Vicki Batman's Blog, page 43
February 16, 2017
#MysteryThrillerWeek w Michael Smoorenburg #author #bigbusiness #paranormal
TODAY’S Mystery Thriller Author is Michael Smorenburg, who brings us LifeGames Corporation, The un-Holy Ghost
ARE YOU A PLOTTER OR PANTSER? I fly by the seat of my pants. When I plan a story’s plot and its characters, they turn out dreadful… the story has no flair and falls flat. The story that is LifeGames arrived while I was sitting on a nude beach in Spain; I was on vacation but those damned LifeGames characters and their story simply didn’t care. They proceeded to eat 10 days of my precious vacation. Four hundred pages later and I sat back and decided I hated the outcome because the plot had morphed from big business shenanigans into what seemed like paranormal activity. So… the story lay dormant on my hard drive for the next twenty years, until I re-read it and realised it only needed some minor tweaks to turn it into quite a ripping yarn.
WHAT DREW YOU INTO WRITING THE GENRE YOU DO? The human experience is rich with emotions and cultural baggage. These factors provide endless opportunity to put us each at odds with our fellow traveller and reality. The path away from conflict and toward mutual understanding is greatly helped by understanding how the brain, mind and reality really works. I aspire toward writing fiction that draws readers into the world of characters who are navigating these themes and discovering how they can find understanding and peace by confronting and grasping reality. Reviews of my work suggest that this technique of mine is working.
HOW DID YOU COME UP WITH THE IDEA OF YOUR BOOK? The world of tomorrow belongs to technology, and we run the risk of either being its master or its slave. I was musing what specific technologies might influence tomorrow’s landscape the most, and settled on an unholy alliance between Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality (VR)… But, I realized even the best immersive VR is limited… the subject on a VR training simulation knows that it is only a simulation, that there are no real consequences for failing in a virtual world. So, what, I asked myself, would happen if a company - LifeGames Corporation - first used a hypnosis sequence to convince each participant under training in their facilities that they were about to experience a real crisis. The outcome would be the authentic reactions and certification of an employee’s aptitude; and a LifeGames certificate of competence would become the gold standard for climbing to any position of power — LifeGames would become immensely wealthy and powerful. But tinkering with the brain, as LifeGames would have to, comes with risks, particularly when the brains being tiered with are the world’s most powerful and influential individuals.
LifeGames explores the games people play; the games with one another, the games with their own minds, the games with society, the games that become our collective future.
“Ready?” Catherine asked and Ken nodded.
She dabbed the ‘play’ button.
"I'm God..."
The man's voice sounds soulless and matter of fact, the green murk of night vision before him a meandering network of tracks through scrubland. Telemetry data and a compass ticker scroll with leisurely precision.
"...I’m all-seeing, I’m Jehovah hovering above. My lightning bolts reach out and touch the wicked."
The camera tracking the night below drifts onto a deserted rural village. Half a dozen phantoms busy themselves around a pickup as it falls squarely into the cross hairs. The scurrying figures are ethereal, pale green spooks on a hurried mission hefting loads into the vehicle.
"They make bad choices. Bad choices makes my good choices easier."
The almighty sounds a bit Southern.
"This God business…” He pauses unhurriedly. “It has consequences all round. First rule; don't think too much, let them make the decisions… make them responsible for my actions."
Threadbare lightning bolts streak away, fairy lights of death diving toward the green unfortunates. The vehicle has swallowed four of them; six have become two and then the two evaporate into the vehicle just as the tracers stitch the ground toward it.
BOOOOM!
The night vision blows for a silent instant to white light.
“Go with God." His intonation is matter of fact, "Allahu Akbar... straight to hell."
It's eerily silent as the burning flotsam of the explosion rains to stillness.
Moments later startled greens come pouring out of the houses, scattering or running toward their dead.
"What a peculiar Top Gun I am... delivering justice from half a world away. I hang up the headphones and grab milk and a Big Mac on the way home."
FIND AUTHOR Michael Smorenburg at: Website
FIND Life Games AT: Amazon
Michael, what kind of books do you like to read?
ARE YOU A PLOTTER OR PANTSER? I fly by the seat of my pants. When I plan a story’s plot and its characters, they turn out dreadful… the story has no flair and falls flat. The story that is LifeGames arrived while I was sitting on a nude beach in Spain; I was on vacation but those damned LifeGames characters and their story simply didn’t care. They proceeded to eat 10 days of my precious vacation. Four hundred pages later and I sat back and decided I hated the outcome because the plot had morphed from big business shenanigans into what seemed like paranormal activity. So… the story lay dormant on my hard drive for the next twenty years, until I re-read it and realised it only needed some minor tweaks to turn it into quite a ripping yarn.WHAT DREW YOU INTO WRITING THE GENRE YOU DO? The human experience is rich with emotions and cultural baggage. These factors provide endless opportunity to put us each at odds with our fellow traveller and reality. The path away from conflict and toward mutual understanding is greatly helped by understanding how the brain, mind and reality really works. I aspire toward writing fiction that draws readers into the world of characters who are navigating these themes and discovering how they can find understanding and peace by confronting and grasping reality. Reviews of my work suggest that this technique of mine is working.
HOW DID YOU COME UP WITH THE IDEA OF YOUR BOOK? The world of tomorrow belongs to technology, and we run the risk of either being its master or its slave. I was musing what specific technologies might influence tomorrow’s landscape the most, and settled on an unholy alliance between Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality (VR)… But, I realized even the best immersive VR is limited… the subject on a VR training simulation knows that it is only a simulation, that there are no real consequences for failing in a virtual world. So, what, I asked myself, would happen if a company - LifeGames Corporation - first used a hypnosis sequence to convince each participant under training in their facilities that they were about to experience a real crisis. The outcome would be the authentic reactions and certification of an employee’s aptitude; and a LifeGames certificate of competence would become the gold standard for climbing to any position of power — LifeGames would become immensely wealthy and powerful. But tinkering with the brain, as LifeGames would have to, comes with risks, particularly when the brains being tiered with are the world’s most powerful and influential individuals.
LifeGames explores the games people play; the games with one another, the games with their own minds, the games with society, the games that become our collective future.
“Ready?” Catherine asked and Ken nodded.
She dabbed the ‘play’ button.
"I'm God..."
The man's voice sounds soulless and matter of fact, the green murk of night vision before him a meandering network of tracks through scrubland. Telemetry data and a compass ticker scroll with leisurely precision.
"...I’m all-seeing, I’m Jehovah hovering above. My lightning bolts reach out and touch the wicked."
The camera tracking the night below drifts onto a deserted rural village. Half a dozen phantoms busy themselves around a pickup as it falls squarely into the cross hairs. The scurrying figures are ethereal, pale green spooks on a hurried mission hefting loads into the vehicle.
"They make bad choices. Bad choices makes my good choices easier."
The almighty sounds a bit Southern.
"This God business…” He pauses unhurriedly. “It has consequences all round. First rule; don't think too much, let them make the decisions… make them responsible for my actions."
Threadbare lightning bolts streak away, fairy lights of death diving toward the green unfortunates. The vehicle has swallowed four of them; six have become two and then the two evaporate into the vehicle just as the tracers stitch the ground toward it.
BOOOOM!
The night vision blows for a silent instant to white light.
“Go with God." His intonation is matter of fact, "Allahu Akbar... straight to hell."
It's eerily silent as the burning flotsam of the explosion rains to stillness.
Moments later startled greens come pouring out of the houses, scattering or running toward their dead.
"What a peculiar Top Gun I am... delivering justice from half a world away. I hang up the headphones and grab milk and a Big Mac on the way home."
FIND AUTHOR Michael Smorenburg at: Website
FIND Life Games AT: Amazon
Michael, what kind of books do you like to read?
February 15, 2017
#MTW author Anna Willett #mystery #thriller #childhoodstories #MFRWorg
TODAY’S Mystery Thriller Writer IS:
Anna Willett, author of
Backwoods Ripper
ARE YOU A PLOTTER OR PANTSER? I’m a pantser. Once I have the story and characters firmly set in my mind, I start writing. The characters drive the story and I just follow. After the first three or four chapters, I write a line or two for each subsequent chapter so as a rough guide, but that’s it. WHAT DID YOU DO WHEN YOU SOLD YOUR FIRST BOOK? I’d just returned from a dentist visit with one side of my face completely numb. I thought about how nice it would be to have a glass of champagne, but settled for a cup of almost cold tea and managed a lop-sided smile. WHAT DREW YOU INTO WRITING THE GENRE YOU DO? I’ve always been attracted to dark stories. Even as a child I enjoyed being scared so when it came to writing, thrillers seemed natural. I suppose I write the sorts of things I’d like to read.
A country drive quickly turns into a nightmare for newly-weds Paige and Hal Loche. When you are in the bush, pregnant, and your husband is hurt what do you do? “Spring Road. I don’t remember seeing it on the map, but it might be privately owned,” Hal said, and swung the car right. “With any luck there’ll be a clearing where we can pull over.” The sign announcing Spring Road leaned dangerously close to the ground at a sixty-degree angle, almost as if pointing towards some hidden passage to the centre of the earth. On either side of the narrow road, thick scrub and ancient gum trees crowded the bitumen. Paige leaned back and shifted her butt until her back straightened. It had been two hours since they last took a break and she looked forward to stretching her back. “Is that a house?” Paige motioned towards a clearing on the left. Amidst the tightly-packed greenery, a dusty white building sat a sea of cracked bitumen, now a home for sprigs of yellowing weeds. The building looked at odds with its surroundings, as if an industrial structure had dropped from a passing aeroplane and landed haphazardly in the midst of the bush.
FIND AUTHOR Anna Willett at: Website FIND Backwoods Ripper AT: Amazon
Anna, you mentioned stories from your childhood--what are some of them?
#MysteryThrillerWeek #author Jordan Greene #psychologicalthriller #MFRWorg #amwriting
TODAY’S AUTHOR IS: Jordon Greene, author of To Watch You Bleed, Psychological Horror Thriller
WHAT MADE YOU WANT TO WRITE? In middle school, I entered a local short story competition with a friend where he wrote the story and I drew the illustrations. We didn’t win, and I didn’t even write it, but something about the experience sparked an interest in writing within me and the following year my sixth grade teacher, Ms. Hicks, continued to encourage me to write, even letting me take a group of friends aside once a week for a weekly story planning sessions in a “book” I wanted to write. I’ve wrote something or another ever since until I finally published my first book in 2016. WHERE DO YOU DO YOUR BEST WRITING? You’d think I would do my best writing at home, in a familiar setting, some place quiet and calm, but no, I don’t. I actually do my best writing out at a restaurant. I don’t really know what it is, but some reason I do best out on the town, even if the music is playing in the background (as long as I’m not like right under a blaring TV or speaker). Both of my books were actually wrote primarily at Pier 51 Seafood Restaurant, Applebee’s and Fiesta Mexican in Concord, NC. WHAT TYPE OF MUSIC DO YOU LISTEN TO? All types. I’ll listen to most anything from heavy metal, to some pop, country and even some movie soundtracks, just don’t ask me to listen to rap. My favorites though are heavy metal and metalcore, specifically bands like Art of Dying, Five Finger Death Punch, Bring Me the Horizon, Black Veil Brides and Beyond the Fade. WHAT IS THE FIRST BOOK YOU REMEMBER READING? The first book I really remember reading was Kevin J. Anderson’s Young Jedi Knights: Jedi Under Siege. If you’re familiar with the series, I definitely read it out of order, but I definitely read most of the series after that. I love Star Wars (and Star Trek) so as a sixth grader it was definitely one of the few books you could get me to voluntarily read. I think it’s actually one of the few books I’ve read more than once as well.
Dalton Summers has the perfect life, and a dark secret. One phone call will threaten it all, “Hurry home Dalton… Before I kill them all.” A burst of brilliant white danced across the night sky just beyond my vantage outside the rear passenger window. I flinched as thunder shook the car a second later. “Ah!” Dusty yelped from the seat in front of me. “Calm your tits,” my dad chided him dismissively. “You’re not a little girl, or a baby, now are you?” “No,” Dusty tried, his voice was quiet and hurt. “I’m not.” With my lips pursed, I groaned and let my gaze escape to the heavy raindrops pelting my window. It was a cold November rain. It saturated every inch of the bare-limbed sycamores along the roadway, their branches swaying boisterously in the roiling wind. Dad refused to slow the car despite how hard the wipers were working, and failing, to clear the front windshield. I’m positive the tires had lost traction at least twice since we exited the elementary school parking lot from Dusty’s basketball game. FIND AUTHOR JORDON GREENE AT: Website FIND TO WATCH YOU BLEED AT: Amazon
Jordan, are there any psychological movies that inspire you?
WHAT MADE YOU WANT TO WRITE? In middle school, I entered a local short story competition with a friend where he wrote the story and I drew the illustrations. We didn’t win, and I didn’t even write it, but something about the experience sparked an interest in writing within me and the following year my sixth grade teacher, Ms. Hicks, continued to encourage me to write, even letting me take a group of friends aside once a week for a weekly story planning sessions in a “book” I wanted to write. I’ve wrote something or another ever since until I finally published my first book in 2016. WHERE DO YOU DO YOUR BEST WRITING? You’d think I would do my best writing at home, in a familiar setting, some place quiet and calm, but no, I don’t. I actually do my best writing out at a restaurant. I don’t really know what it is, but some reason I do best out on the town, even if the music is playing in the background (as long as I’m not like right under a blaring TV or speaker). Both of my books were actually wrote primarily at Pier 51 Seafood Restaurant, Applebee’s and Fiesta Mexican in Concord, NC. WHAT TYPE OF MUSIC DO YOU LISTEN TO? All types. I’ll listen to most anything from heavy metal, to some pop, country and even some movie soundtracks, just don’t ask me to listen to rap. My favorites though are heavy metal and metalcore, specifically bands like Art of Dying, Five Finger Death Punch, Bring Me the Horizon, Black Veil Brides and Beyond the Fade. WHAT IS THE FIRST BOOK YOU REMEMBER READING? The first book I really remember reading was Kevin J. Anderson’s Young Jedi Knights: Jedi Under Siege. If you’re familiar with the series, I definitely read it out of order, but I definitely read most of the series after that. I love Star Wars (and Star Trek) so as a sixth grader it was definitely one of the few books you could get me to voluntarily read. I think it’s actually one of the few books I’ve read more than once as well.
Dalton Summers has the perfect life, and a dark secret. One phone call will threaten it all, “Hurry home Dalton… Before I kill them all.” A burst of brilliant white danced across the night sky just beyond my vantage outside the rear passenger window. I flinched as thunder shook the car a second later. “Ah!” Dusty yelped from the seat in front of me. “Calm your tits,” my dad chided him dismissively. “You’re not a little girl, or a baby, now are you?” “No,” Dusty tried, his voice was quiet and hurt. “I’m not.” With my lips pursed, I groaned and let my gaze escape to the heavy raindrops pelting my window. It was a cold November rain. It saturated every inch of the bare-limbed sycamores along the roadway, their branches swaying boisterously in the roiling wind. Dad refused to slow the car despite how hard the wipers were working, and failing, to clear the front windshield. I’m positive the tires had lost traction at least twice since we exited the elementary school parking lot from Dusty’s basketball game. FIND AUTHOR JORDON GREENE AT: Website FIND TO WATCH YOU BLEED AT: Amazon
Jordan, are there any psychological movies that inspire you?
February 14, 2017
#MysteryThrillerWeek with Nick Rippington, crime thriller author #Journalist #gritty #London #MFRWorg
TODAY’S Mystery Thriller Week
INTERVIEW IS WITH: Nick Rippington,
author of Crossing The Whitewash,
a hard-boiled crime thriller
HOW DID YOU COME UP WITH THE IDEA OF YOUR BOOK? I’d been a journalist in the UK for 30 years when I landed my dream job on Rupert Murdoch’s flagship UK newspaper, the News of The World in London. Having worked previously on a provincial newspaper in Wales, the change was a bit of a culture shock, particularly the people. One of the hard-bitten hacks in London used to ask me, as the new Welsh sports editor of the paper, what was going on in my neck of the woods. As soon as I started to tell him he would yawn and walk away, saying: “Really? No one is interested in Wales, mate.” It was quite funny but made me wonder what would happen if someone had done the switch the other way – going from the gritty urban environment of London to become a newspaper reporter in the provinces. That started the ball rolling. WHAT DREW YOU INTO WRITING THE GENRE YOU DO? Strangely enough, my gangland thriller Crossing The Whitewash began as a comedy! I sent it away for a critique by a traditionally published author who picked a thousand holes in it. I didn’t agree with everything he said – particularly as I had to pay £600 for the privilege of having my writing torn apart – but a few ideas resonated. As I began to develop a back story with my main character Gary, I decided he needed something that would make him ‘run’ from London to take up a job in Wales. The gangland tale I came up with gave me new and fresh impetus and gradually the story developed. I’ve always had a bit of an interest in gangsters – my favourite TV series of all time was the Sopranos and I love all the Godfather films, not to mention Goodfellas – and I thought about characters I knew and what sort of roles they might play in a gang. Having established the characters I have found readers want more of them, and they have some good individual stories to tell. WHAT DREAMS HAVE BEEN REALIZED AS A RESULT OF YOUR WRITING? My mother was a great inspiration to me and always insisted she was going to write a children’s book but unfortunately she died when I was 21 without ever achieving her ambition. I took up the mantle, but unfortunately life and journalism got in the way. In newspapers, you are always writing to a simple formula and it takes a different mindset to come up with something truly creative. I managed to complete a couple of manuscripts and send them off to agents and publishers without even getting a reply from many of them. It was so frustrating. Then, when the News of the World was closed down by the phone-hacking scandal it coincided with the self-publishing explosion. Suddenly, there were options and being made redundant was the ‘kick’ I needed to finally write the book I always wanted to write. Holding that first paperback in my hands was the most thrilling experience I can recall – and I’ve had a few. It only seemed fitting I dedicate that first book to mum. WHAT INSPIRES YOU DAILY? Fear. It seems a strange thing to say but I have a wife and a six-year-old daughter to support and have worked in newspapers for 38 years. Every year the industry dwindles and a round of redundancies come about and having lost my News of The World job through no fault of my own I now have to rely on freelance work. I have regular shifts at the Daily Star and Daily Star Sunday in London from Thursday to Sunday, which pays the bills, but the early part of my week I have to discipline myself to sit down and write. I hope to establish a safety net through my books so that I have something to fall back on when the axe inevitably falls. So please buy my books... and keep me off the scrapheap!
Gangland London collides with rugby-mad Wales in the build up to one of the biggest sporting shows on earth. THE rat sniffed the air as the kid watched, spellbound.
He’d never seen one running free before. Some of them could grow as big as cats, he’d been told. Not this one. This one was so malnourished you could see its ribs. Hungry as it was, though, it wouldn’t go near the decomposing organic lump that lay in that corner of the room.
“You think they’re gonna rape you?” The cellmate’s words broke the spell. “You’ve been reading too many stories, kid. They ain’t gonna rape you, they’re gonna fucking kill you... That’s what you should be worried about.”
If the younger man was concerned, no flicker of emotion crossed his baby face. He kept his eyes fixed straight ahead, doing a quick inventory of the fat fuck opposite him. The bloke was 18-stone of pure human junk, ugly tattoos plastering the top half of a flabby, uncovered torso... FIND AUTHOR Nick Rippington at: Website FIND Crossing The Whitewash AT: Amazon
Hi, Nick! So thrilled to have you today. What's up next for you?
INTERVIEW IS WITH: Nick Rippington,
author of Crossing The Whitewash,
a hard-boiled crime thriller
HOW DID YOU COME UP WITH THE IDEA OF YOUR BOOK? I’d been a journalist in the UK for 30 years when I landed my dream job on Rupert Murdoch’s flagship UK newspaper, the News of The World in London. Having worked previously on a provincial newspaper in Wales, the change was a bit of a culture shock, particularly the people. One of the hard-bitten hacks in London used to ask me, as the new Welsh sports editor of the paper, what was going on in my neck of the woods. As soon as I started to tell him he would yawn and walk away, saying: “Really? No one is interested in Wales, mate.” It was quite funny but made me wonder what would happen if someone had done the switch the other way – going from the gritty urban environment of London to become a newspaper reporter in the provinces. That started the ball rolling. WHAT DREW YOU INTO WRITING THE GENRE YOU DO? Strangely enough, my gangland thriller Crossing The Whitewash began as a comedy! I sent it away for a critique by a traditionally published author who picked a thousand holes in it. I didn’t agree with everything he said – particularly as I had to pay £600 for the privilege of having my writing torn apart – but a few ideas resonated. As I began to develop a back story with my main character Gary, I decided he needed something that would make him ‘run’ from London to take up a job in Wales. The gangland tale I came up with gave me new and fresh impetus and gradually the story developed. I’ve always had a bit of an interest in gangsters – my favourite TV series of all time was the Sopranos and I love all the Godfather films, not to mention Goodfellas – and I thought about characters I knew and what sort of roles they might play in a gang. Having established the characters I have found readers want more of them, and they have some good individual stories to tell. WHAT DREAMS HAVE BEEN REALIZED AS A RESULT OF YOUR WRITING? My mother was a great inspiration to me and always insisted she was going to write a children’s book but unfortunately she died when I was 21 without ever achieving her ambition. I took up the mantle, but unfortunately life and journalism got in the way. In newspapers, you are always writing to a simple formula and it takes a different mindset to come up with something truly creative. I managed to complete a couple of manuscripts and send them off to agents and publishers without even getting a reply from many of them. It was so frustrating. Then, when the News of the World was closed down by the phone-hacking scandal it coincided with the self-publishing explosion. Suddenly, there were options and being made redundant was the ‘kick’ I needed to finally write the book I always wanted to write. Holding that first paperback in my hands was the most thrilling experience I can recall – and I’ve had a few. It only seemed fitting I dedicate that first book to mum. WHAT INSPIRES YOU DAILY? Fear. It seems a strange thing to say but I have a wife and a six-year-old daughter to support and have worked in newspapers for 38 years. Every year the industry dwindles and a round of redundancies come about and having lost my News of The World job through no fault of my own I now have to rely on freelance work. I have regular shifts at the Daily Star and Daily Star Sunday in London from Thursday to Sunday, which pays the bills, but the early part of my week I have to discipline myself to sit down and write. I hope to establish a safety net through my books so that I have something to fall back on when the axe inevitably falls. So please buy my books... and keep me off the scrapheap!
Gangland London collides with rugby-mad Wales in the build up to one of the biggest sporting shows on earth. THE rat sniffed the air as the kid watched, spellbound.
He’d never seen one running free before. Some of them could grow as big as cats, he’d been told. Not this one. This one was so malnourished you could see its ribs. Hungry as it was, though, it wouldn’t go near the decomposing organic lump that lay in that corner of the room.
“You think they’re gonna rape you?” The cellmate’s words broke the spell. “You’ve been reading too many stories, kid. They ain’t gonna rape you, they’re gonna fucking kill you... That’s what you should be worried about.”
If the younger man was concerned, no flicker of emotion crossed his baby face. He kept his eyes fixed straight ahead, doing a quick inventory of the fat fuck opposite him. The bloke was 18-stone of pure human junk, ugly tattoos plastering the top half of a flabby, uncovered torso... FIND AUTHOR Nick Rippington at: Website FIND Crossing The Whitewash AT: Amazon
Hi, Nick! So thrilled to have you today. What's up next for you?
#MTW guest is Kaye George #musicalmystery #agathaauthor #classicalmusiclover #MFRWorg
TODAY’S GUEST IS: Kaye George, National Best-selling & Agatha-nominated mystery author of EINE KLEINE MURDER, a Cressa Carraway musical mystery
WHAT TYPE OF MUSIC DO YOU LISTEN TO? I like most kinds of music, but will admit to not wanting to listen to very much rap or country. I’m a classical violinist and composer and I love rock and roll, gospel, and blues. I can’t listen to music when I’m writing since I actively listen to it, just like I read mysteries as a writer now. I’m looking for the structure of the music, listening for the harmony, figuring out how I would have written it differently—just like with mysteries. WHAT IS THE FIRST BOOK YOU REMEMBER READING? I learned to read in first grade with the Dick and Jane reader. I clearly remember how amazed I was that those symbols could be read, that they actually meant something I could decipher. I’ve been reading like mad ever since. WHAT DREW YOU INTO WRITING THE GENRE YOU DO? I’d been writing short stories all of my adult live, actually from high school on, and collecting rejection slips. Meanwhile, I loved to read mysteries. Many of the older ones are novellas, but people consider them novels. I decided I wanted to sell something and, since people like to read mysteries, I could sell those. Turns out I could! It just took me about ten years of studying, writing, rewriting, and collecting over 400 more rejections. Nothing to it!
[image error]
When aspiring conductor Cressa Carraway arrives at her grandmother's resort home, she finds Gram dead. When Gram's best friend drowns in the same place, Cressa knows something sinister is at work in this idyllic setting.
Prologue Stinguendo: Dying away. (Ital.) What was that sound? A foot, snapping a twig in the woods? Ida knew she shouldn’t be swimming alone at night, but she’d been antsy all day. She needed to get her mind off Cressa's visit. Grace usually swam with her, but Grace had taken relatives to the Quad-City airport tonight. Besides, Ida was a strong swimmer. She knew every inch of Crescent Lake. And she thought she knew every sound. But there was that snap again. It prickled the hairs on her arms. She stopped stroking and listened, straining toward the trees on the opposite bank, just ahead. It didn't repeat. Must have been a night creature in the woods. A raccoon out foraging? Ida cupped her hands and pulled herself through the caress of the cool water, creating tiny ripples and almost no sound. FIND AUTHOR Kaye George at: Website FIND EINE KLEINE MURDER AT: Book
Kaye, what are some of your favorite mystery authors?
WHAT TYPE OF MUSIC DO YOU LISTEN TO? I like most kinds of music, but will admit to not wanting to listen to very much rap or country. I’m a classical violinist and composer and I love rock and roll, gospel, and blues. I can’t listen to music when I’m writing since I actively listen to it, just like I read mysteries as a writer now. I’m looking for the structure of the music, listening for the harmony, figuring out how I would have written it differently—just like with mysteries. WHAT IS THE FIRST BOOK YOU REMEMBER READING? I learned to read in first grade with the Dick and Jane reader. I clearly remember how amazed I was that those symbols could be read, that they actually meant something I could decipher. I’ve been reading like mad ever since. WHAT DREW YOU INTO WRITING THE GENRE YOU DO? I’d been writing short stories all of my adult live, actually from high school on, and collecting rejection slips. Meanwhile, I loved to read mysteries. Many of the older ones are novellas, but people consider them novels. I decided I wanted to sell something and, since people like to read mysteries, I could sell those. Turns out I could! It just took me about ten years of studying, writing, rewriting, and collecting over 400 more rejections. Nothing to it! [image error]
When aspiring conductor Cressa Carraway arrives at her grandmother's resort home, she finds Gram dead. When Gram's best friend drowns in the same place, Cressa knows something sinister is at work in this idyllic setting.
Prologue Stinguendo: Dying away. (Ital.) What was that sound? A foot, snapping a twig in the woods? Ida knew she shouldn’t be swimming alone at night, but she’d been antsy all day. She needed to get her mind off Cressa's visit. Grace usually swam with her, but Grace had taken relatives to the Quad-City airport tonight. Besides, Ida was a strong swimmer. She knew every inch of Crescent Lake. And she thought she knew every sound. But there was that snap again. It prickled the hairs on her arms. She stopped stroking and listened, straining toward the trees on the opposite bank, just ahead. It didn't repeat. Must have been a night creature in the woods. A raccoon out foraging? Ida cupped her hands and pulled herself through the caress of the cool water, creating tiny ripples and almost no sound. FIND AUTHOR Kaye George at: Website FIND EINE KLEINE MURDER AT: Book
Kaye, what are some of your favorite mystery authors?
February 13, 2017
#MysteryThrillerWeek author is Khristina Atkinson romance with Intrigue and Suspense #MFRWorg #romanticsuspense #handbaglover
TODAY’S MYSTERY THRILLER WEEK GUEST AUTHOR IS:
Khristina Atkinson, Author of Romance with Added Intrigue and Suspense
WHAT TYPE OF MUSIC DO YOU LISTEN TO? My son downloaded all of his Maroon 5 CD's onto my iTunes. "One More Night" inspired a few tension filled scenes between Kate Hollingsworth-Collins and Nathan Reed. "Animals" was perfect for their irresistible attraction to each other. WHAT DID YOU DO WHEN YOU SOLD YOUR FIRST BOOK? Funny you should ask considering the name of your blog. I bought myself a new handbag to celebrate. They're my addiction. HOW DID YOU COME UP WITH THE IDEA OF YOUR BOOK? I love spy movies, particularly James Bond. I wanted a woman to be main character and a spy and came up with the reason for her to choose the profession about six years ago when I began jotting down ideas for the book. Her mother and father die in a horrific accident, so she's driven to become a spy, the only job dangerous enough for her to meet her demise and be reunited with her parents.
Kate Collins is paired with sexy Special Agent Nathan Reed for her first field assignment, who can't keep his eyes or hands off of her. As she's tailing her person of interest, she accosts a total stranger in the hotel hallway with a kiss to keep her cover from being blow. Julia Hollingsworth was engaged to another man when she had the pleasure of meeting Travis Collins at a Christmas party. One of the professors they had in common was hosting the event at his home. Travis was confident and ambitious with clear-cut goals for his future that he was determined to achieve. He took one look at Julia and his priorities shifted to include her in the life he had already mapped out for himself. She observed him staring at her. He was discernibly handsome with his ebony hair and eyes the color of a Ceylon sapphire. His navy suit fit him like a glove and was paired with a cerulean dress shirt. Blue was her favorite color. When he smiled at her, his dimples were revealed. Darn those dimples. She couldn’t resist them and had to smile back. FIND AUTHOR KHRISTINA ATKINSON at: Website FIND HOW TO CAPTURE KATE AT: Amazon
Lovely to have you visit with me today, Khristina! How long have you been writing?
Khristina Atkinson, Author of Romance with Added Intrigue and Suspense
WHAT TYPE OF MUSIC DO YOU LISTEN TO? My son downloaded all of his Maroon 5 CD's onto my iTunes. "One More Night" inspired a few tension filled scenes between Kate Hollingsworth-Collins and Nathan Reed. "Animals" was perfect for their irresistible attraction to each other. WHAT DID YOU DO WHEN YOU SOLD YOUR FIRST BOOK? Funny you should ask considering the name of your blog. I bought myself a new handbag to celebrate. They're my addiction. HOW DID YOU COME UP WITH THE IDEA OF YOUR BOOK? I love spy movies, particularly James Bond. I wanted a woman to be main character and a spy and came up with the reason for her to choose the profession about six years ago when I began jotting down ideas for the book. Her mother and father die in a horrific accident, so she's driven to become a spy, the only job dangerous enough for her to meet her demise and be reunited with her parents.
Kate Collins is paired with sexy Special Agent Nathan Reed for her first field assignment, who can't keep his eyes or hands off of her. As she's tailing her person of interest, she accosts a total stranger in the hotel hallway with a kiss to keep her cover from being blow. Julia Hollingsworth was engaged to another man when she had the pleasure of meeting Travis Collins at a Christmas party. One of the professors they had in common was hosting the event at his home. Travis was confident and ambitious with clear-cut goals for his future that he was determined to achieve. He took one look at Julia and his priorities shifted to include her in the life he had already mapped out for himself. She observed him staring at her. He was discernibly handsome with his ebony hair and eyes the color of a Ceylon sapphire. His navy suit fit him like a glove and was paired with a cerulean dress shirt. Blue was her favorite color. When he smiled at her, his dimples were revealed. Darn those dimples. She couldn’t resist them and had to smile back. FIND AUTHOR KHRISTINA ATKINSON at: Website FIND HOW TO CAPTURE KATE AT: AmazonLovely to have you visit with me today, Khristina! How long have you been writing?
#MysteryThrillerWeek Ronnie Allen, #author #detective #forensics #MFRWorg #MTW
Mystery Thriller Week continues with Ronnie
Allen, author of The Sign Behind The Crime
series.
WHERE DO YOU DO YOUR BEST WRITING? There are times I wrote best near a body of water, the beach on the Atlantic Ocean in Brooklyn, and here in Florida, the pool in our development took over from the ocean. I also write on my iPad and when I'm happy with the chapter, I upload it to my master doc on my laptop. Now I'm writing in my office or living room where I'm nice and comfy. ARE YOU A PLOTTER OR PANTSER? I'm definitely a plotter. I find this works best for me because the more I plot, the faster the manuscript flows out of my brain onto the paper. I plotted Aries, my second novel for five months before I started typing and 122k words came onto paper in three months ten days. Yes, I allow my characters to take on a life of their own and a few have given themselves more of a role than I had planned. Because I allow this to happen, I get into deeper pov and achieve more in depth characters. WHAT DREW YOU INTO WRITING THE GENRE YOU DO? I've always loved the crime genre from way back into my screenwriting days from the late '70s. I wrote spec scripts for Wiseguy and Miami Vice. When my agent finally got my scripts to them, the shows were cancelled. I find police work, detectives, FBI agents fascinating. I have consultants that help me with credibility as well as extensive research.
Rookie Detective Samantha Wright and Forensic psychiatrist Dr. Frank Khaos are brought together on the job in an assignment to catch the killers of fashion industry icons in NYC. As they go on a wild ride throughout the city their relationship grows from cold to beyond steamy. Eyes cemented shut in deep concentration, palms placed upon her midriff, she felt the power she craved being directed straight into her core by Tuesday’s new moon, as if a cord attached the moon to her solar plexus. She interpreted the moon’s personal signal as something she’d better heed. The charts she referred to told her tonight marked the night. Perfect for an Aries to invoke her deepest desires. Nothing else mattered now. Opening her eyes, she checked the light-resistant blinds on the window facing Garfield Place, leveling the way they fell on the sill. She pulled them tightly to make sure they shut out any reflections from the streetlights. The last thing she wanted was someone taking a glance in her direction, intruding on her peace. She needed to remain low profile now. Everyone had told her that she’d been and would be “low profile” her entire life. She hadn’t realize how important those two words would become. Low profile—low, unsuccessful, pitiful, minuscule, never good enough. From the time she entered school, those words had drilled apart her soul. FIND AUTHOR Ronnie Allen at: Website FIND Aries AT: Amazon
February 12, 2017
#MysteryThrillerWeek with #author George Weinstein #Georgiaauthor #MFRWorg #amateursleuth
TODAY’S Mystery Thriller Writer IS: George Weinstein, author of Aftermath, an amateur sleuth mystery
WHAT MADE YOU WANT TO WRITE? I have to write—it’s how I’m wired. I’ve written since I was six years old, when I created plays for my stuffed animals to act out, to entertain my brother and sister. I wrote love letters to woo the woman who, I decided, could be my soulmate (now my wife of 25 years). It’s my calling, along with helping other writers through the Atlanta Writers Conference that I direct twice yearly for the Atlanta Writers Club. ARE YOU A PLOTTER OR PANTSER? I pantsed my way through countless manuscripts, which have resulted in five published novels so far. However, I decided to become more efficient and outline before I started writing my current work-in-progress, a thriller this time. I still have some of the usual nagging doubts about whether I can pull-off the creation of an engaging story with memorable characters, but at least I'm not fretting about where the hell the story is going.
HOW DID YOU COME UP WITH THE IDEA OF YOUR BOOK? Aftermath started as a what-if exercise: what if a woman returned to the tiny Southern town where she was born to reinvent herself but gets embroiled in a murder mystery? From there, as I answered questions I posed to myself—who was killed, how does the murder affect her, what drew her back home instead of going anywhere else, who will be her allies/opponents/both--Janet Wright, my protagonist, began to take shape, as did the other characters. Also, the plot developed the twists, dead ends, red herrings, and other aspects that readers expect in a mystery, along with some features that hopefully surprises them.
After Janet Wright returns to Graylee, GA as the inheritor of her murdered father’s estate, she gets tangled in a web of secrets and scandals—and in fear for her life. Only one stop, I promised myself, and then I’d go to my father’s house — where he had been murdered in July. I wasn’t exactly looking forward to that. On Main Street in tiny Graylee, Georgia, I parked the rental car I’d picked up after landing in Atlanta that morning. Seventy-degree weather in late December and BBQ smoke on the breeze through my open windows reminded me I had returned to the Deep South, way below the Gnat Line. Though I’d been born in Graylee, I only lived there until I was fie and had no memory of it. I assumed the place would be just another backwater burg, decorated as countless others were a few days before Christmas. However, instead of check-cashing parlors and pawnshops, the town somehow supported quaint bistros, boutiques, salons, and spas, with upscale cars parked in front of each one. Manhattan it wasn’t, but it wasn’t the sticks either. FIND AUTHOR George Weinstein at: WebsiteFIND Aftermath AT: Amazon
George, are you an avid reader of mysteries and thrillers?
#MysteryThrillerWeek #author Jude Roy #amwriting #detectiveseries #mysteryseries #MFRWorg
TODAY’S #MysteryThriller week author isJude Roy who writes Small town Cajun fiction, big time mysteries
and is the author of
Searching for Lilith.
WHAT MADE YOU WANT TO WRITE? I come from the Cajun culture and since the French they speak, mostly 16th century French with more than a few made-up words, is not a written language, there were lots of storytellers in my community. Stories were how they passed on history, taught, and entertained. Once I learned how to write, I felt obligated to pass them on. WHAT IS THE FIRST BOOK YOU REMEMBER READING? The first book I remember reading is a juvenile biography of Daniel Boone; however, I quickly moved on from there. I read Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court shortly afterwards. I guess I have to credit Twain with getting me started writing. WHAT DREW YOU INTO WRITING THE GENRE YOU DO? I actually write in two genres, literary and mystery/detective. All my training has been in literary; therefore, I write in that genre. However, as a young boy of fifteen or sixteen, I discovered Spillane, Cohen, Hammett, Chandler, and a handful of others. Several years ago, John LeGrand, my detective, visited me, so I started his tales.
When John LeGrand agreed to find Zack Miller's daughter, missing for over twenty years, he did not expect to have to save her from a criminal step father, a drug king pin, and a determined sniper. He had only one option: lead them to his home turf and hope he had done the right thing. Annie itched all over from the very bottoms of her feet to her scalp. She hoped the guy at whose house she'd spent the night did not have bedbugs. She dug around in his refrigerator looking for something to eat while scratching her stomach. All she could find were three beers, a jar of moldy mayonnaise, and a plastic squeeze bottle of mustard. She opened the vegetable drawer and immediately regretted it. There were two potatoes in there that had sprouted vines, a stalk of celery with black spots on it that looked cancerous to her, and a rotten-smelling onion. Hurriedly, she shut the drawer and grabbed the mustard jar. She found a loaf of bread with a couple of slices not covered in green mold and made herself a mustard sandwich. She washed it down with a beer. Empty calories were better than no calories. FIND AUTHOR Jude Roy at: WebsiteFIND Searching for Lilith AT: Book
Jude, what is the Cajun phrase you use all the time?
and is the author of
Searching for Lilith.
WHAT MADE YOU WANT TO WRITE? I come from the Cajun culture and since the French they speak, mostly 16th century French with more than a few made-up words, is not a written language, there were lots of storytellers in my community. Stories were how they passed on history, taught, and entertained. Once I learned how to write, I felt obligated to pass them on. WHAT IS THE FIRST BOOK YOU REMEMBER READING? The first book I remember reading is a juvenile biography of Daniel Boone; however, I quickly moved on from there. I read Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court shortly afterwards. I guess I have to credit Twain with getting me started writing. WHAT DREW YOU INTO WRITING THE GENRE YOU DO? I actually write in two genres, literary and mystery/detective. All my training has been in literary; therefore, I write in that genre. However, as a young boy of fifteen or sixteen, I discovered Spillane, Cohen, Hammett, Chandler, and a handful of others. Several years ago, John LeGrand, my detective, visited me, so I started his tales. 
When John LeGrand agreed to find Zack Miller's daughter, missing for over twenty years, he did not expect to have to save her from a criminal step father, a drug king pin, and a determined sniper. He had only one option: lead them to his home turf and hope he had done the right thing. Annie itched all over from the very bottoms of her feet to her scalp. She hoped the guy at whose house she'd spent the night did not have bedbugs. She dug around in his refrigerator looking for something to eat while scratching her stomach. All she could find were three beers, a jar of moldy mayonnaise, and a plastic squeeze bottle of mustard. She opened the vegetable drawer and immediately regretted it. There were two potatoes in there that had sprouted vines, a stalk of celery with black spots on it that looked cancerous to her, and a rotten-smelling onion. Hurriedly, she shut the drawer and grabbed the mustard jar. She found a loaf of bread with a couple of slices not covered in green mold and made herself a mustard sandwich. She washed it down with a beer. Empty calories were better than no calories. FIND AUTHOR Jude Roy at: WebsiteFIND Searching for Lilith AT: BookJude, what is the Cajun phrase you use all the time?
February 9, 2017
Handbags, Books...Whatever Travel with #author Gary Guinn #beachvacation #writingsequel #NanoWriMo #TWRP
Travel and Book with Gary GuinnIn the fall of 2014, I was uptight about my writing. I was generating nothing new. I spent all my time revising unpublished stories and slogging through another revision of the sequel to my first novel, a sequel that seemed dead in the water, with no energy, no compelling life. Stagnated writing can be very depressing.
Then in the middle of October two things happened that transformed stagnation into a period of dynamic production that has not let up. First, my wife and I dropped everything and headed to New Smyrna Beach, Florida, to spend a couple of weeks with two close friends who lived in a beach condo. The beach has always been a magical place for me, and the beach at New Smyrna, with a little help from my friends, worked its magic. All the frustration melted away.
And coincidentally, a couple of days after arriving at New Smyrna, I read an article about NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month. I was aware of the movement, but had never looked closely at it. As I read the article, it hit me. It was time to take the plunge, literally into the ocean and figuratively into a whole new writing experience. And so the idea for my current release with The Wild Rose Press, the mystery/thriller novel Sacrificial Lam, was born. I had always loved reading the genre, but had never written in it. Deciding to follow the old maxim “Write what you know,” I transformed my own experience as a liberal English professor teaching at a conservative southern college into fiction. Professor Lam Corso arrives at his office one beautiful fall morning to find an anonymous death threat tucked under his door. And so it goes from there. The idea for that particular catalyst came from an actual incident at the college some twenty years earlier, in which three of my colleagues, all liberal professors in other departments, received similar threats couched in violent terms. Those threats were never carried out, but the threat to my character Lam Corso quickly escalates to action. I am now halfway through the second novel in the Lam Corso series and loving every minute of it. Oh, and I’ve also finished the revisions on that other sequel, and it has so much more life and energy now. There’s nothing like getting away to discover your way back home.
Sacrificial Lam is a wild ride of a mystery, full of thrills and threats. Lam Corso, professor of literature, will become your new best friend, a man who is brilliant but still not smart enough to predict his own crazy ending.
In the silence immediately after Susan screamed, Simon’s high wail came from upstairs. Billy’s voice broke through, “Mom? What happened, Mom?” His voiced moved to the top of the stairs. “Mama, I’m scared. Where are you?” Simon was sobbing. Susan grabbed the flashlight and scrambled to her feet. The darkness of the room pressed in on her, weighted with threat, the silence in the downstairs smothering her voice. She shined the flashlight toward the stairway, heading that way, and yelled, “Boys, can you see the light from the flashlight?” She flicked the light around the room, and seeing nobody, she yelled again, with less panic this time, “Nothing to be afraid of, Billy. I’m sorry I scared you. You and Simon come on downstairs right now.” She shined the light on the stairway steps, fear crawling up her spine from the darkness behind her. Find Sacrificial Lam at: Amazon Find Gary Guinn at: Website
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