March Madness: Building a Series

 

Welcome to my edition of this multi-genre blog hop! (See rules and specifics below post)

Last year I launched a brand new endeavor, the Faces of Evil series. Sounds creepy, doesn’t it? The concept came to me several years ago. I wanted to create a scale of evil and write a series focused on that scale beginning with the least heinous of deeds. Mind you, the least heinous of those evils doesn’t exactly equate to light or vanilla when it comes to bad. Even the lowest level of evil can include murder. The seemingly nicest person can snap or be pushed into a situation and end up committing murder. Where that act fits in terms of depravity is all in the motive.

Jess Harris, formerly a special agent with the FBI, can tell you a little about evil.

Any act of evil committed by one or more persons against another is driven by motive. Every motive tells a unique personal story, painting a vivid picture that reveals the dark inner nature hidden beneath the image presented for the world to see. All of us possess a basic goodness, but we each also harbor the potential for evil.

Something else Jess points out is that expert opinions differ on the idea of whether serial killers are born or are made but the one point they all agree on is that neither Charles Manson nor Ed Gein were serial anything until that first act of evil was committed.

Once I found myself in the right place to begin the series, I realized that motive was indeed the foundation for what I wanted to do and where I wanted to go. Originally, the concept was more focused on solving the case and finding justice. As I fleshed out the series I realized it was the motives that intrigued me the most. The impetus for the crime and the differences between the truly heinous villain and the heinous act committed by your average, everyday person.

Eventually the main protagonists emerged. Jess Harris in the midst of personal and professional crises. Dan Burnett, the seemingly has it all guy who has never faced personal or professional hardship. Jess and Dan have two things in common: the relentless determination to ensure justice and the smoldering desire to have what they seem to have lost—each other.

With the main protagonists on page, I needed a compelling ensemble cast. Sergeants Chet Harper and Lori Wells showed up on the scene. Both hardworking, dedicated detectives. Each with their own personal and professional baggage. Other members of the team seemed to create themselves. Once I started, they came to me in a rush.

Then came the hard part, developing the stories. Each one had to feature a crime and a villain more heinous than the last. The idea sort of propelled me back to square one. After all, murder is murder, right? Not really. We’re back to motive again. That made my job a lot less difficult. The focus had to be on the motive of the crime and how that same motive resonated through every level of the story.

Once the plot line of the crimes was established, what about the relationships of the characters? Again, I turned to motive and the one thing in life none of us can escape—human nature. Humans make mistakes. They celebrate victories and mourn defeats. They have desires and hopes and needs. All I had to do was ensure my characters were infinitely human and the rest would take care of itself.

Jess and Dan have a long history. They were high school sweethearts. In their forties now, they have a lot more living to do and a lot of decisions to make. There are opportunities to right wrongs in their careers and in their personal lives. The journey won’t always be easy, but they have nine more books to get it right! If you haven’t already gotten your copies of OBSESSION, IMPULSE, and POWER, the first three books in the Faces of Evil series, I hope you will. All three are available as e-books for only $2.99 each and their paperback debut for only $3.99 is March 26!

Now for the blog hop! March Madness: That time of year when women across the country are left to their own devices during the NCAA basketball playoff tournament.

Sure we could do some early spring cleaning, catch up on laundry, organize closets, and throw out all the junk in the garage/attic, but where’s the fun in that? So, instead of work, we thought we’d host our version of March Madness: A prize filled hop presented by some of the best names in romance. And we’ve made it easy for you to join in.

Simply hop from blog to blog—the links are below—and “follow”, “Like”, “Friend” etc. the authors sites then leave a comment on their blog post. Each author is running their own giveaway as well as participating in the Rafflecopter Grand-Prize Giveaway of a Kindle Fire OR Nook Color, A $50 Amazon/B&N Gift Card, A $25 Amazon/B&N Gift Card, and 6 – $10 Amazon/B&N Gift Cards, as well as a “basket” of books. The event is live from March 5 – March 31st, 2013 to give you plenty of time to tour all the sites.

Rafflecopter: (The entrant counter)
a Rafflecopter giveaway

The list of participants:

Rules: You must be 18 years or older as of 12:01AM March 5, 2013. No purchase Necessary. Avoid where prohibited. This event is open to worldwide participation (basket of books limited to US/Canada shipping address only)You are limited to one tweet, follow, like etc per day, however you can follow one blog, tweet about another, and like a 3rd’s facebook page all on the same day. Be sure to follow the rules laid out by the individual authors about their respective giveaways, as they will vary form site to site. Rules and Terms are listed in the Rafflecopter. Grand-prizes will be announced on or about April 5th, 2013 on SnSreviews.blogspot.com. While we will make every effort to contact you, it is ultimately the winner’s responsibility to check winning status and claim their prize. Posted winners will have 5 days, from the date of post to contact host and claim their respective prize. If the posted winner fails to contact host, prize may be forfeited and awarded to another randomly drawn entrant and distributed without further notice.