Chris Redding's Blog, page 40
December 14, 2012
Holiday Blog Hop
The holidaysWhen I was a kid, every New Year’s we were either at my Uncle Paul’s house in Maryland or he and his wife were at our house.
Sometimes my Uncle Eddie would be there with his family, too. If we stayed in Maryland, I got to stay with Uncle Eddie because he had kids. Cousins!!! We played marathon games of War and when electronic football first came out, we played marathon games of that. We would manage to shove 15 people at a table that only sat 8. When I try to do this my DH doesn’t get it. This was what I grew up with. It’s normal to me.
Ah. Good times.
These days my house is the gathering place. My sister and her husband drive up from North Carolina. My DH’s brother drives in from Michigan. My nephew makes the trek from Minnesota and every other year, my other nephew and his wife come in from Alaska.
A house full. And I love it. Everyone cooks or cleans up. No one pulls any more weight than anyone else.
Best of all, we all like each other. I am so lucky to not have any drama at holiday time.
Cmr
Excerpt A View to a Kilt
“There’s a pack of reporters out there.”
“Reporters?”
Gazing past him out the two sets of glass doors, she saw the news vans. Damn. She bit her lip, glancing from him to the door. She sighed. “Is there another way out?”
He nodded and she found herself following the man. She took two steps, then stopped short. Am I crazy?
He turned to look at her.
“What? The other door is this way.”
“Who are you?”
He smiled and saluted. “Gus Macpherson, a friend of Lieutenant Bob Carnes.”
Her eyes narrowed, but he looked like the type of friend Bob might have. With his erect posture and constantly scanning eyes, “Cop” might well have been stamped on his forehead. She looked around the hallway then back at Gus. “If you touch me, I’ll scream.” Just in case she assessed him incorrectly.
He put his hands up. “These will not come anywhere near you.”
“Okay, lead on.”
He continued in the direction he had indicated earlier. Some part of her brain registered a nice butt in worn jeans. The thought went no further. The tall man led her through the emergency department, down a hallway to the Main Entrance.
She stopped by the door, arms crossed. “Won’t there be reporters, here?”
The redhead shook his head. “Take a look.”
No news vans.
“You’re right,” she said, but when she looked up the man had disappeared.
Buy Links:
Omnilit: http://tinyurl.com/cr-vtak-omni
Smashwords: http://tinyurl.com/cr-vtak-Smash
Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/44sbydm
Nook Store: http://tinyurl.com/3tlk2nh
">http://tinyurl.com/cr-vtak-omni
Smashwords: http://tinyurl.com/cr-vtak-Smash
Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/44sbydm
Nook Store: http://tinyurl.com/3tlk2nh
December 10, 2012
Autumn Jordan
Thank you, Chris, for hosting me today. I guess we’re here to talk about romance novels.
Why do millions of readers—I say readers because men actually makeup a good percentage of romance readers— head to their favorite book store each week and purchase books? I know why I do. Because I want to be whisk out of my world and become engrossed in a story about the meeting and growing relationship of two people.
A plot is very important, but a story with the simplest of plots can become a best seller if the characters come to life. Bringing them to life is a writer’s priority and we do that through emotion.
In my recent release, Seized By Darkness, I dug deep into the emotions I felt for my mother, my father and my children. Why those relationships? Because Seized by Darkness is about a young
girl of sixteen, on the cusp of starting her life, disappearing. She is kidnapped off the street she walked every day. I drew on a realm of emotions I would feel if I had experienced a similar circumstance. I actually sat in a dark sectioned of my basement, listening to silence, and thinking about my family and how my disappearance would affect them. They’d search. My mother, who is a sweetheart, would be broken hearted and my father who has always been the protector would feel as if he’s failed. And he wouldn’t know how to comfort my mom.
My chest tightened and I could barely breathe as my thoughts turned to my children. I honestly don’t know if I could keep it together if one of them were abducted.
After some reflecting, I decided to begin Seized By Darkness with Nicole eight years after she was snatched. She now has a son from the Russian mafia monster that plucked her, as a virgin, from the trafficking mill and has kept her as his own. Nicole is strong, the way I hope I would be. She has never given up hope that she would be free and she’ll do anything to have her life back and ensure her son will not grow into a monster like his father.
She is also fragile. Nicole hopes not, but wonders whether her family has forgotten about her. Her faith has been broken. And, she knows, without a doubt, that no man will ever look at her, much less love her, after she has been made a whore.
Enter U.S. Marshal William Haus. He is the man fairytales are made of. Strong, intelligent and has a heart the size of the Utah salt flats and just as warm. You thought I was going to say drop
[INSERT PICTURE 3]
dead handsome, but you can see that he is without a doubt fine. But, Will has issues of his own, and as Nicole and he work to bring down the trafficking ring, his feelings for Nicole grow and he has no choice but to face his past.
Emotional? Yes, Seized By Darkness is filled with passion, mine.
If you’re a writer, how do you discover your character’s emotions? And if you’re a reader, do you have any comments or questions?
Seized By Darkness is available from Amazon and B&N in both digital and print format.
Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Seized-By-Darkness-C-U-F-F-ebook/dp/B008N3RK3Q/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1348801424&sr=1-1
Amazon USA: http://www.amazon.com/Seized-By-Darkness-C-U-F-F-ebook/dp/B008N3RK3Q/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1347146734&sr=1-1&keywords=seized+by+darkness
B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/seized-by-darkness-autumn-jordon/1112170730?ean=2940014973335
BLURB for SEIZED BY DARKNESS (material is copyrighted):
The old air conditioner, which did little more than act as a fan pushing warm air into the room, rattled in the window, pulling Nicole from a fretful sleep. Under her long hair, sweat beaded the nape of her neck. She stretched and peeled away from the damp sheet under her. Through heavy lashes, she noticed a boot tapping the air at the base of the single-sized bed and her heart shot into her throat. Clutching the sheet to her bare breasts, she rolled and scrambled to the opposite side of the bed, only to be pinned, faced-down onto the mattress by the intruder.
“Let me go.” She thrashed and kicked back, striking air. Her breasts squished into the mattress springs. She ignored the pain, reached behind her, and grabbed fists filled with the assailant’s long hair. With all her might, she yanked hard.
“Owww.”
She winced, her ear ringing with the attacker’s cry.
He dropped his weight from his elbows, forcing the air from her lungs. His fingers locked around her wrists and tried breaking her hold on him. “Damn, Katrina. Stop pulling. You’re ripping my hair out.”
Every muscle of her body went stark still, except for her eyes-they widened. “Will?” Over her shoulder, she peeked through her auburn strands and caught a glimpse of Will’s cheek plastered against her bare shoulder.
“Yeah. It’s me. Christ. Now let go.” His hot breath caressed her sensitive skin, sending tingles down her spine.
Nicole became aware of the softness of his hair between her fingers, his musty scent bombarding her nostrils on the cusp of each sharp breath she inhaled, and every inch of his hard body pressing against her backside. Warmth pooled between her legs and she closed her eyes against her body’s reaction to him. “You first.”
He let go of her wrists.
Nicole slid her arms close to her body and pushed against the mattress, trying to topple his weight from her, so she could roll over, but he kept her pinned in place.
The discounted, thin sheets she’d bought at the local Dollar-Mart and his clothing were the only barrier between his hot flesh meeting hers. The knowledge caused the room to grow warmer. “I let go. Now get off of me.” She bucked against him. A mistake. She laid still.
“Not until you tell me what were you reaching for?”
“What?” She glanced at him and then scanned the nightstand next to the bed. “Nothing. I don’t have a gun if that is what you’re thinking. I was just trying to get away.”
“Not until you promise me you won’t try to run.” Will arched up and bore his weight on his elbows. His strong thighs held her legs in place while his hard ridge pressed against her backside.
She fisted the sheet below her, trapped her lip between her teeth, and wrestled with the fire mounting low in her belly. Not to go dizzy with want, Nicole remained still. “I’ll scream if you don’t. My landlord has great hearing, and, he has a huge shot gun.”
“You don’t want to do that.”
She struggled to push up on her elbows again. “Why not?”
“I’ll have no choice but to flash my badge and haul your ass out of here, sheet optional.”
“Ha. Ha.”
“I’m glad you find the situation funny,” his warm breath caressed her neck.
She struggled against his weight and her desire for him. “I mean it. I’ll scream.”
“Go ahead. I doubt anyone will hear you.”
Brushing her hair from her face, she peeked over her shoulder and saw amusement dancing in his eyes. “Why’s that?” she asked between clenched teeth.
“Your landlords, Malcolm and Hilda Handwerk, they’re near eighty and both have hearing aids. Also, about twenty minutes ago, they left to go to the market and their closest neighbor is a half a mile away.”
“How do you know who my landlords are?”
“It’s my job to find shit out.” His warm breath tickled her ear. “Now, if you promise not to run, I’ll let you up. We need to talk.”
She sighed. Her breasts flattened against the lumpy mattress as she caved. “What choice do I have?”
“We all have choices. Take your time. I’m quite comfortable.”
Without seeing his face, Nicole knew Will grinned——from ear to dimple. Frustration should be what she felt, but with Will’s hard muscles pressed against her backside, frustration wasn’t the term she’d use to describe her condition. She’d never wanted a man before, but from the moment she’d laid eyes on Will she had wondered how delicious having him inside her would feel. If she rolled over under him, she could experience a man she truly wanted. She felt Will’s hard reaction to her and knew he wanted her too.
But doing so would cement the notion in Will’s mind that she was indeed a whore. She didn’t want that. She closed her eyes and took in the memory of his body on hers—that would have to be enough. “I promise. Now, please, let me up.”
“I knew you were a smart lady.” The bed springs creaked and the air surrounding her cooled as Will pushed himself up and stepped back off the bed.
***
To learn more about Autumn Jordon please visit www.autumnjordon.com
(All pictures have been purchased by Autumn Jordon for the use in promotion of Seized By Darkness)
December 5, 2012
Authorsday: Sally Carpenter
I’ve written nonfiction, science fiction and plays but mystery is the genre where I’ve had the most success getting published.
2. Do you plot or do you write by the seat of your pants?
I plot. I need to know who done it and why and the ending so I can make the clues and red herrings fit and work up to the climax. To me, writing like taking a trip: you can plan out the route in advance and get there quickly and efficiently, or start driving aimlessly and end up in the wrong direction or at a dead end.
3. What drew you to the subject of “The Baffled Beatlemaniac Caper?”I love the book “Bimbos of the Death Sun,” which is about a murder at a science fiction fan convention, and I love the Beatles, so I thought, why not a murder that takes place at a Beatles fan convention?
4. Did you encounter any obstacles in researching it?No. I already knew about The Beatles from reading about them and playing their music for years. My protagonist is a former teen idol, and I had attended teen idol concerts and collected records. I read autobiographies by several real-life teen idols and that helped tremendously.
5. What was the worst advice you’ve gotten? Did you know it at the time?When I finished my book, the first one in the series, someone told me that publishers don’t buy the first book you’ve written and that I should write another one with the same character. But I eventually published this book.
6. Why did you pick the publisher that ultimately published your book?My experience is that agents and larger publishers were not open to unpublished authors, and that getting an agent was a long and arduous task, so I looked at small presses that took new, unagented authors. I heard about Oak Tree Press from the Sisters in Crime listserv. OTP loves new authors.
7. If you have a day job, what is it?I work in the editorial department of a weekly community newspaper. I process press releases, proofread, write headlines and photo captions, layout the ads and occasionally write local play reviews.
8. What do you consider your weakness and what strategies do you use to overcome it?I procrastinate. A deadline will get me moving.
9. What’s your writing schedule?Because of my day job I write in the evenings and weekends. I try to write a scene at a time. I handwrite first drafts and then type them into the computer and revise.
10. What place that you haven’t visited would you like to go?Vatican City and also England.
Author Bio:
Sally Carpenter is native Hoosier now living in Moorpark, California
She has a master’s degree in theater from Indiana State University. While in school her plays “Star Collector” and “Common Ground” were finalists in the American College Theater Festival One-Act Playwrighting Competition. “Common Ground” also earned a college creative writing award. “Star Collector” was produced in New York.
Carpenter also has a black belt in tae kwon do.
She’s worked as an actress, college writing instructor, jail chaplain, and tour guide/page for a major motion picture studio. She’s now employed at a community newspaper.
She’s a member of Sisters in Crime/Los Angeles chapter. Contact her at Facebook or scwriter@earthlink.net.
Book Blurb:
In the 1970s, teen idol Sandy Fairfax recorded ten gold records and starred in the hit TV show “Buddy Brave, Boy Sleuth.” Now he’s a 38-year-old recovering alcoholic, desperate for a comeback. He takes the only available job offer, a guest appearance at a Beatles fan convention in the Midwest. What looks like an easy gig turns deadly when a member of the tribute band is shot and the police finger Sandy as the prime suspect. Sandy starts sleuthing to find the killer while filling in for the deceased musician at a concert and dealing with the fans.
December 4, 2012
The Next Big Thing
I was invited by Willa Blair www.willablair.com to join the blog hop The Next Big Thing. Go check out her blog post. Here are my answers to the questions.
What is the title of your next book?Incendiary
Where did the idea come from for the book?Someone once told me a story idea they had about a police photographer who was an arsonist. If there is a series of arsons, the police take pics of the crowd watching the fire. If they spot someone in all of the pictures, that is probably the arsonist. But what if the arsonist was the person taking the pictures? So my question, was what if the person starting the fires was the person investigating the fires?
What genre does your book fall under?Mystery/Suspense
Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?Josh Brolin for the hero. Amy Adams for the heroine.
What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?A firefighter and an EMT must join forces to stop a serial arsonist.
Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency? Or are you with a publishing house?It is published with Imajin Books.
How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
Three months.
What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?Demolition Angel by Robert Crais
. Who or What inspired you to write this book?I am fascinated by fire and investigating them.
What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?The hero is a firefighter. Enough said.
December 3, 2012
ExcerpTuesday: Judy Alter
I remember September 2, 2010 clearly. Mike called about eleven and asked if I wanted to meet him for lunch. For him, it would be breakfast. Mike is a patrol police officerand works the late afternoon and evening shift, so he usually gets up around ten in the morning. We agreed to meet at eleven-thirty at the Old Neighborhood Grill, before it got crowded. When I got there, Mike had already secured a booth and ordered. We talked about the girls and their school activities. Maggie was showing promise in ballet, which Mike said would make her walk funny the rest of her life, and Em was taking great pride in her art work, which was probably above average for second grade, not that that’s saying much. And we talked about how our beloved Fairmount neighborhood was getting back to normal after being held hostage to fear of a serial killer who targeted older ladies. We neither one mentioned that my mom and I came close to being the final victims of Ralph Hoskins. There was no need to talk about it.
Mostly, we were happy. We were newly married, young—at least young in heart, since we were both soon headed out of our thirties. But we had become a family with my two daughters, Maggie now ten, and Em, now seven. We were in love, and we were happier than two people have a right to be. Maybe I should have recognized that, but neither of us had any way of knowing that Mike was about to be fighting for first his life and then his mobility, I would be stalked by a vengeful enemy, and a big-box store would threaten our idyllic Fairmount neighborhood. No, for the time, all was peaceful, and I assumed it would stay that way. Foolish optimism on my part. It’s not just being married to a police officer that gets me into trouble. It’s me.
After lunch, we parted—me to go back to my office, O’Connell and Spencer Real Estate, and Mike to get ready for his patrol. He kissed me on the nose and turned toward his car. I simply stood and watched him walk away, thinking what a lucky female I was. I will always remember the way he walked that day, because it would be almost a year before I saw him walk unassisted again, and he never again walked with the same casual self-confidence
Blurb:
Kelly O’Connell has her hands full: her husband Mike Shandy is badly injured in an automobile accident that kills a young girl, developer Tom Lattimore wants to build a big-box grocery store called Wild Things in Kelly’s beloved Fairmount neighborhood, and someone is stalking Kelly. Tom Lattimore pressures her to support the big box, and his pressure turns to threats. Kelly activates a neighborhood coalition to fight the project and tries to find out who is stalking her and why. Mike is both powerless to stop her and physically unable to protect her and his family from Lattimore’s threats or the stalker. After their house is smoke-bombed and Kelly survives an amateur attack on her life, she comes close to an unwanted trip to Mexico from which she might never return.
BIO:
An award-winning novelist, Judy Alter is the author of three books in the Kelly O’Connell Mysteries series: Skeleton in a Dead Space, No Neighborhood for Old Women, and Trouble in a Big Box. With Murder at the Blue Plate Café, she moves from inner city Fort Worth to small-town East Texas to create a new set of characters in a setting modeled after a restaurant that was for years one of her family’s favorites.
Before turning her attention to mystery, Judy wrote fiction and nonfiction, mostly about women of the American West, for adults and young-adult readers. Her work has been recognized with awards from the Western Writers of America, the Texas Institute of Letters, and the National Cowboy Museum and Hall of Fame. She has been honored with the Owen Wister Award for Lifetime Achievement by WWA and inducted into the Texas Literary Hall of Fame at the Fort Worth Public Library.
Judy is retired after almost 30 years with TCU Press, 20 of them as director. She holds a Ph.D. in English from TCU and is the mother of four grown children and the grandmother of seven.
Follow Judy at http://www.judyalter.com or her two blogs at http://www.judys-stew.blogspot.com or http://potluckwithjudy.blogspot.com.
November 29, 2012
Melissa McPhail
“The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
I’m fascinated by the concept of honor. One of the reasons I love writing fantasy is the prevalence of themes like honor and nobility and the myriad ways in which different authors explore these ideals.
In Cephrael’s Hand, my character Trell remembers nothing of his previous life prior to waking in the Emir’s palace in Duan’Bai five years ago. Honor is the only thing Trell has had to hold onto in the intervening years, and this shield of honor has become a reflection of his sense of self. His greatest fear is that he once led a dishonorable life, and he suffers beneath this dread because his sense of honor is all he has left.
Trell’s character offers me a chance to explore honor in many forms, yet it’s not only through Trell that we touch upon this theme in Cephrael’s Hand. Indeed, every character faces some test of their integrity—or many of them—as the story unfolds, even as we do in our daily lives.
Honor is a word people often have difficulty defining except by giving examples. As a fantasy author, this fact intrigues me. It makes me wonder if indeed the word can’t be adequately defined without applying it toward an action.
Like good and evil, honor is a word best understood through exploration of our choices and viewpoints. Is it possible that what seems honorable to one man might appear treacherous to another? Or is honor an absolute, looking the same from all sides? Can honor be a curse and dishonorable acts open us to salvation? Or does the violation of one’s honor inevitably turn a twisted path to our own eventual ruin? How do we determine what's honorable when even the noblest of intentions can lead us astray? Good and evil, right and wrong, honor and dishonor…these concepts reflect iridescent shades of gray. How do we define them in an absolute, black and white sense when they depend so heavily on the mores of the group involved to delineate them?
These are the kinds of questions I ask myself, and they're the types of issues my characters also face. I see fantasy as a metaphor for life in this world, and I seek with my novels to create a reality where realistic characters struggle with real problems—problems that anyone might face at some point (though perhaps without such potential life or death outcomes). Honor requires exploration—even in our own lives, it can be a difficult mountain to summit. Tackling such subjects in a fantasy setting allows us to look at difficult concepts far removed from our own daily struggles, giving them a new cast, a different perspective. It allows us to view the world from a distance and learn from (or pass judgment) with impunity. And if we take some lesson from a character’s struggles and apply it to our own lives, all the better.
Being able to explore the many facets of honor as it plays out against a fantastical backdrop is just one of a host of joys in writing (and reading) fantasy.
Book BLURB:
"All things are composed of patterns..." And within the pattern of the realm of Alorin, three strands must cross:
In Alorin...three hundred years after the genocidal Adept Wars, the realm is dying, and the blessed Adept race dies with it. One man holds the secret to reverting this decline: Bjorn van Gelderan, a dangerous and enigmatic man whose shocking betrayal three centuries past earned him a traitor's brand. It is the Adept Vestal Raine D'Lacourte's mission to learn what Bjorn knows in the hope of salvaging his race. But first he'll have to find him...
In the kingdom of Dannym...the young Prince Ean val Lorian faces a tenuous future as the last living heir to the coveted Eagle Throne. When his blood-brother is slain during a failed assassination, Ean embarks on a desperate hunt for the man responsible. Yet his advisors have their own agendas, and his quest for vengeance leads him ever deeper into a sinuous plot masterminded by a mysterious and powerful man, the one they call First Lord...
In the Nadori desert...tormented by the missing pieces of his life, a soldier named Trell heads off to uncover the truth of his shadowed past. But when disaster places him in the debt of Wildlings sworn to the First Lord, Trell begins to suspect a deadlier, darker secret motivating them.
"BIO:
Melissa McPhail is a classically trained pianist, violinist and composer, a Vinyasa yoga instructor, and an avid Fantasy reader. A long-time student of philosophy, she is passionate about the Fantasy genre because of its inherent philosophical explorations."
Ms. McPhail lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband, their twin daughters and two very large cats. Cephrael's Hand is the multiple award-winning first novel in her series A Pattern of Shadow and Light.
ONLINE LINKS:
Website http://melissamcphail.com
Blog http://melissamcphail.com/blog
Facebook http://facebook.com/cephraelshand
Twitter @melissagmcphail
Goodreads http://goodreads.com/melissagmcphail
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November 28, 2012
Authorsday: James R. Callan
I had planned to be a writer when I was in college, and I took a degree in English. But after graduation and marriage, I found I could not support a family writing. So, I went back to graduate school in the field of mathematics. That led to a thirty year detour, until one day I said, “All the kids are out of school and self-supporting.” And I returned to my first love, writing.
2. How did you pick the genre you write in?I read in a lot of areas, but my favorite is mystery / suspense. So, that’s mostly what I write in. I wrote some non-fiction books at first because that’s what I knew, what I’d been doing for thirty years. But now, I pretty well stick to mystery / suspense.
3. Do you plot or write by the seat of your pants?
I plot. I am not tied to the plot, but I need a structure to really get started. Of course, once into the book, it often takes turns that were not in the original plot. It may end differently – a different solution, different bad guy. And that’s okay with me. But, I start with a plot.
4. How many rejections have you received?I can’t count that high. But not so many lately.
5. Describe Cleansed by Fire?
Churches are burning and a man is murdered, plunging a small Texas town into a state of fear. Father Frank DeLuca, pastor of Prince of Peace Church, is thrust into an impossible dilemma when he hears that another church will be burned. But the disturbing information comes to him via the confessional, and church law forbids him from telling anyone—even the police.
He doesn’t know which church, when, or by whom. Still, he can’t sit idly by, and no law prevents him from looking into the matter himself. The crimes have set the town’s residents on edge, fraying the bonds of trust. Is the mysterious newcomer with ties to the drug scene involved? What about the man who says maybe the churches deserved to burn? Or the school drop-out into alcohol and drugs who attacks the priest with a knife?
Countering this are a young widow whose mission is to make others shine, and a youth choir determined to help those whose churches have been destroyed by the arsonist.
Father Frank’s investigation leads him dangerously close to the local drug scene and he soon discovers the danger has come to him. Can he save his own church? Can he save his own life?
6. What was your favorite scene to write in Cleansed by Fire?There have been a couple of encounters between Fr. Frank and a big, burley man named Harley who has said that maybe the churches deserved to be burned. Finally, Harley catches Fr. Frank as a gas station and challenges him to “fight like a man.” While Fr. Frank is tempted, he knows fighting would send the wrong message to the teenagers watching. So, he suggested an arm wrestling match. Harley takes him up, sure of a quick victory. But Fr. Frank played college basketball and has stayed in good shape. The match stretches out with neither man able to gain the advantage for quite some time. It was a fun scene to write.
Of course, the one, short scene written from the point of view of the arsonist was satisfying to write, and I think I caught the mind-set of the arsonist.
7. What do you do when you’re not writing?I read, work around our property, and travel. Oops, most important, I spend time with my wife.
8. What is your favorite quote?“The fault … is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings.” From Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare.
9. What is your favorite food?Ice cream, of most any variety.
10. What is your favorite writing reference book?A good thesaurus. In a ninety or ninety-five thousand word book, it’s easy to use certain words over and over. And while I have a good vocabulary, sometimes it helps to have my memory jogged for a different word. I keep a large thesaurus within arm’s reach of my computer keyboard.
James R. Callan’s books can be found on Amazon at: http://amzn.to/RLYuhS
His website is href="http://chrisredddingauthor.blogspot.c.... http://www.jamesrcallan.com
His blog is at href="http://www.jamesrcallan.com/blog"... and he blogs each Friday, often interviewing an author.
BIO
After a successful career in mathematics and computer science, receiving grants from the National Science Foundation and NASA, and being listed in Who’s Who in Computer Science and Two Thousand Notable Americans, James R. Callan turned to his first love—writing. He wrote a monthly column for a national magazine for two years, and published several non-fiction books. He now concentrates on his favorite area, mysteries, with his sixth set to be released in 2013.
November 21, 2012
Authorsday: Jonnie Jacobs
I’ve been writing for as long as I can remember and even sent a short story to Seventeen Magazine when I was in 8th grade. (It was rejected.) But I didn’t start writing seriously until I was on maternity leave twenty plus years ago. The first book I wrote garnered lots of rejections and has never been published. The next book was Murder Among Neighbors, the first in my Kate Austen suburban mystery series and was published in 1994. Since then I’ve published thirteen mystery novels and multiple short stories.
2. How did you pick the genre you write in?
I write mystery novels — the Kate Austen suburban series, the Kali O’Brien legal thrillers, and two non-series books. As an attorney, I’m intrigued by the way that a given set of facts can support two or more plausible scenarios about what happened. Mystery novels are like that. We read to get to the bottom of the puzzle, to past the misdirection and learn the truth about what actually happened. And I like the fact that in fiction, we actually do get to the truth. Real life is sadly less precise. I think of the mystery as the bones on which to hang the human drama that’s key to all storytelling. So character, relationships, past secrets and such are as important to me as plot.
3. What drew you to the subject of your most recent book, Paradise Falls?Paradise Falls is the story of a woman whose teenage daughter disappears, and what it does to her family when she suspects her seventeen year old stepson of being responsible. It is also the story of the female detective whose own daughter was murdered some years earlier. The starting point for this book was the notion of divided loyalties in blended families, and I tried to come up with a situation that would pose a major challenge to the various relationships. I was also drawn to the idea of missing and murdered children. As a parent, I can think of nothing worse, and I’ve often found myself working through my own fears in my books.
4. Do you plot or do you write by the seat of your pants?I am definitely in the “seat of your pants” camp, although not by choice. I would love to be able to plot it all out ahead of time but find that I can’t. Until I’m into the story, living what’s happening alongside the characters, I can’t imagine what will happen next or how they will react. I did once manage to plot a book, and while it was actually a pretty clever plot, by the time I’d finished the outline I’d lost all interest in the story. Writing it felt like connecting the dots in one of those children’s games. That book never got written.
I don’t think there’s just one way to work. Authors need to find what works for them. And it doesn’t have to be all or nothing. While I don’t plot, I do usually have some vague notion of the direction of the story when I start and it becomes more refined the further along I go. I can usually plot out a chapter or two ahead of myself so I’m not working totally in the dark.
5. What was the best writing advice someone gave you?There are actually two pieces of advice that have helped me. The first is to read widely (especially in your given genre) and to read critically. Note how successful authors handle plotting, transitions, dialogue etc. And note what doesn’t work for you, as well. The other piece of advice was to write a first draft without worrying too much about word choice or even the fleshing out of a difficult scene. Once you have a book down on the page, you can (you must) go back and revise, rewrite, edit etc.
6. What do you do when you are not writing?When I started out, my non-writing time was devoted to family (my children and husband, and of course, errands and housework.) Now that my kids are grown and my husband is retired I have a much more flexible schedule, which is both good and bad (bad because we travel often and it’s harder to find time to write.) I love the out of doors – hiking and skiing in particular. I’m also a quilter and novice knitter. And a big, big reader.
7. Have you experienced writer's block? If so, how did you work through it?Some days I am really into the story and the words come easily. Other days, I have trouble getting words on the page. If I’m having trouble with a scene I will sometimes just start typing, a sort of stream of consciousness to myself. Why am I having trouble here? What is the character feeling and why? What’s the worst thing that could happen to her? Another trick is that I’ll put two (or more) characters on the page and let them start talking. This isn’t generally dialogue I’ll end up using, but it helps me get back in touch with the characters, which for me are what drive the story. The key is to get the words and thoughts flowing and re-connect with my characters.
8. What do you consider your strengths in terms of your writing?I struggle with plot, but dialogue comes more easily. In fact, my first draft of a scene is often nothing but dialogue. I have trouble thinking in the abstract, but once my characters are interacting with each other and whatever is happening, I begin to flesh out how the action with proceed. Some authors are visual. They say they see their book almost as if it’s unfolding like a movie. I tend to hear my book. I hear the characters talking and then I build in the setting.
9. What do you consider your weakness and what strategies do you use to overcome it?As I noted before, plotting does not come easily to me in the sense that I can’t work a plot out in my head until I’m moving through it. This means I do a lot of rewriting and tweaking. I also have trouble with “little” things, like moving a character from one place to another. If it’s a big move, I’ve learned to just make a scene break and move to the new scene. But getting a character out the front door or from bedroom to the kitchen is sometimes a real challenge!
Another difficulty is that I’m a wimp at heart. I have a hard time with anger and I hate putting my characters in danger, even when I know they will be okay in the end. And it’s almost impossible for me to write a truly evil character. I know such people exist, but try as I might, I end up “humanizing” my bad guy (or gal).
10. What do you enjoy most about writing?When I was young I enjoyed playing with dolls and making up stories about them. When I was in high school I sometimes made up books to write book reports about (even though I was an avid reader). Now I get to make up stories for real. The characters do what I want them to (nobody else does), they say what I want them to say, and I get to work things out the way I want (not always true in the real world.)
Paradise Falls
Caitlin Whittington is the second girl in the town of Paradise Falls to disappear. With her daughter's disappearance, Grace Whittington makes some unsettling discoveries about her stepson, Adam. When she uncovers information that implicates him, the fault lines of a happily blended family crack.
Detective Rayna Godwin, hampered by memories of her own murdered daughter, suspects that there is more to the string of unsolved disappearances than meets the eye.
Paradise Falls is the story of a family torn apart by divided loyalties and a dedicated detective who meets her worst fears head on.
BIO
Jonnie Jacobs is the author of thirteen novels, including the newly released, Paradise Falls. She is an active member of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, and has served on the Edgar awards committee. She is a frequent lecturer on both the craft of writing and the world of mystery fiction. A former practicing attorney and the mother of two grown sons, she lives near San Francisco with her husband and now writes full time. You can visit her on the web at http://www.jonniejacobs.com.
November 19, 2012
ExcerpTuesday:Gerrie Finger Ferris
Bradley Dewart Whitney strode into the small room adjoining the judge's chamber like he'd come through the curtain on a catwalk to model his expensive summer suit. I expected him to swirl, he had that kind of narrow-eyed smirk. If it wasn't for his tanned forehead being too high, he would have been GQ perfect. He hadn't spared his bucks on hairdressers, either. He was layered and highlighted, blond and artfully tousled. I resisted the impulse to brush back my own brown strands which hadn't seen scissors in six months.
A gleam grew in his gray eyes. I'd given him the once-over, and, evidently, he thought I liked what I saw.
I got to my feet and stuck out a hand. "Good afternoon, Mr. Whitney." I'm nearly six feet tall and he was a little shorter.
His fingers brushed my palm. "Good afternoon to you, Moriah Dru." He pursed his lips and laid a forefinger in the cleft of his chin. "Dru is an abbreviated form of Druaidh – the ancient Druid priesthood – the guardians of the old faith."
Did he have this knowledge filed in his brain, or had he done research on me? I said, "Daddy never told me that."
He pointed the forefinger toward the ceiling. "Ah, but you're a descendant, Miss Dru – it's apparent in your fair skin and shining blue eyes."
Usually, I tell anxious new clients to call me Dru, but I didn't see much anxiety in him. "Have a seat, Mr. Whitney."
Before he sat, he looked at the chair as if it had cooties on it. Why the word cooties came to mind is a mystery because I don't deal much with children. I work with parents or guardians because their kids are long gone.
He sat and folded one knee over the other, then plucked at the crease of his pants to make sure it hung freely down his leg. He shot his shirt cuffs and adjusted his collar. I waited. He could begin whenever he finished his grooming. He flicked at hair falling on his forehead, then leaned forward as if he remembered why he was here. "We are being confidential, are we not?"
"Of course."
"No reporters, no other snoops?"
"Not unless you call the judge a snoop."
His mouth twitched. "We must have her, I suppose."
I picked up the first item in the file, a photograph of a beautiful blonde woman and her look-a-like daughter. "I'd like to go over the basics with you." His eyes didn't blink when he nodded. I continued, "Kinley's eight years old. You're her custodial parent. She was visiting her mother, Eileen Cameron, in Palm Springs, California. She was scheduled to come home Sunday afternoon."
The Last Temptation
Synopsis
Kinley Whitney and her mother, Eileen Cameron, have vanished from Eileen's Palm Springs home. Kinley's custodial father, Bradley Whitney, lives in Atlanta, and through the court, hires Moriah Dru to find and bring his daughter home. He's a rich academic and right away, Dru senses something amiss with him. Where did his money come from? Dru's lover and partner, police Detective Lieutenant Richard Lake looks into his records.
The investigation takes Dru to Palm Springs where she meets a host of glitzy suspects, including Dartagnan LeRoi, a cop; Arlo Cameron, a Hollywood B-movie director, married to Eileen; Heidi, Arlo's widowed next door neighbor; Eileen's hairdresser, a cross-dresser named Theodosia; a donut-maker named Zing; an Indian princess Contessa (Tess) Rosovo, who befriends then betrays Dru; and Phillippe, a self-styled Phony Frenchman who claims he's a Cardon Bleu chef. Phillippe says everyone in "The Springs" is an actor. He certainly is.
So is Tess. She makes a mistake when she takes Dru to a moon lodge for a ceremony. Dru sees a young girl in a wig. Tess notices Dru's attention to the girl and poisons Dru with datura. Dru wakes up on the high desert floor during a monsoon and nearly dies.
Bradley fires Dru, who goes back to Atlanta. A PI named Bellan Thomas comes to her office. He's looking for Eileen, who'd hired him to dig up dirt on Whitney so she could gain custody of Kinley. Bellan wants to team up with Dru if she'll pay him for his information. Dru pays and learns how corrupt Whitney is
November 14, 2012
Authorsday: Elaine Orr
What was the best writing advice someone gave you? The late Davey Marlin Jones was director/movie critic for decades. I took some classes from him at the Writer's Center in Bethesda, MD. It's pretty basic, but one evening when we were peppering him with questions he just looked around the room and said, "You know they call them shows, not tells." Anytime I get too wordy I think about that.
What was the worst? Did you know it at the time? The 'write what you know' business. What I know is boring. Half the fun of writing is picking a setting or subject that you can learn something about as you write, or prepare to write. I didn't know squat for years, so I didn't know it was not the best advice for me.
How did you pick the genre you write in? I think cozy mysteries picked me - though that's not all I do. My mother read all the women mystery writers of her day -- Mary Stewart, Phyllis Whitney, Victoria Holt, some Agatha Christie. Then she'd see an article about how no one had eggs delivered to their door anymore and she'd say something like, "That's too bad. If you were writing a mystery you could deliver messages in the egg cartons." So I guess I was introduced to the genre early.
How many rejections have you received? I could paper a bedroom, or a New York efficiency. These are largely books prior to the Jolie Gentil series. For a long time I kept the rejections, especially any that offered encouragement. At some point I decided that there was something to learn from the process, but it dealt more with publishing than writing. About six years ago I stopped sending anything out, and just wrote what I wanted.
Why did you decide to self-publish some of your fiction? I've published nonfiction with a traditional publisher, and it's neat to work with industry professionals and have someone besides me market my book. Mostly I picked a setting (New Jersey beaches) and developed characters I wanted to work with over time, and I let some of my characters have a sense of humor similar to mine. This is what I'm going to write for now, and I knew the Jolie Gentil series probably would not sell millions of copies, so why might a publisher buy it? If I were 30 I might be willing to shop it around for a good while, but I'm 60, and I didn't feel like waiting. I realize that sounds a bit arrogant, as if I assume a publisher would want the books if I just pushed hard enough. I enjoy what I write, and people do buy the books. Of course, all of this is possible because of e-books and print on demand. I would never have considered loading up my garage with 50 boxes of books and driving across country to sell them.
Do you inject any real-world events in your books? Interesting question, especially now. I had a low-grade hurricane in Any Port in a Storm, and I'm considering using the aftermath of Sandy in a future book. It is a life-changing event for the Jersey shore, and my early thinking is that I would trivialize it by ignoring it.
Who is your greatest cheerleader? Hands down, my sister, Diane. But I'm still mom's favorite daughter. My husband's supportive too, but I've known her longer.
What three things would you want with you on a desert island? Ice cream, ice cream, and chocolate ice cream.
Bio and blurb stuff
Elaine L. Orr has written fiction and nonfiction for many years and introduced the Jolie Gentil cozy mystery series in 2011. Her fiction varies from cozy mysteries to coming-of-age stories to plays. Her nonfiction includes material on caring for aging parents and carefully researched family history books. Elaine grew up in Maryland and moved to the Midwest in 1994. Any Port in a Storm is the fourth in the Jolie Gentil series.
====Any Port in a Storm
Jolie Gentil heads the Talk Like a Pirate Day fundraiser for the food pantry and tries to learn who's breaking into the houses she appraises. A newcomer to Ocean Alley is leading high school kids into trouble in those houses. Jolie's mad and lets folks know it. When a corpse turn up under the makeshift pirate ship, Jolie's looking like a suspect. And who wants a murder suspect appraising their house?
Jolie and reporter George Winters try to solve the murder and learn who wants to frame Jolie. Plus, Jolie has to put up with Scoobie's pirate limericks and Aunt Madge's blossoming love life. And what about her own?
http://www.amazon.com/dp/147934253X
