Nostalgia City Mysteries

Mark S. Bacon

Category Archives: Book giveaway

10:38 am - March 8, 2025 -

The mysteries continue here !

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Win a free copy of The Woke and the Dead

The man’s T-shirt said, I’m proud of my— but the coagulated blood across his torso obliterated the rest of the slogan like the three bullets had obliterated him.

That’s the first line of my new murder mystery, The Woke and the Dead. It’s a sometimes gritty, occasionally funny mystery/suspense novel with political flavor, the kind of taste you can feel at the back of your throat.

For Nostalgia City followers, here is your next installment of Lyle and Kate who work at the world’s most elaborate theme park.  If you haven’t read a Nostalgia City mystery yet, you can still dive into The Woke and the Dead.

This novel gives you the background you need to get to know the regular characters as you’re quickly drawn into a story of murder, hate groups, racism, homophobia, corruption, and political espionage. Lyle’s sense of humor and Kate’s stick-to-itiveness flow throughout.

The book review blog, On a Reading Bender, calls The Woke and the Dead, “Fast-paced. Suspenseful. Full of secrets and lies [and] interesting, complex, likable protagonists.”

Check out the description on the Amazon page where you can pre-order the ebook book at the intro price of $2.99 until March 13. Print copies will also be available from Amazon in the middle of the month.

If you want a chance to win a free copy of the book, check out the giveaway on Goodreads, here. The giveaway ends, March26.

I’ll be a guest on a political podcast later this month talking about the book and its ideological and literary influences.  Details will be posted here soon, at https://baconsmysteries.com.

In the weeks and months to come I’ll be reviewing mystery/noir books and movies, posting excerpts from The Woke and the Dead, hosting articles from other mystery writers and holding another book giveaway.

In the meantime, you can find me on Facebook and Twitter (x) and soon on Bluesky.

 

 

Categories: Book giveaway, book review, Death in Nostalgia City, ebooks, Movie reviews Tags: , , , ,
9:02 am - March 28, 2022 -

Trivia quiz answers & a book giveaway

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Register for a free copy

Death in Nostalgia City, the first book in the Nostalgia City mystery series, is available free, for a limited time, on Goodreads.com. The Goodreads giveaway will close on April 15. Now why did I pick that date?

Regardless, just mosey your mouse over to: https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/343368?utm_medium=api&utm_source=giveaway_widget  and register to win a free copy.

Quiz answers:

Here are the answers to the 1970s trivia quiz.  To review the questions go here, or if you’re reading this on the website, just scroll down.

 1. B   2. C     3. B     4. D    5. A     6. C     7. A      8. D      9. C     10.  C     11. D     12. C

Notes:

No. 3.  The Vietnam War ended on April 30, 1975 with the fall of Saigon.

 No. 7.  Chia Pets were the big rage in the 1970s.  The Hula Hoop was introduced in 1958 by the Wham-O toy company. Beanie Babies came on the market in 1993, and Pokemon Go is only about seven years old.

No. 10.  The other seemingly difficult question was to name the event that did not occur in the 1970s. All of the listed events, such as the 55 MPH National Speed Limit Law (imposed in 1975 to help save gasoline) took place in the 1970s except the crash of the Pan Am jet over Scotland.  That happened in 1988.  BTW, it took Little League, founded in 1939, until 1974 to permit girls to play. The decision was the result of a lawsuit.  And, Robert Redford, Paul Newman, Eileen Brennan and others starred in The Sting which won the best picture Oscar in 1973.

Categories: 1970s events, 1970s trivia quiz, Book giveaway, New mystery book Tags: , , , , , , ,
5:59 am - August 30, 2019 -

My personal plates….and today only, a free book

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Turn on your Kindle or Kindle Fire and go to Amazon to download a free copy of Death in Nostalgia City.  This is a one-day sale that ends tonight—Aug. 30—at 11:59 p.m. Pacific time.

Here’s the link: https://www.amazon.com/Death-Nostalgia-City-Mysteries-Book-ebook/dp/B07V1Y23FM/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1412464218&sr=1-1

Personalized plates

I’ve always been interested in personalized license plates.  My previous car was a Mini Cooper and my plate said TEA REX.  I was proud of that one.  The tea represented, in part, the car’s manufacture in England.  The T-rex angle was intended to be a reverse take on the size of the car.  A Mini with the name of a dinosaur, get it?  And since I drink tea rather than coffee you could call me the tea king.  There you have it.

Years ago when we moved from Southern California to Nevada, my new (Nevada) plate read: ADIOS CA.   At the time, we’d become weary of the congestion and traffic of the greater LA area.  A number of drivers in Las Vegas, obviously California expats, gave me the high sign or honked when they saw the plate.

Several years later when we returned to Southern California, however, a clerk at the DMV took a look at my Nevada plate and said, “Welcome back.”

We’ve lived in Reno for many years now.  (It was home to my Mini.)  But when I retired the English car, I leased a new VW.  I was tempted to get a plate that hinted at the car company’s emissions scandal: NO SMOG, BREATH, CLN AIR, EXHAUST.  I opted for something more personal.

It stands for private investigator.

My old copywriter friend Jane Gorby had a cool license place in So. Cal for years: EZ WRTR.  I loved that and was tempted to copy it here in Nevada.  But that was her idea, not mine.  Also, I happened to see the movie again and it didn’t match its reputation.  But Jane’s plate gave me an idea.  You can see the results.  Most everyone gets it, although someone asked me if it had to do with pie.

How many Mark Bacons can there be?

Email addresses is another challenging topic, specifically finding one that is not being used.

I’m trying to transition from my ISP’s email to gmail.  The latter I’ve found to be more reliable.  The problem is, gmail covers almost a billion users and, apparently, a number of them are named Mark Bacon. 

The gmail addresses Mark.Bacon, MarkBacon (no dot), MBacon, Mark.S.Bacon, MarkBacon2, Bacon.Mark, BaconMark, BaconM, are all taken.  The gmail program has suggested several variations that are not taken, but they are all followed by three numerals.  That doesn’t look professional to me.  I could use my web address for email, but Mark@baconsmysteries.com is too big a mouthful.  

Suggestions are welcome.

Categories: Book giveaway, mystery writers Tags: , , ,