P.D. Workman's Blog, page 112
May 2, 2017
Excerpt from I Found You
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Be sure to check out my deals for Goodreads Mystery & Thriller week!
Campnanowrimo is done, and I finished the first draft of the third book in my new cozy mystery series, and am on to my next project!
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme. Read the rules and more teasers at The Purple Booker. Anyone can play along.
I am currently reading Lisa Jewell’s I Found You. It is a complex weaving of three different storylines related to a man who shows up on the beach with retrograde amnesia. Unlike The Girl from the Sea and several other popular tales, he hasn’t washed in from the sea, but he does get soaked in the rain. Since this man has amnesia, the reader is left wondering what role he plays in the two other storylines. Who is he and what has he been up to? I Found You has a number of interesting characters; I don’t know if any of them feature in Lisa Jewell’s other books; they have very complex backstories that leave me wanting to know more.
“Where did you come from?”
He turns and looks at her. His eyes are wide and fearful. “I have no idea.”
Lisa Jewell, I Found You
In a windswept British seaside town, single mom Alice Lake finds a man sitting on the beach outside her house. He has no name, no jacket, and no idea how he got there. Against her better judgment, she invites him inside.
Meanwhile, in a suburb of London, twenty-one-year-old Lily Monrose has only been married for three weeks. When her new husband fails to come home from work one night she is left stranded in a new country where she knows no one. Then the police tell her that her husband never existed.
Twenty-three years earlier, Gray and Kirsty are teenagers on a summer holiday with their parents. Their annual trip to the quaint seaside town is passing by uneventfully, until an enigmatic young man starts paying extra attention to Kirsty. Something about him makes Gray uncomfortable—and it’s not just that he’s playing the role of protective older brother.
May 1, 2017
Are you ready for Mystery Thriller Week?
[image error]This week is Mystery and Thriller Week over on Goodreads! Lots of authors are participating to make it thrilling! Here are the ways you can participate.
Head on over to Goodreads.com to see what’s going on.
Follow #mysteryweek on social media.
My deals:
I have a couple of deals going on:
[image error]In the Tick of Time is on for $0.99
Matt Malloy, infectious diseases expert for the DOH vector-borne disease division, knew there was something wrong with the Buffalo Head infection cluster as soon as it hit his desk. But knowing it instinctively and proving it were two completely different things, especially when his boss and coworkers already suspected that, battling sleep deprivation, he’d already gone around the bend.
Matt knew that solving the mysteries of the Buffalo Head cluster was a matter of life and death. He just didn’t know that it could be a matter of his life and death.
[image error]Looking Over Your Shoulder is free!
Things were going well for Abe. Despite all of his past struggles with mental illness, he was happily married, had three wonderful children, a nice home, and a fantastic consulting business that satisfied his creativity and brought in a good income.
But you can never get too comfortable. When Abe becomes a prime suspect in a jewel heist – one of the largest successful jewel heists in history – his schizophrenia becomes unmanageable and everything begins to spiral out of control. Abe’s own investigation into the heist has the jewel thieves hot on his tail… but are they really, or is he just losing the battle against his inner demons?
Your deals!
Authors, do you have a good deal on for Mystery and Thriller Week? A blog post? A cross promotion? Link to it in the comments section below! Readers, check them out!
April 25, 2017
Excerpt from Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme. Read the rules and more teasers at The Purple Booker. Anyone can play along.
I had heard a lot of good things about Neil Gaiman’s books; I knew they were hugely popular. But I had never read any of his work before. So when I saw Neverwhere, I decided to pick it up and give it a go. It is a slow start, and I just about gave up on it before things started to get interesting, but I was sure it had to pick up, and it did! What can I compare Neverwhere to? Tim Burton meets Inkheart and Monty Python? That might about cover it! Here is my teaser:
He’s a little bit dodgy in the same way that rats are a little bit covered in fur.
Neil Gaiman, Neverwhere
Neverwhere is the story of Richard Mayhew, a young London businessman with a good heart and an ordinary life, which is changed forever when he discovers a girl bleeding on the sidewalk. He stops to help her—an act of kindness that plunges him into a world he never dreamed existed.
Slipping through the cracks of reality, Richard lands in the Neverwhere—a London of shadows and darkness, monsters and saints, murderers and angels that exists entirely in a subterranean labyrinth. The Neverwhere is home to Door, the mysterious girl Richard helped in the London Above. Door, a noblewoman whose family has been murdered, is on a quest to find the agent that slaughtered her family and thwart the destruction of this underworld kingdom. If Richard is ever to return to his former life, he must join the journey to save Door’s world—and find a way to survive.
April 19, 2017
Kick-Ass Girls in YA Fiction
[image error]I have been asked to contribute a blog post toward Libby Heily’s Kick-Ass Girls in YA blog tour event. Hop to the other blog posts at the end of my post!
I love writing about strong female characters, and few of my girls are shrinking violets. They do have different kinds of strengths; some of them would literally kick your butt, such as Kelli in Making Her Mark or June in June & Justin. Others are not so strong physically, but have the internal strength to find their way out of tragic or challenging situations, like Nadie in Questing for a Dream, Chloe, and Justine in Stand Alone. Still others have the quiet strength and compassion to support and sustain friends in crisis. Since I can’t choose one of my gals over the others, I thought I would introduce you to a few of them!
[image error] [image error] [image error]Breaking the Pattern
Appearing throughout the Breaking the Pattern series, Sandy is a hooker and junkie who is given up by her mother and traded by her father. Despite her somewhat loveless upbringing, Sandy has compassion for Henry and no pretenses about who or what she is in Deviation. Diversion sees her trying to break away from her life and make a new place for herself in the world against incredible odds. And in By-Pass, she is a mother, supportive and wise, trying to help Bobby find his own way.
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Between the Cracks
The title-character girls in the Between the Cracks series battle to overcome the effects of sexual abuse and predation in their lives, to rise above their abusive pasts and poverty-stricken upbringing to become something better and find some semblance of happiness and family. All of them battle homelessness, continued violence, mental illness and personality disorders caused by their histories, and trying to understand their own feelings and reactions toward the men in their lives. Chloe especially just blows my mind with her dauntless strength in the face of so much evil. I can’t leave the Between the Cracks series without mentioning Marty, a support character in Ruby who is wise beyond her years and beloved of many readers.
[image error] Don’t Forget Steven
In a book almost completely filled with boys and men, Sasha plays a quiet supportive role in Don’t Forget Steven. Adopting Steven as her best friend in kindergarten, Sasha has provided Steven with food and shelter from the storm countless times. Despite the fact that Steven can’t return her affection the way she would like, she is his staunch supporter and advocate before, during, and after the events covered by the book.
[image error] Stand Alone
There are few characters with stronger, more stubborn minds than Justine Bywater in Stand Alone. No matter what anyone else has to say, Justine’s sense of self overwhelms everything else in her life. Up against incredible odds, she is determined to be the person she really is inside.
[image error] Tattooed Teardrops
Tamara in Tattooed Teardrops is often seen as a weak, wishy-washy, easily-influenced girl who would have no place in a blog about kick-ass girls. But you really do need to know where a person has come from before you can make judgments about them, and Tamara has survived abusive caregivers and juvenile detention with a sadistic cell-mate. She has learned to fight back against those who would hurt her, and really only has one more person she needs to escape.
[image error] Cynthia Has a Secret
Cynthia, having lived a sheltered life, suddenly finds herself out on the street and fending for herself. She’s no fighter, but she’s lived with illness all her life, and she’s a lot stronger than she or anyone else thinks she is.
[image error] Questing for a Dream
Growing up in the direst poverty, Nadie has been a strength in her community and helping with the other children in her home. But devastated by the death of her cousin, she sets out to find a life elsewhere. She will need more strength than she thinks she has if she’s going to survive.
[image error] Intersexion
Intersexion is filled with strong girls and women. While I prefer not to give any spoilers; like Justine, the main characters in this story must reach deep down inside for the courage to protect and maintain their identities in a world that does not easily accept differences.
[image error] [image error] [image error]Medical Kidnap Files
Renata, one of the main characters in the Medical Kidnap series lives a life with severe physical and mental illness. But in spite of all she has gone through, she reaches out to others who are sick and oppressed and goes to extreme lengths to rescue them and give them a better life.
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Making Her Mark
Jujitsu-trained Kelli Munroe is one of the girls who is physically as well as mentally strong. She has a strong sense of self-preservation, or she wouldn’t have made it as far as she has.
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April 18, 2017
Excerpt from Finders Keepers
I am finished my Camp Nano project with the first draft of the third book of my upcoming cozy mystery series. Here’s a little sneak peak:
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Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme. Read the rules and more teasers at The Purple Booker. Anyone can play along.
My current read is Finders Keepers by Belinda Bauer (there are, as it happens, a number of other books entitled Finders Keepers, so make sure you’re looking at the right one. A rash of kidnappings baffle the townspeople, media, and police. Multiple viewpoints converge to bring you closer to the kidnapper’s identity, and then you’re left wondering how the police are going to catch him. All of the right ingredients for a good thriller! Here is my teaser:
Denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. Jonas knew the stages of grief by now. He knew them backwards. He could juggle them like plates. It didn’t mean he knew how they felt.
Belinda Bauer, Finders Keepers
Finders Keepers is a spine-tingling, edge-of-your-seat thriller about an alarming spree of kidnappings in the southwest of England. The eight-year-old boy had vanished from the car and—as if by slick, sick magic—had been replaced by a note on the steering wheel: “You don’t love him.” At the height of summer a dark shadow falls across Exmoor, as children begin to disappear, with each disappearance marked only by a terse, accusatory note. There are no explanations, no ransom demands, and no hope. Policeman Jonas Holly (a character returning from Bauer’s first two novels) faces a precarious journey into the warped mind of the kidnapper if he’s to stand any chance of catching him. But—still reeling from a personal tragedy—is Jonas really up to the task? There are some who would say that, when it comes to being the first line of defense, Jonas Holly may be the last man to trust.
April 17, 2017
Freebie thrillers!
[image error]Are thrillers your favourite? Or do you prefer free books? If you #lovetoread thrillers, check out these instafreebies, including Loose the Dogs!
April 13, 2017
The Girl in the Morgue available for Preorder
[image error]I have been keeping this project under wraps, but now I am in a position to announce my first cowriting project, The Girl in the Morgue. This is the fourth book in D. D. VanDyke’s California Corwin P. I. Mystery Series.
Thirty-something ex-cop-turned-P.I. Cal Corwin faces her most puzzling murder case yet. When a friend of a friend dies in suspicious circumstances, the police believe it’s open-and-shut. As Cal digs deeper to get to the bottom of the mystery, she finds herself a target for those who want the truth to stay dead and buried.
The Girl in the Morgue is the fourth novel in the Cal Corwin series of hard-boiled neo-noir mystery-thrillers.
The Girl in the Morgue is available for pre-order now.
You can also get the rest of the series here. Book 1 is free!
April 11, 2017
Excerpt from Allegiant by Veronica Roth
Things are really hopping around here for Easter! I have two sales on, with The Life of Our Lord, by Charles Dickens and Enemy of Light, a collection of four or my suspense books, both on for $0.99 for a limited time, as well as a contest to win 16 ebooks about new beginnings. Stock up now!
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme. Read the rules and more teasers at The Purple Booker. Anyone can play along.
It has been a couple of years since I read Veronica Roth’s Divergent, and I have finally gotten around to reading the rest of the series, Insurgent and Allegiant. Today’s quote is from Allegiant, the last book in the trilogy. I have just started it recently, and I’m interested to see where the plot is going to go. Things are just beginning to get interesting…
I didn’t know that idiocy caused people to just start spontaneously bleeding from the nose.
Veronica Roth, Allegiant
What if your whole world was a lie? What if a single revelation—like a single choice—changed everything? What if love and loyalty made you do things you never expected?
The explosive conclusion to Veronica Roth’s #1 New York Times bestselling Divergent trilogy reveals the secrets of the dystopian world that has captivated millions of readers in Divergent and Insurgent.
April 10, 2017
It’s a Kindle Surprise for Easter
Those of you who are in the US may not know what “Kinder Surprise” is, since it is not allowed to be brought into the country. It is a German product (kinder means children,) a hollow chocolate egg containing a plastic egg with a toy to assemble inside it.
But, since you are not allowed to have a Kinder Surprise this Easter, the bunny has instead brought you a Kindle Surprise!
[image error]Enemy of Light is a mystery/suspense ebook collection on sale for just $0.99 for the Easter season. After that, the price is going to go up, so get it while you can.
Enemy of Light contains these four books:
April 6, 2017
Spring into a fresh start with these great reads!
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I haven’t held a contest for a little while, and it’s time!
It’s spring! Time for planting gardens, hatching chicks, and going for long walks after being cooped up all winter. Easter is a time for renewal and rebirth.
And it’s time for fresh starts in your reading!
All of these books, including Making Her Mark, are about new beginnings and fresh starts. Enter now to win all fifteen. Here are the books that you will get:
[image error] Making Her Mark, by P.D. Workman
Secrets and lies
When everything changed, Kelli thought she would be happy. But nothing really changed.
Kelli’s life has never been easy. She’s always faced her problems head on. She’s strong and savvy and in charge of herself. All of that is about to change.
Her life is turned upside down when she discovers the secret that her mother has been hiding from her for years.
Kelli thinks this is her one chance at happiness. But is it?
Praise for Making Her Mark
“Another amazing read. The way [Workman] writes makes me feel like I’m living the story through the main character … I love [Workman’s] writing so much I build this relationship with the characters and it makes me think about them even outside of reading about them.”
[image error] Rebirth, by Aaron Hodges
When eighteen-year-old Chris is accused of treason, his world is changed forever. Abducted in the night, he wakes in a facility hidden deep in the Californian mountains. There he is subjected to the depraved experiments of the Praegressus Project – a government led initiative to enhance the human race. Unfortunately for Chris, the chances of survival are slim. But only the lucky get to die.
[image error] Second Chances, by Lincoln Cole
Nichole is caught in a tough position. She is juggling too many responsibilities as her world falls apart. She isn’t sure where she can turn to for help, and she is facing a lot of harsh realities about just how much society can hold her back.
Richard is a corporate lawyer who lost his way. He wants to help Nichole through this heartbreaking situation, but he makes mistakes and loses her trust. He discovers that he’s been doing the right things for the wrong reasons for a long time. Everything begins to fall apart as he realizes he’s swept problems under the rug for so long he might no longer be able to fix them. After meeting an alcoholic who is struggling to take control of his life, Richard wakes up to just how far off-course his life has become and attempts to right it.
[image error] The Newcomer, by Alasdair Shaw
From a young couple struggling to look after their baby to a new captain’s reluctance to take command of her ship, and from a sun-addled stranger’s appearance in town to the emergence of a sentient AI, the twelve tales presented here explore the central theme of an arrival by someone or something new.
There’s even an alien puppy.
[image error] Spare Me the Drama, by Karen Tomsovic
For two decades, Martin Leon and his wife blissfully penned a daytime soap together while growing their large family before real life took a melodramatic turn…
Sexy star Roxanne Hunter parlayed her role on the show into a thriving luxury bedding business and never looked back. Just when she was on the brink of having it all, the universe pulled the rug out from under her, leaving her with a secret heartache…
When Roxanne accepts Martin’s invitation to a family birthday party, it’s only to check up on an old friend in grief, not fall for him again…
[image error] Beneath the Skin, by Kyla Stone
For eighteen-year-old Sidney Shaw, life pretty much sucks. Her mom’s a drunk. Her dad’s worse. At school, she’s bullied by her ex-best friend. And cutting no longer brings the relief she craves.
When Sidney is forced into group counseling, she meets perfect, popular Arianna, the type of girl who grieves over a broken nail. But Arianna has secrets of her own. She might prove herself a friend–if Sidney can let her guard down. Then there’s Lucas, the sweet and funny new guy who sees straight through her tough, snarky façade.
[image error] Old Baggage, by Toni Kief
It took most of her life, but Elizabeth Donovan has finally had enough. Years of a difficult marriage, she has finally fought back. She had no choice but to leave the life behind and face the secret from her youth. The old life doesn’t want to let go, as she stumbles into the mystery that involves her deeper than she ever could imagine. Old Baggage is the overdue coming of age for a woman learning to stand on her own.
[image error] Hushed, by Joanne MacGregor
When she saves her celebrity crush, superstar Logan Rush, from drowning, Romy is offered a job as his personal assistant. She strikes a deal to reinvent herself in exchange for entering the exciting world of the movies, and love sparks between her and this prince of Hollywood. But Romy soon discovers that she has traded her voice and identity for an illusion of freedom.
When she discovers a dreadful secret with the power to destroy Logan, Romy must choose between love, revenge and finding her own, true element.
[image error] City of Skies, by Farah Cook
Nora Hunt has just joined the deadly quest to discover the ancient Viking legend of the hidden Shadowislands. Her post-apocalyptic dystopian world, Triangle of Peace, is the only home she’s ever known. But at sixteen years old, the skilled young warrior joins an elite band of Raiders called Jarls. Her mission? Merely to win the perilous battle for Shadowislands and avoid falling in love with the mysterious boy who just happens to be her worst enemy–and she’s not quite sure which task is more difficult…
[image error] Enjella Uprooted, by Jane F. Collen
This is the story of an adolescent Fairy who overcomes teasing, low self esteem and another Fairy’s meanness to become a first class Tooth Fairy. But while conquering these obstacles she realizes she needs something more to make herself complete. Join her in her journey to become an empowered, self-made Fairy.
[image error] Air and Ash, by Alex Lidell
After a lifetime of training, seventeen-year-old Princess Nile Greysik, a lieutenant on the prestigious Ashing navy flagship, sails into battle with one vital mission—and fails.
Barred from the sea and facing a political marriage, Nile masquerades as a common sailor on the first ship she can find. With a cowardly captain, incompetent crew, and a cruel, too-handsome first officer intent on making her life a living hell, Nile must hide her identity while trying to turn the sorry frigate battleworthy. Worse, a terrifying and forbidden magic now tingles in Nile’s blood. If anyone catches wind of who Nile is or what she can do, her life is over.
[image error] Don’t Throw in the Trowell, by Melinda R. Cordell
At last, help for home food gardeners. The simple, month-by-month layout of Don’t Throw in the Trowel will help gardeners grow a bounty of vegetables, fruits, and herbs. Grow luscious tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, melons, and more, and enjoy all the fresh produce (and give the surplus to family and friends) that your garden grows using these easy tips. Don’t Throw in the Trowel: A Month-by-Month Vegetable Gardening Guide is a fun read for every locavore who wants to cart tomatoes out of the garden by the wagonful.
[image error] Save an Angel’s Kiss for Me, by Joanie Chevalier
After 12-year old Mar’s father unfortunately dies in a car crash during the Christmas holidays, she not only has to recuperate, but also has to live with her mentally ill mother without the calming presence of her beloved dad. Fast forward three years and Mar is now 15-years old. Because Mar had blocked out her dad’s death, she’s never really admitted to herself that he’s gone forever, let alone acknowledged or visited his gravesite. She suddenly decides to take a 14-hour journey on a Greyhound bus to finally visit her dad’s grave and to face the truth: that her dad is really gone. Will Mar finally get the closure she so desperately seeks?
[image error] Aldo the Dragon, by Tania Giguere
Aldo is an old and wise dragon that came to nest upon a rock overlooking a small village. Aldo being of great kindness sees the need of the villagers and their children. So Aldo begins caring for them and teaching the men how to become more excellent hunters. For when the cold wind sets in food will be plenty and their families will not go hungry. Aldo also teaches the women of the village how to grow their gardens in all types of weather and how to love the seed and mother earth.
[image error] Moristoun, by Kevin McAllion
McSorely has had enough. His life has spiralled out of control and nothing has gone his way. There seems to be only one option open to him, one last thing he can do to take control of his fate. All hope is lost.
But far away on the mysterious island of Moristoun, Buchan is charged with the task of dissuading McSorely from this drastic course of action. Moristoun is where people like McSorely might end up, having exchanged one kind of hopelessness for another.
