B.D. Lawrence's Blog, page 4

My Writing Technique: Scene Ahead Blog on ACFW

Scene Ahead Approach

Some writers are plotters. They write a detailed outline of the entire story before writing a scene. Some writers are pantsers. They write with no outline and no idea where they are going. I started as a plotter. I wrote a wonderful ten-chapter outline for my first book.  But when the book ended up being thirty chapters, that was the end of outlining. However, I also found I could not just plow ahead with no idea where I was going. I came up with a process that is a combination of the two extremes. It’s a technique I call scene ahead.

Read the entire blog here on the ACFW Website

 

Book Review of The Hay Bale by Priscilla Bettis

The Hay Bale by Priscilla Bettis

 

A short review for a short story. Only 34 pages total. The theme of vengeance runs throughout the story, though it’s not obvious until the end. This is a horror story written in the vein of Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”. Not quite that quality, but “The Lottery” is one of the all-time great short stories. The Hay Bale is dark, creepy, and disturbing. Everything one wants in a horror story.

What I really liked about this story was the unreliable narrator. Professor Claire Davenport is obsessed with having a child. She’s had four miscarriages and she and her husband were denied an adoption. Therefore, Claire decides to take a sabbatical, but chooses an odd venue. The locals won’t go near the old house she rents. And Claire quickly discovers there’s something in the house. And then there’s the very strange hay bale. I won’t go into what it is, but it’s weird.

The story is well-written. A little slow at the start, but it picks up and flies through to the disturbing ending. And throughout the reader must decide if Claire is crazy or are all the people in the tiny town crazy or both.

It’s a clean read. The town’s people have an odd brand of religion. But it’s well worth the $0.99 for the eBook. I’m going to leave this out of the ranking due to its length and genre.

Commission earned

Book Review of Without Fail by Lee Child

Without Fail by Lee Child

 

Number six in the Jack Reacher series features justice, of course. It also has vengeance as an undercurrent, though this isn’t obvious until about two-thirds through. No redemption that I’ll give credit for. This is my first Reacher read. I’ve seen both seasons of Reacher on Amazon Prime and thoroughly enjoyed them, so thought I’d try the books. I wasn’t disappointed, though the story in this one is not as compelling as either of the two seasons of the show.

Jack Reacher and Frances Neagley (not sure I ever got her first name on the series) are enlisted by the secret service to do an audit on their security procedures around the newly elected vice president. What Reacher doesn’t know in the beginning, but what the reader knows is there there’s already been a failed attempt on the VP’s life. I believe not even the secret service knows about the attempt, but they are receiving threatening letters.

The story starts slow. The audit is completed, and this takes about a quarter of the book. It’s not overly exciting to read about. There is a lot of insight into the secret service that is interesting. Of course, there’s Reacher and his personality. There’s a lust interest. I’m not sure Reacher is capable of love. And there’s the banter I expected from watching the series. All this kept me reading through the slow beginning.

Once the audit is complete, things start to pick up. Reacher and Neagley stay on to offer some help protecting the VP elect. Things go south and Reacher and Neagley, as anticipated, go after the bad guys. There are no real surprises, but good suspense in the latter two-thirds. The mystery isn’t one that I feel a reader could solve on their own. Way too obscure. Honestly, I think Child stretched the motivation for the attempted assassination. It’s a little out there. But a fun read. For me the true mark of a good story is that I wanted to get done with it and didn’t want to put it down. Read the last third in three days, which is fast for me. I’ll work in some more Reacher books in the future.

This one has some profanity. Lots of s-bombs. No f-bombs. And some other words. A short on-page sex seen and the usual violence you’d expect from this type of book. I’ll rank this one number eleven so far. Another good read.

The Record Keeper by Charles MartinThe Samaritan’s Patient by Chevron RossDays Coming by Pat SimmonsThe Runaway Jury by John GrishamThe Maid by Nita ProseThe Blue Cloak by Shannon McNearWhere is My Sister by Jane DalyBraving Strange Waters by Sarah HanksAnother Ending by Sara WhitelyBlood Red Deceit by Steve RushWithout Fail by Lee ChildThe Dark Wind by Tony HillermanThe Sacred Bridge by Anne HillermanBlack Cherry Blues by James Lee BurkeA Vanishing Act by Edwina KiernanHarlot’s Moon by Ed GormanCali’s Hope by John Matthew WalkerField Training by Patrick O’DonnellDeadly Pursuit by Elle GrayAmerican Prophet by Jeff Fullmer

 

Commission earned

The Marble Hill Crime Blotter Origins

The Marble Hill Crime Blotter Origins

A number of years ago, I was browsing the internet looking at police cases for story ideas when I came across one in which the main clue was some blood splotches on a cat. That tidbit sparked an idea for a story. For that story, I came up with a fictional town in Iowa called Marble Hill. My main character is the police chief, a former Chicago homicide detective who moved back to the small Iowa town because his father died, and his mother was confined to a wheelchair.

When I finished “Blood on the Cat” (free to download until 9/17), I loved the characters and setting enough to consider other stories. Then I decided that those stories should also be based on true crimes or pieces of true crimes. And now, quite a few years later, I’ve decided to release all the Mable Hill stories as a collection. These stories all have a basis in truth. A couple are fictionalized accounts of nationally known cases. Others were born just from something in the news I stumbled upon.

“Motherly Love” is the second novella in The Marble Hill Crime Blotter. This story is based on a famous case from 1996.

JonBenet Ramsey was a six-year-old beauty queen that was found murdered in her basement. The case has never been solved. Various family members were investigated. Many theories. The parents were suspected of staging her death to cover up the murder, possibly by another family member. They were less than cooperative with the police. “Motherly Love” is my theory on what really happened to JonBenet Ramsey.

I came across an article one day a while ago that told the story of a police officer that saw a man hanging in a jail cell. However, there was no one in that cell. The officer claimed he saw a ghost. “Spiritual Guidance” is inspired by that article.

A man hangs himself in Marble Hill’s jail cell. Later, after the body is removed, Chief Tom Petrosky sees a different man hanging in the cell, though when he enters to investigate, there is no one there.

On Thanksgiving Day, 1989, Mandy Stavik disappeared. Her murdered body was found three days later in a creek. The case went cold, and for over twenty-five years, little progress was made. Then in 2013, two mothers met at a water park and started talking about that case. One of them said they knew who killed Mandy. The mothers swapped stories about encounters with this suspect. Eventually, they went to the police with their theories. These and many of the details of this solved cold case are the details of my story, “Holiday Indulgence”. I moved the story from Bellingham, Washington, to Marble Hill, Iowa. And I made Tom Petrosky an acquaintance of the disappeared teenager. I also upped the ante on solving the case, as another girl has recently disappeared from Marble Hill.

And for those of you who don’t mind a spoiler. Here’s a link to the original CBS News story about Mandy Stavik (I changed her name to Penny Sanders).

The Mandy Stavik Case

In June of 2020 the bodies of two children who had been missing were unearthed on a property owned by the children’s mother’s relatively new husband. If you’re from Arizona or Idaho, you’re familiar with the case of Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell and the murder of Lori’s children. This is a complex, convoluted, bizarre, and tragic story. And a story that will fit perfectly into the Marble Hill Collection. However, given the breadth of the case, it may become my first Marble Hill novel. Time will tell.

 

Pick up a copy of The Marble Hill Crime Blotter today. It’s available in eBook and paperback with 5 full color cover prints, one for each story.

Book Review of The Blue Cloak by Shannon McNear

The Blue Cloak by Shannon McNear 

This fascinating historical fiction novel features justice and redemption. The book is set in the late 1700’s in Tennessee and Kentucky. Back then Kentucky was considered the frontier. The story is a love story between Rachel, a merchant’s daughter, and Ben, a high society lawyer. The biggest obstacle to their romance is two individuals that one could say are America’s first serial killers. I’m not sure they fit the modern definition of a serial killer, but they killed a lot of people and wreaked havoc throughout that region. These are two real people, in the book named Micajah Harpe and Wiley Harpe.

This is a Christian novel. Throughout the characters seek God and benefit from God’s hand. Scripture is quoted. Prayers are verbalized. And God is a critical part of the characters’ lives. However, it’s also a brutal story about two sub-human monsters. The author does a good job of toning down the blood and gore, but the things these two Harpe “brothers” did were horrendous and thus some of the scenes are not for the faint of heart. Most of the killing is done off screen, but there are a couple scenes that the author felt compelled to show as live action. I put “brothers” in quotes because it’s believed they were cousins, though they passed themselves off as brothers.

The third main character is Sally, who marries Wiley Harpe. Rachel is one of her best friends, and after the marriage, really her only friend. It turns out the marriage is not conventional, as the Harpes share Sally. There are two other women that travel with the Harpes as well. We learn that they were taken by the Harpes when they were very young. The story is told from Rachel’s, Sally’s, and Ben’s point of view. Sally endures hell. She’s the character who is redeemed the most, but the process of redemption for her is torture. Rachel has a redemption journey of trust as well.

Ben and Rachel are kept apart because Ben is part of various posses pursuing the Harpes. Rachel frustrated me in her resistance to committing to Ben. This is possibly intentional by the author. Her reasoning makes some sense given what she’s learned about her friend Sally.

This book deals with spousal abuse and the psyche of women who endure it. A lot of time is spent showing the three women trapped by the Harpes and impacts it has on their lives. There is also some social commentary about breaking down artificial societal barriers.

It is a page-turner. Well-written. I encourage you to read the afterword about the actual history of these two monsters and how the author interweaves her fiction with that history.

Being a Christian novel, there is no profanity. Some kissing, but nothing more on page. There is violence, but not gratuitous and it is necessary. However, one scene will make even the stoutest crime fiction reader cringe.

Another good read this year. I’ll rank this one sixth. If you are a history buff and/or true crime buff, or like crime fiction, I highly recommend this book.

 

The Record Keeper by Charles MartinThe Samaritan’s Patient by Chevron RossDays Coming by Pat SimmonsThe Runaway Jury by John GrishamThe Maid by Nita ProseThe Blue Cloak by Shannon McNearWhere is My Sister by Jane DalyBraving Strange Waters by Sarah HanksAnother Ending by Sara WhitelyBlood Red Deceit by Steve RushThe Dark Wind by Tony HillermanThe Sacred Bridge by Anne HillermanBlack Cherry Blues by James Lee BurkeA Vanishing Act by Edwina KiernanHarlot’s Moon by Ed GormanCali’s Hope by John Matthew WalkerField Training by Patrick O’DonnellDeadly Pursuit by Elle GrayAmerican Prophet by Jeff Fullmer

Commission earned

Book Review of Harlot’s Moon by Ed Gorman

Harlot’s Moon by Ed Gorman

 

This is the third Robert Payne mystery by Ed Gorman. It is about justice, both real and perceived. There’s a subplot that shows some redemption of the main character as he resolves issues with his stepfather.

A priest is found murdered in a hotel room. That initial situation opens up a plethora of avenues for the story to go. Robert Payne is a legal investigator for a prestigious Cedar Rapids law firm (yes, there is such a thing). Payne was a former FBI profiler. He uses his profiling skills during the investigation. The monsignor of the dead priest’s parish asks him to help with the investigation, even though Payne has no legal authority doing so.

A unique feature of this book is that it is split into five sections. Each section starts with a police interview of a suspect for some deranged crime. This is followed by a vignette of that suspect showing the type of demented, twisted person he or she is. Each of those five are also murder victims themselves. The reader knows they are probably related to the dead priest, but Payne doesn’t at first. He suspects it because he finds newspaper articles about each murder in the dead priest’s personal effects.

The mystery is strong. Gorman’s writing is concise and flows well. The story carried me through. The characters are well developed. The setting is mainly the rectory and parish the dead priest belongs to. There are a number of red herrings and rabbit trails Payne goes down in trying to solve the mystery.

Being born and raised in Cedar Rapids, it was interesting from that perspective as well. Especially since I moved out of CR in 1979, so this book showed some of the newer aspects, both good and bad of the city.

This book is raw and brutal. Heavy profanity. Sexual situations. Some graphic. Violence especially from the profiled murder victims at the beginning of each section. Not at all a clean read. It was written in 1997, so there are some situations and language that would not be found in recent novels, as they would be considered politically incorrect in our don’t ever offend anyone society. If you can get past all that, it’s a good read. Not the best Gorman I’ve read, but still a captivating book.

I’ll rank this one this one number fourteen for this year. Still a four-star book despite the grittiness.

 

The Record Keeper by Charles MartinThe Samaritan’s Patient by Chevron RossDays Coming by Pat SimmonsThe Runaway Jury by John GrishamThe Maid by Nita ProseWhere is My Sister by Jane DalyBraving Strange Waters by Sarah HanksAnother Ending by Sara WhitelyBlood Red Deceit by Steve RushThe Dark Wind by Tony HillermanThe Sacred Bridge by Anne HillermanBlack Cherry Blues by James Lee BurkeA Vanishing Act by Edwina KiernanHarlot’s Moon by Ed GormanCali’s Hope by John Matthew WalkerField Training by Patrick O’DonnellDeadly Pursuit by Elle GrayAmerican Prophet by Jeff Fullmer

Commission earned

Book Review of The Sacred Bridge by Anne Hillerman

The Sacred Bridge by Anne Hillerman

 

This book features vengeance as motive and justice, which being a cop story, is expected. Anne Hillerman continues her father Tony’s series with Jim Chee. There are a few mentions of Joe Leaphorn, but no appearance. Instead, the author focuses on Bernie Manuelito, now Jim Chee’s wife.

Two stories run in parallel. One is Jim Chee, who is on vacation and discovers a body in Lake Powell. He works with the local police to solve the crime, which at first looks like an accident. There are a number of suspects. However, I pegged the killer early on. That didn’t take away from the story. Hillerman’s descriptions of Navajo people and life are fascinating and one of the reasons I bought the book.

The second story is Officer Bernie Manuelito going undercover at a hemp plant. The precipitating event is that she witnesses a man intentionally run over by a black Mercedes that later the police determine was owned by the hemp plant. This company, I believe, is a metaphor for of all the entities that have taken advantage of and lied to the Navajo people. The more Bernie finds out the clearer it becomes that this company was not what it was represented to be.

Chee’s story spends a lot of time on the desecration of indigenous peoples’ heritage by the building of the dam that formed Lake Powell. Chee works with an aging archeologist to try and find a cave that his former co-worker Joe Leaphorn had experienced in a case many years ago that contained many ancient artifacts. Through this interaction the reader is enlightened about the ancient indigenous people.

The book is well-written. It moves quickly. Half the story is a mystery. The other half is suspense with Bernie and her undercover gig. Again, I appreciated both the modern and ancient cultural descriptions. Hillerman also layers in good environmental descriptions giving the reader a feel for the land that Chee has visited.

This is a clean novel. No profanity, no on page sex, and no gratuitous violence. Anne Hillerman has kept alive the characters created by her late father. I’ll rank this one eleventh, just behind her father’s book. This keeps my record strong with another good read.

The Record Keeper by Charles MartinThe Samaritan’s Patient by Chevron RossDays Coming by Pat SimmonsThe Runaway Jury by John GrishamThe Maid by Nita ProseWhere is My Sister by Jane DalyBraving Strange Waters by Sarah HanksAnother Ending by Sara WhitelyBlood Red Deceit by Steve RushThe Dark Wind by Tony HillermanThe Sacred Bridge by Anne HillermanBlack Cherry Blues by James Lee BurkeA Vanishing Act by Edwina KiernanCali’s Hope by John Matthew WalkerField Training by Patrick O’DonnellDeadly Pursuit by Elle GrayAmerican Prophet by Jeff Fullmer

 

Commission earned

Book Review of Another Ending by Sara Whitely

Another Ending by Sara Whitley

 

This is book one of The Hope on the Horizon series. It’s a book focused on one teenage girl’s redemption. There is some justice, though more of a footnote at the end.

This is an important, well-written book. However, if you’re looking for entertainment, this isn’t the book to read. It’s a tough book. It follows Molly, a high school girl who grows up in a small, conservative town in Iowa. She believes she’s a follower of Christ. Molly makes a series of poor decisions that shatter her idyllic life. As the book goes on, we watch Molly spiral farther down into a pit of despair. Until…you’ll have to read the book for this part.

The book deals with some difficult subjects. Teen pregnancy, date rape, abortion, and how those things fit into the Christian life and the church. Embedded in the story is the author’s commentary on watered down faith, the dangers of the prosperity gospel, and the danger of trying to go it alone when bad things happen. All these things are rampant in the American church today.

Molly frustrated me throughout the story. Along with frustration, I felt anger, disappointment, and sadness. Molly’s worldview is tainted, and her logic is twisted. The story is told from first person point of view, mostly from Molly. She is an unreliable narrator. Her view of some of the events and her reasoning for her decisions are flawed. It was hard to watch her continued decline. I nearly gave up on the book because of one of the decisions she makes, but decided to stick out and see where God would come into her life.

This book will be difficult for Christians to read. Though I encourage Christians to read it. It will be difficult for non-Christians to read. Though, again, I encourage non-Christians to read it. The author does a fantastic job telling a story of God’s unending grace, mercy, and forgiveness. But it takes a while to get there, so don’t give up like I almost did.

The book falls short of a five-star rating only because of a lack of editing, in my opinion. It could have been about a hundred pages shorter. There are some mistakes that jumped out at me. And I’m not convinced the couple times the author did a chapter from another character’s point of view were necessary or helpful. I would have preferred the entire story from Molly’s point of view.

I particularly recommend this book for teenage girls and parents of teenage girls. It would be a great book for a teenage girl and her parents to read together. What happens in this book happens way too often in our country and there are too many girls suffering the same fate as Molly.

It’s a clean read. Even the disturbing scenes are tastefully presented. Hard to read about, but nothing gratuitous. I’ll rank this one eighth at this point. Another good book read this year.

 

The Record Keeper by Charles MartinThe Samaritan’s Patient by Chevron RossDays Coming by Pat SimmonsThe Runaway Jury by John GrishamThe Maid by Nita ProseWhere is My Sister by Jane DalyBraving Strange Waters by Sarah HanksAnother Ending by Sara WhitelyBlood Red Deceit by Steve RushThe Dark Wind by Tony HillermanBlack Cherry Blues by James Lee BurkeA Vanishing Act by Edwina KiernanCali’s Hope by John Matthew WalkerField Training by Patrick O’DonnellDeadly Pursuit by Elle GrayAmerican Prophet by Jeff Fullmer

Commission earned

Book Review of American Prophet by Jeff Fullmer

American Prophet by Jeff Fullmer

 

This story had no justice or vengeance. I’m sure the author would argue for redemption of his main character. But I’m not going to give that much credit. My streak is broken this year. This is the first book I’ve read that is only okay. It’s not badly written. It was disappointing given the promise of the premise.

Peter Quell has vivid dreams that he says are prophesies from God. This is in modern times. A great premise, and I bought this book hoping for something interesting. Instead, it’s the author’s thinly veiled diatribe against Donald Trump. Peter’s visions are real events we’re familiar with. Though there are a couple I’m not sure their parallels in the real world. Okay, still the premise could work. The big problem is Peter doesn’t actually do anything. His contribution to what he perceives God’s calling is to put the dream out on social media. We see reactions from followers. Then the events happen. That’s it. That’s all there is to the entire story. Has a vision. Puts it on social media. Grows his follower base. Goes on podcasts, even television shows after the events. Then the story ends. The visions end. Nothing has changed except Peter has a lot of money that he didn’t earn. There’s a tiny character arc in which maybe Peter has grown some. The book is subtitled a spiritual journey, but we get nothing as why God has chosen Peter or what He wants to accomplish through him.

The story is written in present tense. I’m not a fan of present tense unless the author is writing an intense thriller. This was not a thriller, and it was not intense. The prose is well-written with some flashes of poetic brilliance.

There’s a small amount of profanity scattered throughout. One sexual situation, but nothing on page. And the violence is muted.

I’m not going to get into the political rantings of this book. However, it heavily leans to the left and is one-sided. Basically, the author seems to have done his research by watching CNN. Peter is a self-proclaimed Christian. In his heart he wants to make the world a better place. Unfortunately, I didn’t see any evidence that he actually made anything better.

I’m going to put this one at the bottom of the rankings. Again, it was okay. Not bad, but not good. If it’s the worst thing I read this year, it will have been a good reading year.

The Record Keeper by Charles MartinThe Samaritan’s Patient by Chevron RossDays Coming by Pat SimmonsThe Runaway Jury by John GrishamThe Maid by Nita ProseWhere is My Sister by Jane DalyBraving Strange Waters by Sarah HanksBlood Red Deceit by Steve RushThe Dark Wind by Tony HillermanBlack Cherry Blues by James Lee BurkeA Vanishing Act by Edwina KiernanCali’s Hope by John Matthew WalkerField Training by Patrick O’DonnellDeadly Pursuit by Elle GrayAmerican Prophet by Jeff Fullmer

 

Commission earned

Book Review of Braving Strange Waters by Sarah Hanks

Braving Strange Waters by Sarah Hanks

 

This interesting book deals a little with justice and a lot with redemption. It’s a time sailor book. I’m not sure if that’s a sub-genre, but it’s basically time travel back into an historic period. In this case, the time traveler goes back to 1856 Missouri and Kansas on a riverboat navigating the Mississippi River.

This book is about three Christian women on a cruise before one of them (Stella) is to be married. During the cruise, Stella disappears and finds herself on a riverboat in 1856. The book alternates between the two time periods, giving us Stella’s point of view in 1856 and her two friends’ points of view (Claire and Wendy) in modern times.

Stella is taken into this time period to accomplish a mission. The implication, though never directly stated, is that God is the one doing this time/space manipulation. This historical period of this book is the strength and the most interesting for me. Stella is not a brave person and is forced to become courageous to carry out her mission, which involves battling slavery during the height of that evil institution. Stella is also forced to learn to better rely on God.

Meanwhile back at the ranch. Actually, back at the ship, Claire and Wendy frantically search for a way to help Stella return to her time period. However, both of these characters get distracted by men they meet during their attempts to help Stella. All three of these women enter this story with a heavy load of baggage. The story shows all three of them working through these issues. What makes it both difficult for the characters and interesting, though sometimes frustrating for the reader, is that none of the supposedly best friends talked to the others about the issues they are dealing with.

This is a Christian book. And what I really liked about it is the way these three strong Christian women have struggles they have to battle. None of them are perfect little goody-two-shoes. They are realistic people with real problems. When they are not relying on God, the struggles intensify.

The part that I wasn’t thrilled about was the budding romances of Wendy and Claire. A little too much girly touchy-feely stuff for me. But that’s just personal preference and it didn’t get in the way of a fast-paced, fascinating story.

As a Christian novel, it’s clean. No profanity. No on page sex other than a lot of kissing. And no graphic violence. It’s getting tough to rank these books as once again, another good book for this year. The streak continues. I’ll rank it seventh, though 6 – 11 are so close they could be tied for the sixth spot.

 

The Record Keeper by Charles MartinThe Samaritan’s Patient by Chevron RossDays Coming by Pat SimmonsThe Runaway Jury by John GrishamThe Maid by Nita ProseWhere is My Sister by Jane DalyBraving Strange Waters by Sarah HanksBlood Red Deceit by Steve RushThe Dark Wind by Tony HillermanBlack Cherry Blues by James Lee BurkeA Vanishing Act by Edwina KiernanCali’s Hope by John Matthew WalkerField Training by Patrick O’DonnellDeadly Pursuit by Elle Gray

Commission earned