C.L.R. Dougherty's Blog, page 6

Bluewater Stalker is Published and a New Thriller Series is Coming

In November, 2011, I finished Bluewater Killer, the first book in the Bluewater Thriller series.  In March, 2014, I released Bluewater Stalker, the sixth book in the series.   In a bit over 2 years, I've written close to a half-million words about Dani and Liz and their friends.  I'm thankful that I've gotten enough positive reaction from readers to keep me writing.
Of course, that's what I hoped for when I started the series, but I've discovered something I didn't expect.  With each book, the characters have become more real to me.  I've watched them evolve and grow from their experiences, and they've become my friends.  I often wake up at night having conversations with them, and not with just the main characters.
As I struggled with the plot in Bluewater Stalker over the last few weeks, Connie Barrera started pestering me.  Remember her?  She had a major part in Deception in Savannah, my first novel.  At the end of it, she ran away to the Bahamas.
After Dani and Liz got their charter business going, Connie happened upon a windfall while beach-combing in the Bahamas.  Needing to slip out of the country, she chartered Vengeance.  She didn't know that she brought a bit of trouble from her past aboard with her.  Dani and Liz, being no strangers to a little difficulty, decided to help her out.  In the process, the three young women became fast friends, and Connie got hooked on yachting.
While Dani and Liz were chasing around the islands with the Fitzgeralds in Bluewater Stalker, Connie bought a 56-foot sailboat.   She had so much fun on Vengeance that she decided to go into the charter business.  Paul Russo agreed to join her as the cook and first mate until she gets the business going.  Remember him?  Paul's the retired detective from the Miami Police Department who's a friend of Dani's godfather.
Connie's demanding attention from me now, insisting that she has a good story to tell.  She's convinced me to spend the next couple of months with her as she sorts out her feelings about men and sailboats.  She thinks Dani and Liz will agree to let her have the next book.  She's a self-assured woman, and she's confident she can support her own series, distinct from the Bluewater Thrillers. 
Her idea is that she's more of a romantic than Dani and Liz.  She believes that she would bring a different perspective on Caribbean sailing adventures.  She's envisioning stories that will appeal to the same readers as the Bluewater Thrillers, but which will also interest readers of romantic thrillers.  I'm not sure about this, but I've agreed to spend some time with her and see how it goes.  She's willing to give Dani and Liz and their friends parts to play, but she's determined to have her own story.  If her first book turns out as she expects, it could be a great ride.
I'll keep you posted.  By the time you're ready for a follow-on to Bluewater Stalker, Connie will be ready to take you sailing.  And don't worry, there will also be a seventh Bluewater Thriller later this year.

Thanks for your support.  All of us appreciate it more than you can know.

Bluewater Stalker is Looking for Readers -- Available Now in the Kindle Store

When the first murder victim appears in St. Georges, Grenada, Dani and Liz are just getting acquainted with Bill and Jane Fitzgerald, their new charter guests aboard Vengeance.  Random killings are unusual in the islands, but there's nothing to link this one to Vengeance and her guests, although Bill has a professional interest.  He's a college professor whose sideline is studying serial killers and the societal implications of their acts.

When a second victim is found within a few miles of their first stop after leaving Grenada, the probability of coincidence diminishes.  As the trail of victims grows in the wake of their voyage north through the islands, the authorities become progressively more suspicious of some connection to Vengeance and her crew.  While the Fitzgeralds wrestle with problems in their marriage and Bill struggles to convince the police that he's not the killer, the stalker focuses ever more intensely on Jane and Bill.

When I'm writing a book, the characters become quite real to me.  In the course  of this series I've come to know Dani and Liz as well as if they were members of my family.  About midway through this one, I noticed that Dani has changed a bit.  She's still a feisty, rough-and-ready woman, but she surprised me when she confessed to Liz that she actually liked the Fitzgeralds.  I think Liz was shocked, too.  She's become accustomed to running interference between Dani and their guests.  Is Dani mellowing with age? Or is she finally losing the chip on her shoulder that she's carried since her abduction at the hands of the Bluewater Killer?

I'd be interested in your thoughts on how she's developing. Does she seem any different in Bluewater Stalker?  From my perspective, her personality is becoming slightly more complex, and that opens some new possibilities for the seventh book in the series.  While I contemplate their next adventure, I hope you enjoy another great sailing trip through the islands with Dani and Liz as they help their guests navigate an unfamiliar environment.

CLICK HERE to go to see the book in the Kindle Store.

Excited About the Sixth Book in the Bluewater Thriller Series

Celebrating....Much of the material for my Bluewater Thrillers comes from my own experience cruising the islands of the Eastern Caribbean with my wife aboard Play Actor for the last 10 years.  While we’ve had little contact with the kind of criminals who are the antagonists in the books, most of the rest of my characters, the scenes, and the descriptions of sailing are drawn from life.  While that brings verisimilitude to the books, it has a downside as well.  Living the life about which I write means that I have to, well, actually spend time doing sailing related things.
Since I began the Bluewater Thrillers, writing, publishing, and promoting them has consumed my time.  My wife and I have continued to live aboard Play Actor and hang out in the eastern Caribbean, but I’ve neglected her.  Play Actor, that is, not my wife.  Traditionally in western culture, ships have been given feminine attributes, and sometimes even referred to as mistresses, and they are as demanding as any significant other.  Play Actor has been patient with me and my writing, and she has suffered some neglect over the last few years as a result.
When we started our sailing adventure years ago, family and friends prevailed upon us to set up a website so that they could follow along.  That was before everyone had blogs, before Facebook, Twitter, and even before ebooks as we know them today.  Our website was in essence a journal of our travels, describing where we were, the people we had met, and how we spent our time.  Several of our readers remarked early on that we seemed to spend an inordinate amount of our time working on the boat.  That won’t be a surprise to boat owners, but even the average weekend sailor might be shocked at the level of routine maintenance required to keep an offshore voyaging boat seaworthy.
Finally, Play Actor had enough of our inattention, and she let us know it.  When we rejoined her in Antigua last November after a few months ashore in the wilds of the United States, we had two major boat projects on our agenda for the winter.  It was past time for us to reupholster the interior.  This was beyond a question of aesthetics; the cushions had deteriorated to the point where sitting was uncomfortable, not to mention the tattered fabric.  We also were in need of a new mainsail to replace the one that was destroyed in a storm at the end of last season.  We’d been deferring that for years, patching it to get us through another season, but it was finally time to order a new one.
Play Actor had her own agenda, though.  At the top of her list was a structural issue; we had to replace the bowsprit.  The bowsprit was made up of layers of teak alternating with a softer wood, and had some minor rot in the soft wood when we bought her back in ’88.  Until this winter, we had dismissed it – it was adequately strong.  But Play Actor decided otherwise while left on her own for several months.  She got our attention by inviting a colony or two of termites to take up residence in the rotten spots in the old bowsprit.
We didn’t notice that right away, but we did notice the mud tubes that the termites had built in various spots throughout the living space below deck as they searched for water.  Aside from eating a number of our books – they showed a particular fondness for The Grapes of Wrath and some of Steinbeck’s other work – they didn’t do any damage, as the solid teak interior wasn’t palatable to them.  We eventually found their main nest in the non-teak layers of the bowsprit, and agreed with Play Actor that we should replace it.

If you think all of this has nothing to do with writing, you’re right.  That’s why I haven’t been writing, and why I’ve pulled back from a lot of promotional activities as well.  I’ve spent the last several months living the mundane part of the life that I write about.  I’ve been working on Play Actor, with the able assistance of my wife, who also put her own non-boating interests on hold.  We’re finished now, so we’re celebrating.  Of course, finished is a relative term.  It still takes an hour or two of routine maintenance each day to keep Play Actor happy, and we still have some long term projects to think about.  
But I’ve started writing the sixth book in the Bluewater Thriller series; hence, the fireworks.  Of course, the local people think the fireworks were to celebrate the opening of the new Causeway Bridge across the Lagoon in St. Martin, but Dani and Liz and I know differently.  Look for their sixth adventure this Spring.

99 Cent Sale -- One Week ONLY!! 46 great books for 99 cents each. -- Don't miss it!

The Books-a-Fire authors are back with more fabulous deals and NEW books to buy. There are no gimmicks or hoops to jump, just incredible prices on every single book. Just point, click, and buy books in every genre for just 99 cents each.  
YES!  All books on the page are priced at 99 cents to make your shopping easy and affordable.  For less than the price of a dinner out, you could buy every single book on the page.

To make it really easy, we've also created categories.  Click your favorite category at the top of the page and see all the books that are on sale in that category.  Load your Kindle and enjoy a quiet read now that the kids are back in school.  You've had a hectic summer so treat yourself to a good book today!  Go to http://bit.ly/15u8DGF today!

A Hanging in Bequia? Inspiration for the fifth book in the Bluewater Thriller series

We left Grenada on the heels of a tropical storm a few years ago, sailing hell-bent for leather to reach St. Martin for a long-planned rendezvous with our daughter and her family.  After an 18 hour day, we dropped the anchor in Port Elizabeth, Bequia, to catch a little sleep.  Arriving around midnight, we anchored in the back of the pack of yachts, and we were up and away before dawn the next morning.We were listening to one of the HF radio nets in search of weather information after sunup when we learned that a man’s body was found hanging from the masthead of a yacht in Bequia’s outer harbor that morning.   We were stunned; Bequia is a peaceful spot – one of our all-time favorite Caribbean islands.  As we picked up more scuttlebutt from the nautical grapevine, we learned that we had probably been anchored within yards of the boat where the body was found.  If we had left after sunup, we might have discovered the body ourselves. Port Elizabeth, BequiaWhat happened?  Was it murder?  Suicide?  The mutilated body of a woman was found below decks, and the people were European, but we never found out anything else.  If this had happened in another, better-known place, or if the victims had been American, there would doubtless have been a news media frenzy, but there was little to call attention to the deaths of two people in a Caribbean backwater.I wrote a few words in a notebook, thinking that such an event wouldn’t be out of place in a suspense novel.  I had recently published my first novel, and was mulling over the idea of a series of yachting thrillers set in the Caribbean.  I had a number of false starts centered on the hanging, but it never seemed to fit into a story until I was at work on Bluewater Betrayal.Writing is an exciting experience for me.  I start each book with a general idea for the story and with a few well-developed characters in mind.  As the characters play off one another, the story takes life and I do my best to record what’s happening.  So it was that at the end of a good day’s work, I found myself with a jerk hanging from the mast of his sailboat in Bequia.As one of my favorite writers is fond of saying, “Some folks just need killin’,” and this guy was one of the most deserving.  Even so, I was almost as surprised to find him swinging in the breeze 60 feet above deck as I had been when I heard about that real hanging in Bequia.  At least this time, I know what happened.  If you’d like to know, grab a copy of Bluewater Betrayal.  It’s in the Kindle Store at  http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FD9B2X2 .  It’s available in paperback from Createspace at https://www.createspace.com/4454951  and will be available from Amazon as a paperback in a few days.Bluewater Betrayal is the fifth book in the Bluewater Thriller series.  For more information on the series, see http://www.clrdougherty.com/p/bluewater-thrillers.html .

Books-a-Fire Free or 99 cent Deals for May

Several of us in the  Books-a-Fire  group are doing a promotion from May 13 until May 31.  We're offering a couple of different books for 99 cents or free each day. Be sure to bookmark that link  (Books-a-Fire)  and visit each day if you want to fill up your eReader for the summer.  It's sort of like a treasure hunt; you'll have to go through the listed books to find the deals every day.

One of my featured books is Dungda de Islan', a non-fiction book that tells how my wife and I came to be living aboard our boat in the Caribbean.  To read an excerpt from Dungda de Islan',  CLICK HERE .  You'll find links to excerpts of some of the other featured authors' books there, as well.

I'll be changing the excerpt on my  Excerpt Page  periodically during the promotion, so I'll post updates here when that happens.  I hope you enjoy the books!

Great Books at Bargain Prices!

Several of us in the  Books-a-Fire  group are doing a promotion from May 13 until May 31.  We're offering a couple of different books for 99 cents or free each day.  Be sure to bookmark that link  (Books-a-Fire)  and visit each day if you want to fill up your eReader for the summer.  It's sort of like a treasure hunt; you'll have to go through the listed books to find the deals every day.

One of my featured books is Deception in Savannah, a humorous crime novel.  To read an excerpt from Deception in Savannah,  CLICK HERE .  You'll find links to excerpts of some of the other featured authors' books there, as well.

I'll be changing the excerpt on my  Excerpt Page  periodically during the promotion, so I'll post updates here when that happens.  I hope you enjoy the books!

Two Dozen Great Books for 99 cents each -- Some may even be free!

Several of us in the  Books-a-Fire  group are doing a promotion from May 13 until May 31.  We're offering a couple of different books for 99 cents or free each day.  Be sure to bookmark that link (Books-a-Fire) and visit each day if you want to fill up your eReader for the summer.  It's sort of like a treasure hunt; you'll have to go through the listed books to find the deals every day.

One of my featured books is Bluewater Killer, the first book in my Bluewater Thriller series.  To read an excerpt from Bluewater Killer, CLICK HERE.  You'll find links to excerpts of some of the other featured authors' books there, as well.

I'll be changing the excerpt on my Excerpt Page periodically during the promotion, so I'll post updates here when that happens.  I hope you enjoy the books!

Bluewater Ice, the latest Bluewater Thriller, was released last week.  If you're curious about what Dani and Liz have been doing since you finished Bluewater Vengeance, check it out by clicking the cover. 

Technology for Writing more Efficiently – Tools to Free You from Paper

Abbreviated FreeMind map from Twisted Love, my recent thriller
It probably wasn’t original with him, but Abraham Lincoln referred to his signature stovepipe hat as his ‘office.’  In his early days as a traveling lawyer, he was known to keep court papers and other memos filed there.  When I was making a living as a corporate executive and a consultant a few years ago, I spent most of my working time traveling, and my compatriots and I used to joke that our offices were in our hats, although in our case, it was figurative.  Success in that environment, as in Lincoln’s day, required the ability to organize and produce creative work on the run without the support infrastructure of an office or a staff to research, document, file, and retrieve information.  Until relatively recently, the only tools available were paper-based.
I’m reminded of those days every time I work on a new book or put together a promotion for one of my existing ones.  When I wrote my first novel, I wrote it on loose-leaf paper, even though I had a computer available and could type adequately.  Why?  Because I found it easier to organize my thoughts if I could capture them wherever I happened to be when they struck me, and I always had pen and paper near to my hand.  It took me the better part of a year to produce a first draft, which I promptly keyed into my laptop, editing and rewriting as I went.  I think about that every time I release a new book.
Most of my recent full-length books have taken between 6 weeks and 3 months to produce, from start to publication.  I like to think that some of that increased speed is a result of experience, but I also know that a lot of it results from using today’s technology effectively.  In fact, I’ve written my last two books entirely without putting pen to paper – not even for those scribbled circles and arrows and doodles that I find necessary to work the kinks out of my plots.
Technology evolves more quickly than our ability to apply it most of the time, but I come from a high tech background and I work at trying new things to speed my writing along.  Most of us know the frustration of having ideas come and go before we’re able to record them, causing us to struggle to recover them.  There are readily available tools to overcome that problem; but they do come at a price.  The largest part of the price is time, though, not money.  They require some effort to learn and adapt, but the payoffs are large.  Most writers enjoy writing, but most of us enjoy having finished a piece of work even more than we enjoy producing it.  Judicious application of technology can significantly reduce the interval from idea to finished work.
The biggest reason I’ve worked to free myself from paper is the difficulty of keeping up with it and working with it.  Imagine sitting down to write and having every single piece of relevant information available on your PC desktop – even handwritten notes.  It’s not just possible; it’s imminently practical.  Some of my most valuable insights come to me when I’m reading.  Think of the value of being able to capture those insights without even putting the book down and booting up a computer or picking up a pencil.  The device I’m reading on always has all of the files for my latest work in process, up to date and a finger’s touch away from whatever I’m reading.  Programs to add to and edit the files are on the device as well.
Whenever I’m in a public place, I’m people-watching and eavesdropping, imagining how I might incorporate what I see and hear into my work.  Wherever I go, I have that device in my hand or my pocket, ready to modify or add to my current work in seconds.  I can even add a snapshot, if I think it might jog my memory later.  Writers’ minds are always writing, and the tools are at hand to capture those thoughts on the fly.  Once captured, they’re easily synchronized with files on a PC.  When I sit down to write, everything I need is on my PC’s desktop, ready to copy, paste, or study.
If you’re interested in how I do this, keep reading.  Don’t be put off by the techie flavor; remember, Google is your friend when you see an unfamiliar reference.  I’m not using anything that’s obscure or cumbersome, although the choices can be overwhelming.  The good news is that most of the hardware that I’m using is stuff that you may already have and be familiar with.  The software that you don’t already have is either free or costs no more than a few dollars, and it is intuitive in its approach. 
First, there are hardware choices.  The two big ones are what kind of PC and what kind of handheld device.  If you’re a writer these days, you probably already have a PC.  If it’s reasonably modern, it will do far more than you’re currently asking of it.  There are as many choices of handheld devices as there are of PCs.  If you’re using an e-reader, it may not have the flexibility to support a paper-free writing environment, but most smartphones will do the job, whether they’re Apple or Android.  Given the hardware, the magic comes from making judicious choices of software and then investing the time to understand and exploit its capabilities.  Rather than trying to enumerate the possibilities, let’s look at what I use.  Chances are good that what you have on hand can free you from the tyranny of paper.
I use a notebook running Windows 7, but there’s no magic there.  The software that I use will work on any recent vintage Windows or Apple PC.  I write in MS Word, and I use a free program called FreeMind to organize my material.  FreeMind is “mind mapping” software.  I don’t care for the term “mind mapping,” but that’s a personal hang-up.  FreeMind takes the place of all of those small scraps of paper and lets me draw circles, arrows, and doodles.  I can add text, pictures, or hyperlinks and move it all around to suit my whim.  Adopting FreeMind was the final step that freed me from paper.  Instead of reading about how I use it, I suggest that you download a copy.  For more information and a download link, click here.  Play with it for a little while; the learning curve isn’t too steep, and as you think of things that you’d like to do with it, spend a few minutes with the instructions or with Google, and you’ll probably find a way.
My handheld device of choice is an iPod Touch.  It offers most of the capability of an iPhone, but without the phone and the monthly bill.  If you have an iPhone or an Android equivalent, you’re in business.  I read ebooks on the iPod; after a day to get used to the small screen, I wouldn’t have it any other way.  The apps that I use most frequently in my writing are Goodreader, iThoughts, Wiki Offline, and a number of dictionaries (English, Spanish, Italian, French, and German) as well as several of my favorite grammar references.
Goodreader will readily synchronize files on the iPod with my PC and will open almost any kind of file.  Although Goodreader will open Word files, I usually save my work in process as a PDF formatted for print on my PC and then copy it to Goodreader.  When I open the PDF in Goodreader, I can actually mark up the PDF in different colors, right on the iPod screen.  I then upload the marked file to my PC and put the marked PDF on one half of the screen and the Word file to edit on the other half.  This is what I use for rewrites and self-editing.  Seeing the work in process formatted for print in PDF and being able to write and draw on it is helpful to me – it’s like working with a paper manuscript, but I don’t have to print it and handle it.
iThoughts is a mind mapping app for the iPhone/iPod/iPad that readily synchronizes with FreeMind on my PC.  When I have one of those bursts of inspiration, I open the map for my work in process and record it in iThoughts.  The next time I sit down at the PC to write, I just open the map in Freemind for the work in process, and there it is, updated with whatever additions or changes I made on the iPod.  Again, there is similar software available for other platforms; just make sure that it will synch with what you’re using on your PC.
Wiki Offline is an app that includes the entire Wikipedia database.  It’s handy for quick answers when I’m away from Internet service, and I can copy information from it and paste it into iThoughts.
There are a number of other apps on the iPod which I use for various things, but most are adjuncts to the core apps that I listed above.  Two favorites are WritePad, which does handwriting to text conversion off-line, and Notebooks, which is an all-purpose filing, organizing, and planning tool.  Most of the apps for the iPod/iPhone/iPad cost about what an ebook costs, so experimenting isn't expensive.
None of the tools I mentioned is unique; there are many competing apps which do similar things.  I’ve tried a lot of them, and these are the ones that best suit my needs right now, but I’m always looking, and I’d like to hear what tools you’ve found to make writing more efficient.  Please post your comments, questions, and suggestions below, and thanks for visiting.

The Next Big Thing - Again

A little over two months ago, I was tagged to participate in the Next Big Thing blog chain. Last week, fellow writer KJ Waters asked me to do it again.  Since I'm a month or two from releasing my next book, I agreed.  So, I'll say thanks to KJ and encourage you to visit her blog,  Blondie in the Water , if you haven't already made her acquaintance.

Here's the information on my coming release.


1) What is the working title of your next book?

Twisted Love.

2) Where did the idea come from for the book?

I was playing with some photo editing software, and I twisted a portrait of a beautiful woman.  After a few chuckles with family members who were looking over my shoulder, I was struck by the notion of twisted personalities and the differing perceptions that people have of their relationships with one another.

3) What genre does your book fall under?

It’s a psychological thriller.

4) What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?

The actors that I can recall from the period before I quit paying attention to movies are dead.  Besides, I prefer to let my readers develop their own visual images; I think a character’s behavior can conjure up very different images in readers’ minds, depending on the individual reader’s experiences.  That’s just one of the many things that distinguish books from movies.

5) What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

One person’s value system is another person’s psychosis.

6) Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

It will be self-published.

7) How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?

Two months.

8) What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

Again, I’ll leave that to the individual reader; no specific book that I’ve read comes to mind, and this one is a departure from the other books I’ve written.  I do keep thinking of the way William Faulkner dealt with twisted perception in The Sound and the Fury, but that's an inspiration rather than a comparison.  The books are quite different.

9) Who or what inspired you to write this book?

That distorted photograph gave me the idea, and a lifetime of close encounters with some seriously crazy people provided the material to round out the characters.

10) What else about the book might pique the reader's interest?

Guess the identity of the model for the cover shot; if you get it right without prior knowledge, I might award a complimentary copy of the book, once it’s published.
****And, finally, I'll introduce you to five fine writers who agreed to be tagged next.  Take a look at their sites and their books, and look for their Next Big Thing posts on January 31.  In no particular order, they are:

Terry Tyler, author of four fine novels, with another on the way - I've enjoyed two of her books in the last year, and I'm looking forward to the others.  Terry Tyler's Blog .

Rebekah Lyn, author of three enjoyable novels, with another in the works. I just finished reading her crisp, well-articulated prose in Julianne last night.  Be sure to visit  Rebekah Lyn's Kitchen  for the latest on her work.

Gae-Lynn Woods, author of The Devil of Light, the first of the Forney County thrillers, with the second book coming soon.  I'm waiting, first in line, cash in hand.  I enjoyed The Devil of Light. Learn more from her blog:  The Big Heat: TEXAS CRIME FICTION - Some folks just need killin' .

Regina Puckett, author of five romance novels and so many great short stories (not all so romantic; some are pretty scary) that I've lost count. I just read them as she releases them, now.  Regina Puckett's Blog .

Calinda B, author of sexy supernatural romance novels.  After you read  Calinda's Blog , be sure to follow the link at the top of her page (in that black bar) to her website.  Besides being a talented writer, she's a phenomenal website designer.

Thanks for visiting, and I hope you drop in again soon.