Shiloh Walker's Blog, page 66

So…wow. Deeper than Need

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Isn’t it pretty?  The cover for my next full length romantic suspense, due out in June.  This will follow the e-book novellas, Burn for Me, Long for Me & Break for Me.

TIME HEALS ALL WOUNDS.

Eager to put a dark, troubled past behind her, Trinity Ewing buys an old house that will make the perfect refuge for her and her young son once renovations are complete. The last thing on her mind is finding someone new…but the contractor she’s hired is an irresistible distraction—and Trinity can’t help but fantasize about all the business they could be doing behind closed doors.

SO DOES ONE MAN’S TOUCH…

Noah Benningfield thought he’d put his demons behind him. But the moment he lays eyes on Trinity, the temptation he feels is too powerful to deny. Soon the attraction between them explodes into something neither of them could have imagined. But their desire will be put to the test when a shocking local murder has them dodging danger at every turn. Can the beautiful and damaged Trinity trust someone like Noah, whose own past is as haunted as her own? The only thing she knows for sure is that she can’t live without a man who makes her feel this good—over and over again…

 

 

snippet!

The bottom of his stomach dropped away as she froze and went white—white as death itself.

“Trinity?”

“Noah…”

Her voice broke.

Following her gaze, he found himself staring.

It took his mind a minute to process it—another to adjust. All the while, in the back of his mind, he heard the echo of a familiar voice…just a ghost by now, but one that haunted him for a long, long time.

“Trinity.  You’re sure you’re not hurt?”

“Nuh…no, no.”

He nodded.  “Then move back, now,” he said, his voice taut.  Pulling the flashlight from his belt, he peered into the dark maw, still staring at what Trinity had seen.  “I’m coming down.  I’ll boost you out and you can get my ladder.”

Trinity was whimpering by the time he got down there, carefully, unwilling to take his eyes off the gruesome discovery.

He touched her shoulder and she hurled herself at him, burying her face against his neck.

He didn’t blame her. He didn’t want to look, either.

But he couldn’t look away.

Nothing could make him look away from the odd, almost mannequin-like display stretched out on the dirt floor.  It’s not real, some part of him thought.  It couldn’t be real.

Parts of it were nothing but bone.  That wasn’t the worst.  The worst were the almost flesh-looking parts, bits that looked a strange, greyish-white.

“Tell me that isn’t a person,” Trinity said, her voice low and soft.  “Please tell me it isn’t.”

Noah wished, more than anything, that he could do that.

Instead, he just cupped his hand over the nape of her neck.

In the back of his mind, he heard the words… Noah, just trust me…

 

Read more here…

Sketching stories

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I had this idea at the NJRW conference to take elements from my Writing Hot workshop and devise a new sort of workshop, one on characters.

I’m not, by nature, a plotter.

The way I learned plotting (my way of doing it, at least) was by doing character sketches.

My first attempt at a character sketch came from two places, and I built on it from there.

I was visiting Lora Leigh years ago and she mentioned how she uses pictures just to keep her characters looking different.  It seemed like a good idea…I kept making my heroines red-headed.  I like red hair.  But all of my heroines can’t be redheads. So I started doing that, kind of using one of her templates that she’d given me for just sketching out the rough outline of a character.

Then I was playing around with Lynn Viehl‘s Novel Writing Notebook-for you in depth plotters?  Get this.  This may be right up your alley.

It’s too in depth for me, but some aspects of the Novel Writing Notebook, and Lynn’s 3 questions:

Who are you?
What do you want?
What is the worst thing I can do to you?

Helped me figure out what I need to know about my characters, even before I start writing.

My stories come from my characters.  I usually know them first, and once I know them, it’s like they just want to tell me their story.

Take for example…

Damon. (from my Kit Colbana books).

The rough beginning of book 1, titled dead men tell no tales, sat on my hard drive for over a year.  I had about 10k of the story down. I knew what I wanted to do.  I thought. I had a love interested for Kit.  His name was Damon.  He was a white guy, really cool, played a sidekick kinda of part and they fell madly in love, almost from the beginning.

That was the plan.

And the book stalled.

I didn’t know my characters.

Then, I was on twitter. Lightning strike came in the form of this:

Damon Johnson, Image courtesy of IMDB

Dwayne Johnson.  He was on twitter and I think what did it was the way he’d been chatting with some of his fans.  I’d been thinking about that book–again–and he said something to a fan, referring jokingly to himself, He’s an asshole.

It’s a weird way a writer can get a lightning strike.

But I went back and looked at the book.  Then I hit the internet and looked at some pictures of Dwayne Johnson.

Thought about my character Damon some more.

Thought about Kit.

Okay.

Who are you?  

Well. Damon’s an ass.

What do you want?  

If you want to know that, you have to read the book.

What’s the worst thing I can do you…

Again, read the book.

Then I flipped those Qs around, put Damon in the equation…as I was starting to see him now, and asked Kit those questions.  A whole new story came into view, and more questions.

In the end, what I had was the story.  I had Blade Song and it was written within a week.

The questions I had weren’t really for Damon so much, not this early in the series, but I did need to know more about him.  Initially, the way I’d written him was all wrong.  He wasn’t laid-back and easy-going.  He was, in short, an asshole.  I didn’t know, exactly, what he wanted, although half through book 1, I figured it out.

But as I was making notes and writing in a frenzy, I learned who Kit was. I What she wanted is too complicated to explain in one sentence, but she has a mission and she has goals and the story evolves from there.

Although more often than not, my notes for characters end up on pinterest, or scattered inside my head, the basically boil down to something like this…

 

Character image (use a blank area to add your character image…keep in mind, images are copyrighted.  I make online sketches, use private boards on pinterest or buy magazines and cut things out)

 

Name

Age

Height

Weight

Build

Eye & Hair color

Occupation

Education

 

Hometown

Currently resides

Likes

 

 

Dislikes

 

Hobbies

 

Who is s/he? (Note, this isn’t about her name… but who she is… is she writer, a lost soul, an artist, a scared kid…who is she on the inside.  Like me, I’m a mom, a wife, a daughter, a sister, a reader, a writer, a child of God, a brat and a troublemaker)

Mission? (a reason or being here?)

 

Any enemies?

 

What does s/he want? Why can’t s/he have it?

 

If you aren’t a plotter, but you feel like you have a good handle on your characters, or if you want to start trying to go down that road, this is what helped me.

I’ve got a a doc file if anybody is interested in using it.  Permission to re-use granted, although crediting it back to me is nice if you share it with others.

Thank you

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Thanks to all the Vets out there.

picture is mine.  Taken in DC.

CORRECTION… Frankfort, Ky signing is next week

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FYI, I’m idiot and I apologize.

HUGE apology, guys. I blogged that the Kentucky Book Fair is this week and it’s not. It’s next week, 11/16. I’m so sorry and I really hope nobody is on the road to head out there. Please forgive me. I don’t know if it’s because I’ve traveled so much, my deadlines or if I’ve become that much of an airhead. Regardless, it’s my fault and I really am sorry. Info is at http://kybookfair.blogspot.com/ and again, it’s next week.

The info for the bookfair is:

32nd Annual KY Book Fair, Saturday, November 16th, 2013

Now, please excuse while I go look for my brain, and again, I’m really sorry. This is a rare instance where I hope absolutely nobody was planning to come see me.

But come see me next week, even if all you want to do is fuss at me.

Broken Blade Excerpt

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Posted over at my J.C. site…

For those of who you review (you have to actively reviewing to get the ARC), Broken Blade is up on Net Galley.

That was fun

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This week is a week of crazy.

So my family went with me to Birmingham.  They were doing family things and I was attending the Southern Magic Reader Luncheon. It was wonderful… if you have a chance to go, go.  Jeaniene Frost gave a wonderful keynote speech, her narrator for her audio books (although she disappointed me with chapter 32-she wouldn’t READ IT!!!!), Tavia Gilbert did some phenomenal readings, and Christy Reece had a welcome speech that was…well, you had to be there, but it was out of this world.

This week I have to go to Muncie-it’s a school thing, and I’m already tired.

On Saturday, I’m going to be in Frankfort with the Kentucky Book Fair.  Then, thank goodness, I’m done for the year.  I did more traveling this year than normal and it was fun, but I’m wiped out.

Kentucky Book Fair

11/16/2013

Frankfurt, Ky

Info

Apparently I belong in New Jersey

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That’s what this quiz tells me anyway.

 

I found the quiz via PBW who found it on The Presurfer. And it looks like it originated on Time.com.

So where do you belong? Follow the link to Time or click on the map to find out.

Another FBI Psychic Novella

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This is one that will be out from Samhain in ebook in the spring.  This will pair up with The Unwanted and go into print sometime, probably in late 2014, I think.

 

The blurb…

 

Publication Date: March 11, 2014

Warning: This book contains a not-so-naive virgin, a pissed-off former cop, lots of frustration, if you know what I mean, and more trouble than either of them know what to do with.

FBI Psychics

Jay is in Hell, Georgia, to find out why her sorta boyfriend cut off all contact. But no touching. Her psychic abilities make physical contact…complicated. She’s not in Hell twenty minutes before bad vibes have her skin crawling.

Corruption has tainted Linc’s town, and now it’s stolen something very dear to him. The last thing he has time for is salving Jay’s tender broken heart. But Jay isn’t going anywhere. And Linc discovers the woman who’s afraid to touch him could actually be his best chance. At salvation, at hope, at life. Maybe even love…

 

More new covers…

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None of these are new releases, but if you haven’t read them before now is a great time to get them.  They’ve been reissued with awesome new covers, and for this week only, Samhain has the prices 30% off.

Someone wants a secret to stay buried—even if it means murder.

Since waking up in a hospital at age eighteen, accused of driving the car that killed his best friend, Jazz McNeil has lived with a guilty heart. Now, more than a decade later, he has returned to his hometown to raise his daughter and to uncover the truth about what happened that fateful summer. And gaze into the eyes of the girl whose life he shattered.

Though Anne-Marie Kincaid was told that Jazz was responsible for her brother’s death all those years ago, she has never quite believed it. The facts don’t quite fit; they never did. All she knows is, she still feels loved and safe when she’s with Jazz, and that he misses her brother just as much as she.

This isn’t a new release. but it was one my earliest attempts at small town romantic suspense.

“Go home to Daddy, Annie. Go talk to him.”

In the fading light, he saw the delicate color wash out of her cheeks and the hurt bloom in those green eyes. And then she blinked, and as easily as that, a mask fell. She shrugged, carelessly. “Your loss, Jasper,” she told him, turning on her heel and heading for her car. The denim drew tight across her hips as she dug into the hip pocket for her keys. Before she could reach for the handle, hard hands closed over her elbows, twirled her, pinned her against a heavy male body. Against her back, she felt the cool, smooth glass of the window and the metal of the door against her legs. She raised her head, looked into those deep brown eyes that had haunted her dreams for years on end.

“I don’t wanna talk to you,” he whispered as he lowered his head to hers.

Excerpt! or… buy!

Samhain | BN | Amazon | Kobo | iBooks

 

 

He’s given one chance at redemption—hers and his.



Hired killer, Vixen Markham doesn’t have any illusions about life or love. Unable to trust even the one man she lets into her heart, she makes a decision that she’ll regret for the rest of her life—which won’t be much longer by the looks of things. Loaded with vengeance and a small arsenal of weapons, she’s ready to face up to her past and say goodbye to her future, until she’s confronted by a pair of eyes she could never forget.

Graeme Mackenzie Lawson lived a hard life. Hard on himself and harder on those who got in his way. Betrayed and murdered, he’s given one chance at redemption—but not for himself—for the woman he loved, the woman who killed him.

Can he keep Vixen safe, when she seems determined to lose her life—and her soul?

This book has been previously published but has been re-released with new packaging. 

This is one of my weirder ones.  Just be warned.  But I loved it.

“I slept with him, let him tell me he loved me, let him fuck me and feed me and care for me. I even cared for him. Maybe I even loved him.”

The shock of that, actually hearing her say it, had him jerking his head up. And as though that was what she’d been waiting for, she smiled at him. An ugly, angry smile that froze him through, one that warned him. Still, he didn’t move away and when she slipped her hand further down and caught his balls, squeezing until the pain was a brilliant, sickening wave inside him, he continued to stand there.

“And then I killed him.”

She let go and this time, when she went to move around him, he didn’t stop her. Sweat beaded on his brow and he sagged against the wall, wondering if he’d puke.

But already the pain was fading—fading until in a matter of seconds, it was gone. The pain in his heart remained though and it threatened to do what no physical pain could do. It almost sent him to his knees as she turned and stared at him.

“That poor old man.” She continued to speak quietly, so quietly nobody more than two feet away could hear her. “He wants to know who killed the boy he loved like a son. And it was me. I’m a vicious, vindictive, cold-hearted bitch, Mac. I’ll bite any hand that comes too close.” Her gaze dropped lower. “And anything else.”

Despite the threat in her eyes, he reacted with need, felt it swamp him completely and utterly, so completely that his body had already forgotten the pain she’d purposely inflicted on him.

“Bite me all you want,” he offered. “Just let me bite back.”

Excerpt! or Buy!

BN | Amazon | iBooks | Kobo | Indiebound | Samhain

Surrounded by death, a man with a terrible gift reaches for life.

A horrific tragedy blasted open a door in young Michael O’Rourke’s mind—cursing him with the ability to talk with the Dead. Nearly two decades later, Michael has moved from victim to survivor, using his abilities to seek out those who would go unjudged.

With his gift, he talks to those who’ve died violently and seeks out their killers. Only once he’s found the murderer, can the victims be at rest. After his last case, the only thing he wants is peace and he hopes to find it in the small town of Mitchell, Indiana.

But something is horribly wrong—the dead are waiting for him there, as well.

Small town sheriff Daisy Crandall is frustrated. The murder investigation she’s leading is going nowhere, the few leads she’s had haven’t panned out. She needs a break—this case is personal and when a stranger arrives, turning up where he shouldn’t be, she’s suspicious. Finding out that he is more than what he appears to b, should shock her but doesn’t. The fact she’s highly attracted to him at the worst possible time is a hindrance.

Unfortunately, teaming up with Michael is the only way.

Now it’s a race against time before the killer destroys the life of his next victim…

this is the book that basically gave birth to the FBI psychics series.

“You’ve been doing this too long.”

His eyes flew up to meet hers and an unwitting smile curled his lips. He watched as she moved forward and knelt down in front of him. “This hurts you,” she whispered, staring up at him. “I’m sorry. I wish I didn’t need you to help me.”

Michael reached out and traced his fingers along the curve of her cheek. “This is what I do, ma’am,” he drawled. “Nothing to apologize about.” Dropping his gaze to her mouth, he finally gave into the urge that had been driving him nuts ever since he’d seen her. Threading his hand through her hair, he drew her a little closer, slowly, giving her the chance to pull away.

Excerpt! or Buy!

BN | Amazon | iBooks | Kobo | Indiebound | Samhain

Make a difference…with just a comment

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It’s not really a secret that my FBI Psychics series touches on some serious topics–date rape & child abuse are just a couple of the topics that I touch on.  With The Reunited, I started learning about human trafficking-slavery-something that we often don’t think about in this day and age.  It was a disturbing thing to read about and working that into the story and still telling the story I had to tell? Not easy.

Human trafficking is a very real problem in our world, even in the US.  Yeah. Even here, where slavery was supposedly eradicated back in the 1800s.

It hurts the heart to think of it, but all over the world, people…children…are sold, for a few bucks.

Blogger and friend Limecello is doing her yearly Social Media Social Good drive this year, raising funds and awareness right now and this year, she’s focusing on human trafficking.  Here’s a chance to help, and all you have to do is comment.  You can read some of the stats, make a comment, and people are pledging money for every comment.  If you want to take the extra step and donate funds, that’s awesome.

It’s a grim topic.  It’s a hard one.  But it’s one we need to look at, because we can’t fix it without knowing about it.

Some of the stats Lime has on her site

According to a 2009 Washington Times article, the Taliban buys children as young as seven years old to act as suicide bombers. The price for child suicide bombers is between $7,000-$14,000
Human trafficking occurs in all fifty states in the U.S. (You can check your state “grade” which might be alarming.) The FBI estimates that over 100,000 children and young women are trafficked in America today. They range in age from nine to 19, with the average being age 11. Many victims are not just runaways or abandoned, but are from “good” families who are coerced by clever traffickers.
After drug dealing, trafficking of humans is tied with arms dealing as the second-largest criminal industry in the world.
In the European Union alone, about 880,000 people are in forced labour, according to ILO estimates. That’s 1.8 in every 1,000 persons.
Human trafficking is a $9.8 billion domestic industry, with at least 100,000 children being used as prostitutes in America each year.
Two children are sold every minute

Here’s the link to Lime’s site.  Make a comment.  Help raise money to prevent trafficking and help the survivors.  And thank you.