Rebecca Forster's Blog, page 4

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This article is copyright ©  Rebecca Forster

The WITNESS series

Rebecca Forster brings the very heart of politics and the law to life in the pages of her best-selling Witness Series.

Once a hot-shot criminal defense attorney, Josie Bates abandoned her fast-track career when her spectacular Los Angeles courtroom win became a devastating personal tragedy.  Now, working at a small practice in Hermosa Beach, Josie cautiously rebuilds her life, opening her heart to Archer, an emotionally vulnerable ex-cop, and Hannah, a troubled teen. But the tranquility of the beach life is no guarantee of peace and Josie rises to meet the challenges of a world where the stakes are high and to lose is lethal. With twists and turns, cliff hangers and red herrings, this suspense-filled, seven-book series explores the dark side of the law,  the strength of real love, the intrusion of politics, the unbreakable bonds of family, and the immense power of the righteous few who stand strong in the face of pure evil.

Hostile Witness, Book #1: Josie Bates faces more than a legal challenge when she agrees to defend sixteen-year-old Hannah Sheraton against charges of capital murder – she faces personal demons that are more deadly than she ever imagined.

Silent Witness, Book #2:  Josie has more on her plate than coming to grips with being the guardian of a teenager when her lover, Archer, is accused of murdering his stepson. Love isn’t blind when the evidence is in.

Privileged Witness, Book #3: Josie’s past comes back to haunt her in the form of her first, true love who is now poised to become a U.S. Senator – if only Josie can defend his sister from the charge of that she murdered her sister-in-law.

Expert Witness, Book #4:  Josie isn’t proud of her past, but when it comes back it does more than haunt her in this book about the last thing a victim and their family have to cling to: reputation.

Eyewitness, Book #5: The murders are gruesome. The suspect is a kid. Josie’s world is turned upside down  – and those she loves are defenseless – as a code of ancient justice is carried half way across the world to battle with modern law.

Forgotten Witness, Book #6: The most surprising and personal of the witness books, Josie comes face to face with the one person in the world who can bring her personal peace only to find herself locked in a life and death struggle with the most ruthless opponent of all – the government.

Dark Witness, Book #7: The best intentions can lead to the most gruesome consequences in this explosive Witness Book. Hannah and Josie face their darkest hours yet as they search not only for one another, but for something greater than themselves to believe in.

Read all about them here.
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This article is copyright ©  Rebecca Forster

Meet Rebecca Forster

“If John Grisham and Lisa Scottoline had a literary love child, it would be Rebecca Forster.”

Read all about USA Today and Amazon bestselling author Rebecca Forster here.

Check out her bestselling Witness series and her other novels here

Need a speaker? Rebecca is available for keynotes, workshops, and more.

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This article is copyright ©  Rebecca Forster

THE BAILEY DEVLIN series

NEW 3-BOOK SERIES by Rebecca Forster.

Fun. Flirty. Romantic.

The Bailey Devlin Series is a celebration of humor and heart.

THE BAILEY DEVLIN SERIES

BOOK #1

THE DAY BAILEY DEVLIN’S  HOROSCOPE CAME TRUE

Oh, Boy! Oh, Bailey!  What are you going to do when Fate decides to have a little fun?

Bailey Devlin is convinced the stork was drunk the day he dropped her in her mother’s lap. Mom is blond and beautiful; Bailey redheaded and gawky. Mom’s heart longs for her missing-in-action husband; Bailey’s for a man she can count on. Now mom is off looking for her one true love, while Bailey is about to realize her dream and become a lawyer. Yet, as the bar exam looms, there is mischief afoot in the heavens. According to her horoscope, the man who will change her life is coming to her door. The man who shows up isn’t even close to one she has dreamed of, but Bailey is about to find out the hard way that he is the man she needs.

 

BOOK #2

THE DAY BAILEY DEVLIN PICKED UP A PENNY

Oh, Boy! Oh, Bailey! Find a penny, pick it up; just don’t bank on Lady Luck

Bailey Devlin is on the fast track to happiness. The bar exam is behind her (for the second time), Jeffery adores her, and her hobbled together family of misfits becomes dearer by the day. The future isn’t just bright, it is dazzling. But Lady Luck has taken note and decides a little mischief is in order. As Bailey and Jeffery set out for a very special weekend, they come across a penny in the most amazing place. It doesn’t take long for Bailey to realize that she made a big mistake picking this one up, and now Bailey is on a tear to put things right. But Lady Luck is no pushover and Bailey learns that bad luck might just be the best luck of all.

 

BOOK #3

THE DAY BAILEY DEVLIN’S SHIP CAME IN

Oh, Boy! Oh, Bailey! Just when you think it going to be smooth sailing, Venus messes with your rudder.

Everyone thinks that Bailey Devlin has taken leave of her senses, but she knows exactly what she’s doing when she packs her bags and books passage on the cruise ship where Ethan and the Jazz Boys are playing. She is on a quest to find out once and for all who has hooked her heart: foot loose, sexy, funny Ethan, or handsome, adoring, steady Jeffery. Her plan is perfect: look Ethan in the eye and kiss him once. Bailey is sure that is all it will take for her to know if her ship sailed when Ethan left San Francisco, or if she wants to stay docked in Jeffery’s safe harbor.  Just when she thinks her plan is watertight, the seas get rough. If she’s not careful Bailey will sink both ships before she gets to port.

 

 

 

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This article is copyright ©  Rebecca Forster

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The Witness Series Bundle: 7 Josie Bates Thrillers

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This article is copyright ©  Rebecca Forster

PRE-ORDER NOW.

The Witness Series Bundle: 7 Josie Bates Thrillers

CLICK HERE
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This article is copyright ©  Rebecca Forster

WHO WILL READ MY WRITING

I have never had a guest post on this site, but this rumination by my friend, judge and fellow writer Anthony J. Mohr made me laugh. Talk about hitting the nail on the head.  I first saw this post on Charlotte Rains Dixon’s site and knew immediately that I wanted to share this wonderful piece with my writing colleagues. I know you’ll enjoy it as much as I did.

Sometimes (okay–all the time) when I’m writing, I wonder who will read my work. Not just whether the audience will consist of millennials or astronauts, but whether an old friend or a long lost crush will happen to see it thanks to a Google search or, better yet, because someone will tell her, “Hey, you used to know that guy Mohr? You’ve got to read what he just published in the Left Toe Review.”

That hasn’t occurred yet. Everything I’ve published seems to have vanished, passing by the earth’s seven billion souls without touching anyone. I understand. After all, how many people subscribe to the Left Toe Review? But I did make it, once, into the Christian Science Monitor and, twice, into Chicken Soup for the Soul. And still nothing from the long losts.

Twenty-five years ago, I walked by a news truck that was parked along a West Los Angeles street. When I stopped to see what they were doing, the reporter asked for my view on some issue of the day. Of course I agreed to say something on camera. I was a lawyer, then, and thought the exposure would land me a client. I answered the question; they broadcast five seconds of my brilliance; and that night, my phone began ringing. At least ten friends saw me. So did a potential client, who never paid his bill.

For years my friend Amber has been struggling to escape from her reporting job at one of those tabloids, the type that runs headlines like “Cheerleader Becomes Dear Leader’s Sex Slave.” Amber longed to write something meaningful, an essay that would spark debates across the chattering class. It took four years of research and at least forty drafts, but one of the nation’s most cerebral journals accepted her piece about – if I remember right — the transformation of Asian society and its impact on post cold war diplomacy. The day it hit the newsstands, Amber stayed home by her phone, waiting to hear from the world.

Her phone rang once.

It was the wimpy nerd who had bothered her through high school, a kid who’d been too dense to take a hint. She hadn’t been able to shake free of him until graduation. Now, twenty years later, thanks to Amber’s assiduous efforts, he was back, still trying to cadge a date.

So I ask once more: why do I bother to write? Other than attaboys from close friends to whom I send links to my stuff, I’ve resolved to hear from precisely nobody. I use my imagination – the same imagination I call on to write — in order to envision someone reading my story. I imagine that person showing it to her spouse, who at the end blinks back a tear or falls asleep thinking about my stunning last line instead of his kid’s dental bill. I refuse to imagine that person tossing my pages on the floor before he turns out the light.

Anthony J. Mohr’s work has appeared in or is upcoming in, among other places, California Prose Directory, The Christian Science Monitor, DIAGRAM, Eclectica, Front Porch Journal, Hippocampus, The MacGuffin, War, Literature & the Arts, andZYZZYVA. Three of his pieces have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. By day he is a judge on the Superior Court in Los Angeles. Once upon a time, he was a member of The L.A. Connection, an improv theater group.

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STUMPED (For readers)

Recently, workers found a huge stump buried in my backyard (see STUMPED, the blog).

This was a particularly wonderful thing for them to find because it has captured everyone’s imagination. The workers, my family and even the 30 people we had to Easter dinner have speculated about where it came from, how old it is, whether or not it is now petrified, who cut it down and what I should do with this giant stump.

I have a funny feeling that you’re looking at this picture and five ideas have popped into your head about what you would do with it. That’s what readers and writers and creative people do when they see something out of the ordinary. Welcome to the club and don’t be surprised if that stump shows up in one of my books someday.

 

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This article is copyright ©  Rebecca Forster

STUMPED (for writers)

There is a large stump in my backyard (see Stumped, the blog). This thing is an inspirational: big and hard and almost impossible to move. I am going to keep it in my backyard, right outside my office to remind me that a writer is never truly stumped.

-If we write ourselves into a corner, we can do one of two things. First, we can get really creative and write our way out of it. Working hard to figure it out will make a better book. Or, we can go back and change what we’ve written. The second option would involved lots of changes and possibly use of the delete key. Either option is labor intensive. One involves moving forward and the other backward. I like the forward option. Either way, the author is no longer stumped.

-The stump in my backyard is big and solid. At one time it was the foundation of a huge tree. It reminds me to make sure the premise I am building my story on is wide enough and deep enough and dense enough to build my novel on.

-Finally, if you’re really stumped, move on and leave it in your writing ‘garden’ as a reminder that not every tree survives or thrives.

 

 

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6 Things You Should Know About Being STUMPED

The other day I came home to find the men we hired to build my patio sitting in my backyard looking at a stump. This was not a normal stump. This was a giant, Paul Bunyan, Big John stump. I sat down with them and I, too, considered the stump.

“George had to get his chain saw for that sucker,” one of them finally said.

“Took two hours to get it out,” another offered.

“I think it broke George’s saw,” the first chimed in.

“Why didn’t you leave it in the ground,” I asked. “You know, pour the cement over it?”

“We thought about it,” the third admitted, ” but it wouldn’t have been right.”

They told me that they had managed to cut it up into the piece we were looking at but that it had been three times as big and buried deep in the ground, a remnant of a primordial tree. Their task had been Herculean. They told me that if they poured the cement over the stump, the darn thing could rot and my steps would fall in, and I would be upset with them because they poured cement over a stump the size of San Francisco.

“It looks petrified,” I said, thinking petrified wood doesn’t rot. They were the experts, though, so I asked, “How many years do you think it would take to rot?”

The first guy shrugged, “Twenty. Thirty years.”

I shrugged back. I would probably be dead by the time the stump rotted and my stairs fell in. I guess it was the principal of the thing. They would have known the stump was there. It wasn’t honorable to leave it in the ground.

We sat in the hot sun a while longer. Someone suggested carving the stump into the likeness of the contractor. I liked that idea, but no one knew how to carve. I thought we could make it into a table but it was lopsided. Eventually, we all stopped looking at the stump. The men moved it out of the way and started work again; I went inside to make dinner.

That stump has now been in my backyard for two weeks. I can’t bring myself to get rid of it. But, like all things that are hard to get rid of, it eventually served a purpose. The stump gave me a few things to think about:

1) Everybody has a stump. It might be in your real backyard, your professional backyard or your personal backyard, but it is undoubtedly there and it’s just a matter of time before you come upon it.

2) What you do with your stump will tell you a lot about yourself. Either you will dig it up and deal with it, or you will leave it to rot. If you leave it to rot, eventually whatever you built on top of it will sag if not sink.

3) If you’re stumped and need help there is always someone willing to work hard to get rid of that stump as long as you work as hard as they do.

4) You can never go through a stump but don’t panic. You can go around it, over it and sometimes under it but that takes the longest.

5) Sometimes stumps are not as big as they look and sometimes they are bigger. Size doesn’t matter. Stumped is stumped.

6) Removing a stump but choosing to keep it as a reminder of what stood in your way is a good thing. When you look at it, you will always know that when it came to you against the stump, you won.

 

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This article is copyright ©  Rebecca Forster