So I was surprised to learn yesterday that the book written by my not-so-secret alter ego – STAY AT HOME DEAD by Jeffrey Allen – was chosen as one of Amazon’s 100 Books For $3.99 Or Less July campaign.  Right now, you can download it for $2.99.  That is great news for people who might enjoy a cozy, wacky mystery about a stay at home dad in small town Texas that features dead bodies in mini-vans, an Elvis look alike and a midget.  (Seriously.  The book has all that and MORE!)

But do you know who that’s not good news for?

The people who don’t know I wrote it.

“What?” you say.  “You just said it’s a not-so-secret alter ego.  How is that even remotely possible?”

Excellent question, Reader Person.

But here’s how that’s remotely possible:  for six months, the wrong bio has been attached to the book.  I’ve written about it before – it’s the bio of some award-winning ballroom dancer.  It was great for a few laughs when it first happened – lots of jokes about me not being able to dance and such – and more than a few people thought it was a fake bio that was created to go with the fake name.  But I’ll be honest:  it’s completely irritating at this point.  Irritating because I’ve contacted everyone I could think of who might be able to fix this and apparently it is the most insurmountable task on the planet because no one’s been able to fix it.  Irritating because my readership for the Noah books and Joe books is SIGNIFICANTLY larger and most are completely unaware about this other series I write.  Irritating because I really LOVE Stay At Home Dead (and the sequel, POPPED OFF, that’s coming in September) but it’s been maddening to attempt to promote because of the resulting confusion.

So I’ll repeat my mantra of the last six months:  Yes, I wrote Stay At Home Dead.  Yes, I really, really love the book.  Yes, I write under the pseudonym Jeffrey Allen.  (We used the pseudonym simply because the book is so different than the other mysteries I write and we didn’t want to confuse people.  Irony.)  No, I am not the ballroom dancer guy – he is, apparently, a real guy who has written numerous books about ballroom dancing.  No, I was not trying to trick anyone.  No, I didn’t write the bio.  (I actually wrote the normal bio that was supposed to be attached to the book – that included my real name – but somehow got lost in the ether.)  No, I can’t explain it.

If anyone knows anyone in the bio-fixing business, feel free to send me their contact info.