include a lot more than housekeeping. She intends to solve a real mystery from the past: the disappearance of Jen’s mother. During the build-up to an elaborate, role-playing Murder Mystery Weekend, Jen’s worst suspicions are aroused. Could a member of her own family be responsible?
Kristin Wolden Nitz 
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