Authors David and Nancy Beckwith Pen the WILL AND BETSY BLACK ADVENTURE Series

"My fascination with writing is the same thing which attracted me to my long-standing career in financial services," says David Beckwith, co-author with his wife Nancy of the highly acclaimed Will and Betsy Black mystery series. "I am attracted like a moth to light by challenging, creative, higher risk endeavors."

David recalls his beginnings as a writer. "Like so many other wannabes, I'd paid lip-service to wanting to do serious writing at cocktail parties for years. I suspected I had some talent because I was constantly being asked by fellow workers to ghostwrite business correspondence and marketing newsletters for them.

"The catalyst," he says, "to serious writing was the World Trade Center bombing in 2001. This catastrophe closed the American financial markets for the first time since World War I. We had no idea how long the markets would remain closed or what would happen when they were reopened. Despite not being able to do business, we felt we had to keep the office open and fully staffed. Initially our response was to have staff meetings to assess probabilities and then to try to reassure our nervous clients. Other than that, the staff mostly watched the never-ending redundant CNN broadcasts and rehashes on the tragedy.

"My solution to filling my day was to take up writing again. I continued working on a book in my spare time after the markets reopened. I had a finished manuscript 18 months later, but as I was soon to realize, my challenge had just begun. It would then take another five years to sell the manuscript."

That early "success" led to this series.

"The Will and Betsy Black books began as an effort to bring my wife and me closer together. Nancy was very successful in her individual endeavors. She had a doctorate, was a mother, a former college provost, and one of the most successful women in the financial services industry. Our busy schedules often sent us in different directions.

"As we were riding down traffic-clogged I-95 one day, I first broached the topic of co-authorship," recalls David.

" 'Sweetheart, how would you like to do something together?' I asked.

"She gave me this strange look and said, 'If you mean what I think you mean, this is not exactly the appropriate place or time while I'm driving 80 miles an hour in traffic.'

"I said, 'No, no! I don't mean that. How would you like to write a book together?'

"She was silent for several miles but finally responded, 'Okay.'

" 'Well, it just so happens I have this idea,' I said as I pulled out a legal pad of notes. 'What would you think about a series with the protagonists being a Florida couple who are both financial professionals who become reluctant amateur sleuths? I envision them being somewhat like Nick and Nora Charles of The Thin Man series. With your permission, I would like to name them Will and Betsy Black?'

" 'Why that name?'

" 'Because my step-grandfather was named Wilson Black. He was such a model grandfather I want to pay homage to his memory. Betsy was what he always called my grandmother's favorite old house dress,' I said.

" 'So that's how you think of me, an old worn-out house dress?' she said.

" 'No, no, no,' I said, frantically trying to dig myself out of the hole I'd just inadvertently dug.

" 'I can go along with that,' Nancy said after she mulled over my comments and gave me a few minutes to squirm."

So on I-95 Will and Betsy Black were conceived.

Absolutely Amazing eBook is proud to reissue the first book in that series, A Hurricane Conspiracy. It will be followed by a second volume,A Calculated Conspiracy ... then several brand-new adventures of Will and Betsy Black as the series continues.

Jump on board for an exciting ride with these this husband and wife team of amateur sleuths -- a couple very much like David and Nancy Beckwith!

You can instantly download A Hurricane Conspiracy at any of these convenient online venues: Amazon.com, Barnes&Noble.com,KoboBooks.com, iBooks.com, or AbsolutelyAmazingEbooks.com.

These ebook editions are affordably priced at only $3.99 and the 6" x 9" trade paperback are $14.95 each.

Having moved to the Florida Keys, David Beckwith also writes a book column for the Key West Citizen.

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