Barbara Sullivan's Blog, page 3
December 10, 2011
Serial Killers and Serial Victims...
In the discussion of titles of non-fiction books that I've read as the author of psychological thrillers/mysteries, my own understanding of the serial killer (and not all psych thrillers have one) and his mindset comes more from reading great fiction writers of this genre. When I need info on this phenomenon I use the internet for a quick search of current thinking and analysis. Criminal psychology has evolved over the decades, and keeping abreast of the terminology is paramount to writing nonfiction books on the topic for present-day readers. (I majored in psychology in my distant youth.)
But for a fiction writer I feel the more important knowledge must come from the inside. No, you don't have to be a serial killer, but it helped me to have studied the subject over a period of time--and to have been raised in a family with a serial abuser.
I have a character in my Quilted Mystery series who may well be a serial killer. but he is also a serial victim. I find it equally interesting to explore the connection between what may be two sides of the same coin, criminal and victim.
It's difficult for us to accept the idea that the capacity to become a serial killer may lie in all our breasts. Equally difficult is understanding that being a victim is also serial behavior. Obsessional behavior is commonplace among humans, perhaps some aberration of the normal learning process in animals. Every teacher knows that repetition is the key to learning.
So is the serial killer trying to learn something by repeating his acts? About his nature? About his parents' natures? About something broken in his mind?
Barbara Sullivan, Unraveling Ada, Ripping Abigail.
But for a fiction writer I feel the more important knowledge must come from the inside. No, you don't have to be a serial killer, but it helped me to have studied the subject over a period of time--and to have been raised in a family with a serial abuser.
I have a character in my Quilted Mystery series who may well be a serial killer. but he is also a serial victim. I find it equally interesting to explore the connection between what may be two sides of the same coin, criminal and victim.
It's difficult for us to accept the idea that the capacity to become a serial killer may lie in all our breasts. Equally difficult is understanding that being a victim is also serial behavior. Obsessional behavior is commonplace among humans, perhaps some aberration of the normal learning process in animals. Every teacher knows that repetition is the key to learning.
So is the serial killer trying to learn something by repeating his acts? About his nature? About his parents' natures? About something broken in his mind?
Barbara Sullivan, Unraveling Ada, Ripping Abigail.
November 24, 2011
Read the new Quilted Mystery book!
Available now at amazon.com--the second installment of the Quilted Mystery series, Ripping Abigail. Featuring Rachel Lyons, PI and hand quilter as the lady who rashly rushes to the rescue, this story centers around Abigail P., who at the tender age of thirteen decides it's time to leave her home-school group and register herself at Pinto Springs high.
Unfortunately for Abigail, this is also the week six local boys on a weekend jaunt to Tijuana wreck their car on their return trip. Five of them die at the scene. For the next week, the school is torn with grief so overwhelming that no one sees the other, far more dangerous change happening right under their noses.
Read Ripping Abigail soon. Unraveling Ada is the first mystery in the Quilted Mystery series.
You'll also want to read Unraveling Ada at amazon.com
Unfortunately for Abigail, this is also the week six local boys on a weekend jaunt to Tijuana wreck their car on their return trip. Five of them die at the scene. For the next week, the school is torn with grief so overwhelming that no one sees the other, far more dangerous change happening right under their noses.
Read Ripping Abigail soon. Unraveling Ada is the first mystery in the Quilted Mystery series.
You'll also want to read Unraveling Ada at amazon.com
November 20, 2011
Are psychological thrillers with strong language too much for Indies readers?
My first book, Unraveling Ada, is the genesis for a series. In this book, readers are introduced to Rachel Lyons, new PI and retired librarian, who becomes involved in the solving of a crime through a hand quilting group she has recently met. In the process she is changed from a happy middle-aged grandmother to someone struggling with her basic assumptions about life.
This is no granny's quilting group. The women (one of whom is 13) who gather to top-stitch each others quilts are the subjects of each of the nine novels I intend to write (7 more to go) in this series. This first book, Unraveling Ada is about Ada Stowall, the woman whom Rachel Lyons replaces after her brutal murder. On one level, it is a psychological study of a dysfunctional family who harm each other in horrible ways.
Unraveling Ada is also a murder mystery, and Rachel is partnered with her husband Matthew in their private investigations business.
The second book in the series (just released) is Ripping Abigail and it is a psychological thriller about a teenager caught up in the violence of a gang gone bad.
I chose to self-publish because I was 68 when I published my first, and I felt I didn't have time to wait to be accepted by an agent, and then wait again for that agent to find a publisher. But now I'm worried that the nature of my writing is too strong for the POD audience. What do you all think?
This is no granny's quilting group. The women (one of whom is 13) who gather to top-stitch each others quilts are the subjects of each of the nine novels I intend to write (7 more to go) in this series. This first book, Unraveling Ada is about Ada Stowall, the woman whom Rachel Lyons replaces after her brutal murder. On one level, it is a psychological study of a dysfunctional family who harm each other in horrible ways.
Unraveling Ada is also a murder mystery, and Rachel is partnered with her husband Matthew in their private investigations business.
The second book in the series (just released) is Ripping Abigail and it is a psychological thriller about a teenager caught up in the violence of a gang gone bad.
I chose to self-publish because I was 68 when I published my first, and I felt I didn't have time to wait to be accepted by an agent, and then wait again for that agent to find a publisher. But now I'm worried that the nature of my writing is too strong for the POD audience. What do you all think?
August 23, 2011
Ripping Abigail joins the Quilted Mystery series
Available now at amazon.com--the second installment of the Quilted Mystery series, Ripping Abigail. Featuring Rachel Lyons, PI and hand quilter as the lady who rashly rushes to the rescue, this story centers around Abigail P., who at the tender age of thirteen decides it's time to leave her home-school group and register herself at Pinto Springs high.
Unfortunately for Abigail, this is also the week six local boys on a weekend jaunt to Tijuana wreck their car on their return trip. Five of them die at the scene. For the next week, the school is torn with grief so overwhelming that no one sees the other, far more dangerous change happening right under their noses.
Read Ripping Abigail soon. Unraveling Ada is the first mystery in the Quilted Mystery series.
Unfortunately for Abigail, this is also the week six local boys on a weekend jaunt to Tijuana wreck their car on their return trip. Five of them die at the scene. For the next week, the school is torn with grief so overwhelming that no one sees the other, far more dangerous change happening right under their noses.
Read Ripping Abigail soon. Unraveling Ada is the first mystery in the Quilted Mystery series.
July 28, 2011
Ripping Abigail.
If you are new to this blog, my name is Barbara Sullivan and I'm the writer of the Quilted Mystery series sold through amazon.com. My first novel is Unraveling Ada and it has been out for a year and a half. And now there is book two,Ripping Abigail.
I love writing novels and have been attempting to do so for my entire life, back as far as when I was in my first decade. My mother saved my first effort (4 pages) so that I'd know this. But life and its demands led me in another direction with my love of books, into the field of librarianship, which I enjoyed emensely for twenty-five years before retiring in 1999. A few years after that I returned to writing in earnest.
Finding a publisher at my age (69, 67 with the first book in the series) was something I felt I didn't have time for, so I self-published through amazon's CreateSpace and Kindle programs.
And now I'm beginning the process of marketing this second Quilted Mystery.
Here is the jacket copy for Ripping Abigail.
"Picking up the threads of the Quilted Mystery series that debuted with Unraveling Ada, Ripping Abigail delves into the seamy side of Southern California gang culture as bright, creative, 13-year-old Quilted Secrets member Abigail Pustovoytenko rebels against her homeschooling and enrolls herself in a high school where the local gangs are under pressure from mysterious forces and engaging in ever more violent acts. As Abigail draws unwanted attention by speaking up for the victims of the escalating gang activity, retired librarian-turned private investigator Rachel Lyons has her hands full trying to keep the rebellious, principled teenager safe while seeking to uncover the forces behind this eruption of gang violence that is overwhelming the high school and surrounding community."
I hope you'll give Ripping Abigail a read. I believe you'll find it entertaining and informative.
Enjoy!
Barbara Sullivan
I love writing novels and have been attempting to do so for my entire life, back as far as when I was in my first decade. My mother saved my first effort (4 pages) so that I'd know this. But life and its demands led me in another direction with my love of books, into the field of librarianship, which I enjoyed emensely for twenty-five years before retiring in 1999. A few years after that I returned to writing in earnest.
Finding a publisher at my age (69, 67 with the first book in the series) was something I felt I didn't have time for, so I self-published through amazon's CreateSpace and Kindle programs.
And now I'm beginning the process of marketing this second Quilted Mystery.
Here is the jacket copy for Ripping Abigail.
"Picking up the threads of the Quilted Mystery series that debuted with Unraveling Ada, Ripping Abigail delves into the seamy side of Southern California gang culture as bright, creative, 13-year-old Quilted Secrets member Abigail Pustovoytenko rebels against her homeschooling and enrolls herself in a high school where the local gangs are under pressure from mysterious forces and engaging in ever more violent acts. As Abigail draws unwanted attention by speaking up for the victims of the escalating gang activity, retired librarian-turned private investigator Rachel Lyons has her hands full trying to keep the rebellious, principled teenager safe while seeking to uncover the forces behind this eruption of gang violence that is overwhelming the high school and surrounding community."
I hope you'll give Ripping Abigail a read. I believe you'll find it entertaining and informative.
Enjoy!
Barbara Sullivan
July 25, 2011
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