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* Check out the mini version of Searching For A Starry Night at my blog. Link above!!
NEW - Cooking in Miniature
http://candidcanine.blogspot.com/2008/07/cooking-i...
* Check out my new miniature food display!

NEW REVIEWS!

What they're saying about SEARCHING FOR A STARRY NIGHT:

"Gripping, surprising, and leaving you wanting more… you'll be shocked at the twists and turns…" --Lily Huber, Grade 8

A WINNER!!!

Thanks to all who voted, SEARCHING FOR A STARRY NIGHT was voted MOST EYE-CATCHING COVER for March '08 at the New Covey Cover Awards! Petey is woofing up a storm in celebration!

Latest Chapter Edits. Download PDF or .doc of Chapter 1, SEARCHING FOR A STARRY NIGHT HERE.

New Mini Petey!

Check out the new miniature version of Petey I made at my Candid Canine Blog!

Dogs in Miniature

For fun, check out the miniature dogs and read about the Dutch artisan who made them, at my blog site, Candid Canine. You won't believe how real they look! Petey, the Dachshund from Searching For A Starry Night, is very jealous!

Petey's New Pal! Bratwurst invited Petey from SEARCHING FOR A STARRY NIGHT for a little chat. See what they had to "bark" about at Diary of a Dachshund or see my blog, Candid Canine

What a Dachshund Really Thinks

For Fun - check out what Petey, the Dachshund from my upcoming mystery, SEARCHING FOR A STARRY NIGHT, really thinks in the 1/25 Flashshot. See fiction at my website for link.

Miniature Starry Night!

I now have a miniature version of VAN GOGH'S Starry Night - the painting that is featured in my upcoming mystery, SEARCHING FOR A STARRY NIGHT. It's amazing! See pix at my Candid Canine blog.

Along with creating and collecting dollhouse miniatures, I'm a big reader. I've also been writing since I can remember.(See story samples and miniatures at cverstraete.com.

Deadline pushed back: "Searching For A Starry Night," A Miniature Art Mystery, will be published in JULY '08 by Quake, a divison of Echelon Press LLC. Read more about SEARCHING FOR A STARRY NIGHT here.

Searching For A Starry Night contains my favorite elements: mystery, a dog and miniatures. Why the Dachshund? Petey plays a role in Searching For A Starry Night: A nosy Dachshund digs up a family curse... is Sam's quest to find the missing miniature art, and save her longest friendship, doomed?

NEW Anthology! THE HEAT OF THE MOMENT features 21 stories related to fire. ALL PROCEEDS go to the Fire Safe Council of San Diego County to benefit the heroes and survivors of the San Diego wildfires. **Order a copy from Echelon Press or from Amazon; a link is at my website page below. Please ASK your local library to order a copy to help others!! **

In my story, "Fire and Magic," Sam and her mother (from my upcoming mystery, SEARCHING FOR A STARRY NIGHT) face a menace from the past. This time, even magic might not be able to save them. See details and an excerpt at http://cverstraete.com/heatofthemoment.html.

Besides writing, I collect and create miniature scenes, houses and rooms. My interests often intersect as I also enjoy writing about collectors and collecting.

I'm an award-winning journalist, with articles published in magazines and newspapers. I continue to write nonfiction while I work on my mysteries and short stories.

Being a horror fan, no surprise that my own writing sometimes seems to delve into the eerie, the unusual, the shivery...

With spring in the midwest, comes blackbirds. Dozens, then hundreds of birds. That was the inspiration for my winning story, "The Witch Tree." - Will it be him... or them??"

Excerpt from Chapter 1 of "The Witch Tree" from Echelon Press

At first, Jimmy thought the arrival of the blackbirds was a freak of nature thing, like the seventeen-year cicadas. He was working on the house, painting the porch and repairing the front steps, when he initially noticed what was happening.

It started with a few birds landing in the massive box elder that hulked in front of the house. First, five birds flew in, then there were ten. Next time he looked, there were twenty. He went inside to get a cold one. When he came back, he glanced up, surprised to find at least forty birds nestled among the freshly sprouted leaves of the ancient old tree.

More amazed than alarmed, he sat on the still unpainted step to sip his beer and watch. The ranks grew by the hour. The tree's limbs disappeared under the writhing, shifting mass of dark scaly feet and inky black wings.

It was almost creepy.

He wiped his forehead, wondering if the hotter than usual temperatures had triggered it. A minute later, he wondered if the heat was getting to him. Since when did heat have anything to do with a flock of birds-a flock, that he saw, was getting larger by the minute? By noon, he tried to ignore the uneasiness he felt at having a hundred birds staring at him with their dead-black, beady eyes.

Whatever warm feelings he had held before towards birds were now gone, replaced by a quiet horror. Those eyes, inspecting him; the chatter, it made his skin crawl. As the sun went down, the bird-laden tree quieted. Nothing stirred, but Jimmy knew that they weren't asleep. Oh, no. He knew it. He could feel them, eyeing him, watching, waiting....

The thought made him scurry inside where he locked the door and pulled down every shade in the house. Then he took out a glass and the bottle of Jim Beam, and proceeded to get good and stinking drunk...

DAILY BLOG 6: CHARACTERS! Follow it all month!