Authorsday: Maggie Bishop

When did you know you wanted to be a writer?

While working in the corporate world, I asked a secretary if I could borrow a book to read on vacation. That one contemporary romance paperback changed the course of my life. I devoured four hundred novels in one year. My husband couldn’t understand the addiction. My nose was in a book all the time, even while in the car at stop lights. At home, he would have to call me several times to break my concentration and get my attention.”

One evening while driving home from work at Danskin in York, PA,I decided that I could write a romance. I’d been absorbing the rhythms of the stories, the variety in plot lines, the depth of characters. The decision to write was easy – the execution was the hard part. I joined the Romance Writers of America and had a crash course in the craft of writing by attending their national conferences.

How did you pick the genre you write in?

Appalachian Adventures started with romance, then turned to murder. The original concept was 4 books, 4 male cousins, 4 seasons and 4 different sports. I had to get the romance out of my system. “Appalachian Paradise” is romance and backpacking. “Emeralds in the Snow” is romance, downhill skiing and a cold case mystery. “Murder at Blue Falls,” my third novel (3rd male cousin, 3rd season and 3rd sport – horseback riding) changed everything. My publisher, Ingalls Publishing Group, fell in love with the two main characters and the following books are based on the fictional Blue Falls Guest Ranch in the real Triplett Valley outside the real cozy mountain town of Boone, NC.

Do you plot or do you write by the seat of your pants?

Once, I outlined a book and became bored with it because I already knew the ending. Lesson learned – my writing has to entertain me during the process so I’m 90% panster. Most of the time, I don’t know who did it until the last third of the book, which means more revisions.

If you could ask your readers one question, what would it be?

Since I write cozy mysteries, did you figure out who did it before it is revealed in the story?

Describe your latest book, “One Shot too Many.”

This time Detective Tucker is the main character and we find out more about his past. Yesterday's regret; today's deadly fix.

Impulsive acts during emotional upheavals from the past return to haunt, ending in the death of a photo-journalist near the cozy mountain town of Boone, NC. Detective Tucker must deal with his past while investigating the secrets of suspects determined to keep from facing their own histories. Jemma Chase, trail-ride leader and CSI wannabe, follows clues, even though her interference may cost Tucker his job. “One Shot Too Many” ... suspects a-plenty for Detective Tucker when someone kills the newspaper photographer who took one too many photos. Everyone has something to hide. The nurse – too many injections. The judge -- too many attempts. The retired army man – too many guns. And then there’s the dental hygienist with too many ejac – lovers, the grandmother who loves too much, the sports medicine professor who drinks too much. When Tucker’s own past comes back to haunt, Jemma Chase, his CSI wannabe girlfriend, has to make a choice.

What do you consider your strengths in terms of your writing?

My strengths are dialogue and action. Readers comment often on the setting.

What is your favorite word?

“Umbrella” because of the way it trips the tongue around the mouth. My favorite 2 word combo is “Ball hootin” which is what a pickup truck does down a slick mountain road.

Why do you use real people as minor characters?

I live in the South where uniqueness is more than tolerated, it’s encouraged. It helps avoid using stereotypes. Plus it’s fun for them and me. You read about them and see them in movies but I live near them, know them, enjoy them. Including myself, so I’m in my books like Alfred Hitchcock is in his movies.

Tell us about your background.

My family are all readers. My dad was Air Force and I grew up with 4 brothers. When Dad would come home and say that he was transferred, Mom would get excited and pack up all us kids and make the move with little trouble. We would explore the culture and land where ever we lived – England, Germany, Oklahoma, North Carolina, Japan. My parents started ski patrol when they were 65 and retired at 87. We are an adventurous bunch. That’s why I had to have adventure in my novels.

Where can we find out more about you? Visit my Website maggiebishop1.tripod.com and Blog Dames of Dialogue and Friend me on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/maggiebishop and Twitter https://twitter.com/maggiebishop Amazon listing for all my books http://dld.bz/maggiebishopamazon

Author Bio
Maggie Bishop hikes, skis, swims, explores and writes in the mountains of North Carolina where she settled in 1993 with her husband and cat. Every time they travel, they seek out other mountains but none are as exciting as the ancient Appalachians. When asked, "What do you do?" her answer is, "Entertain with word pictures."

She was awarded the honor of being one of "One Hundred Incredible East Carolina University Women" for literature and leadership. She's an Air Force brat who put herself through East Carolina University and received a MBA degree, a former manufacturing executive, founder and past president of High Country Writers, and is a member of Romance Writers of America and Sisters in Crime.

Book Blurb:
The Start: In MURDER AT BLUE FALLS, when her horse finds a body, CSI wannabe Jemma starts to investigate, Detective Tucker comes in and it twists and turns from there.

And Then: Since pay is low in the mountains, Jemma has more than one job and is also a carpenter. In PERFECT FOR FRAMING, trouble’s a-brewing in the Property Owners Association where greed and a lust for power lead to murder in a clash of personal versus public needs.

Now: The photography group meets at Blue Falls Guest Ranch and soon there is ONE SHOT TOO MANY which features Detective Tucker with yesterday’s regret haunts.

ExcerpTuesday: William S. Shepard

MORIARTY PICKS A MURDERER

Professor Moriarty glowered through his one-way mirrors at the four men who had assembled in the anterooms of the study of his mansion in the West End. He stared at each in turn, waiting to see if anyone was intimidated. That would certainly be a disqualification. Anyone who was intimidated by plush surroundings would certainly not be up to the task of murder. And certainly, such a person would not be up to killing Sherlock Holmes!

It had taken Moriarty a lot of time to arrive at his decision. As with any businessman, Moriarty allowed for some losses—spoilage or shelf time, if you will. But crimes, which were detected, and thus unsuccessful, were an unacceptable risk when your business was masterminding the majority of crimes in London. And the fact that it was inevitably Sherlock Holmes who, along with his sidekick Dr. Watson, spoiled Moriarty’s crimes meant that the problem was localized. Get rid of Sherlock Holmes, and the problem was solved.

The question was how to go about it. Moriarty could, of course, undertake the task himself. However, his rule had always been to have some underling, well-trained and briefed, commit the actual crime. That created a very public deniability for Moriarty himself, who could always produce many eyewitnesses to show, if the police inquired about his whereabouts, that on the night of the robbery or murder, he had been at Covent Garden enjoying the music, or was having supper at Simpson’s on the Strand. It was a proven formula which had worked more than once. All the more reason to have someone else kill Holmes.

But that was no reason to be careless in his preparations. Moriarty had decided not to let the men see one another, so that each would know as little as possible about his plan. Clearly only the man who measured up would be chosen for the job, but that didn’t mean there should be eyewitnesses to the actual selection. That would be inviting trouble. No, Professor Moriarty would interview each man in turn, give each a week to prove himself, and then after the selection, make a final arrangement to see the selected assassin and complete arrangements.

The four men he had chosen to meet were Herman Houlihan, Ed the Bludgeoner, Morris the Ascot Dandy, and Fastidious Fred Fielder. There had been several criteria for this selection. First, none of the men was generally known in London. Scotland Yard did have its informants throughout the islands, but police detection was not yet a very exact or national science, and it was possible for a criminal to be relatively unknown far from his usual haunts. And each of the four, Professor Moriarty had it on good authority, was an experienced murderer... <\p>

William S. Shepard

Now residents of Maryland’s Eastern Shore, the Shepards enjoy visits from their daughters and granddaughters, ocean swims at Assateague, Chesapeake Bay crabs, and the company of Rajah and Rani, their two rescued cats.

Prize winning mystery writer William S. Shepard is the creator of a new genre, the diplomatic mystery, whose plots are set in American Embassies overseas. That mirrors Shepard’s own career in the Foreign Service of the United States, during which he served in Singapore, Saigon, Budapest, Athens and Bordeaux, in addition to five Washington tours of duty.

His E-books explore this rich, insider background into the world of high stakes diplomacy and government. He evokes his last Foreign Service post, Consul General in Bordeaux, in Vintage Murder, the first of the series of three “diplomatic mysteries.” The second, Murder On The Danube, now also available on Kindle, mines his knowledge of Hungary and the 1956 Revolution. In Murder In Dordogne Robbie Cutler, his main character, is just married, but their honeymoon in the scenic southwest of France is interrupted by murders.

“More Coffee Break Mysteries: The Sherlock Holmes Edition”

This collection of twenty short mysteries ranges from British cozy mysteries, to the American hardboiled mystery school, just the thing when the reader has only fifteen minutes of free time and wants a diversion. It is the second collection in the Coffee Break Mysteries E-book series.

The mysteries begin with five stories featuring the immortal characters created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle – Professor Moriarty, Sherlock Holmes, Inspector Lestrade, Dr. Watson, and Mrs. Hudson. The reader is invited to match wits with Holmes and Moriarty! This group of mysteries has been specially authorized by the Conan Doyle Literary Estate for publication.

The E-book, like the diplomatic mysteries, is available on Amazon.com, at http://tinyurl.com/d46qq2y.

Interview with Jean Henry Mead

1. When did you know you wanted to be a writer?

I wrote my first novel when I was nine, a chapter a day to entertain classmates, with pencil on construction paper. But I didn’t consider myself a writer until my first newspaper reporting job the year I graduated from college. News reporting is the most demanding form of writing because you usually don’t have time to rewrite.

2. How did you pick the genre you write in?

I’ve always loved mysteries and I read newspapes as a child in Los Angeles because I had a morbid curiosity about crime. It both repelled and attracted me. I later worked as a police and border patrol reporter in San Diego.

3. Do you plot or do you write by the seat of your pants?

I’m definitely a pantser writer. I always outline a nonfiction book, but never a novel. I sit down at the computer with a vague idea of what’s going to happen and tune into my characters’ conversations. I then type as fast as I can to keep up with them. I’m far enough along in my Logan & Cafferty series to think of my two protagonists as old friends.

4. What drew you to the subject of Murder on the Interstate?

I was driving our 38 ft. motorhome along a northern Arizona highway one night in the rain, listening to truckers on my CB radio when I thought I saw a car off the side of the mountain road. I imagined a murdered young woman in the car and it gave me cold chills, so I decided to write about it. I had listened to the truckers long enough to pick up on their jargon and that provided a lot of humor for the plot, plus a woman trucker by the name of “Big Ruby McCurdy,” who rescues my two amateur sleuths after the killer disables their motorhome. She evolved from a woman trucker I later interviewed although she looked and sounded nothing like Big Ruby.

5. Did you encounter any obstacles in researching it?

There are always obstacles. I didn’t begin writing the book (my third in the Logan & Cafferty series) until we returned to Wyoming, although I wrote plenty of notes. I then had to conduct considerable long distance research about Phoenix, the kidnap capital; terrorists coming across the border with Mexican nationals, a bridge on an Indian Reservation south of Scotsdale, where chemical spills take place, etc. The Internet provides a lot of wonderful research material, especially MapQuest and out of town newspapers. So I didn’t have to return to Arizona or Las Vegas for further research.

6. What was the name of the first novel you wrote? Did you try to publish it?

Escape on the Wind, later republished as Escape, a Wyoming Historical Novel required years of research and yes, I had an agent who didn’t sell it, so I sold it  myself. It’s been published by three different publishers over the years and has outsold all my other novels.

7. How many rejections have you received?

I received over a dozen rejections when I was attempting to write short stories, but I sold my first book, a nonfiction book of interviews first time out—nonfiction has always been easier to sell than fiction and I had worked as a news reporter for eight years. I then sold four more nonfiction books before I attempted to write a novel, which I sold first time out.

8. What was the best writing advice someone gave you?

Place your “finished” manuscript in a drawer for a few weeks to a month, then take it out and read it as though someone else had written it. Edit and polish it again before you send it to a publisher.

What do you consider your strengths in terms of your writing?

I’m fortunate to have a good ear for dialogue and speech patterns, and I enjoy recording  my characters’ conversations. I’ve lived on both coasts and seven states in between and I’ve always acquired the local accent while I’ve live there. An important part of fiction writing is to vary each character’s speech pattern so that no one sounds alike.

9. What do you consider your weakness and what strategies do you use to overcome it?

I write fast, a habit I acquired as a news reporter and when I become bored, I switch to another manuscript that I’m working on. But I tend to spend far too much time social networking, which eats up the time I should be spending on research and writing. My New Year’s Resolution is write on a computer not connected to the Internet. J

10. What’s your writing schedule?

I rise around six, sometimes earlier, and go directly to my computer in my pajamas. After I check my email and networking, I work until noon and a short lunch break, then go back to work until it’s time to prepare dinner, with a few short  time-outs for the laundry and  housework. I sometimes go back to work after dinner. I enjoy writing so it’s never a chore..

***

Author Bio: Jean Henry Mead has published 16 books, half of them novels. Her Logan & Cafferty  mystery/suspense series features two amateur  women sleuths traveling in their motorhome solving murders. Mead also writes the Hamilton Kids’ mysteries and is an award-winning photojournalist, with articles published nationally as well as abroad.

Book Blurb:

Dana Logan & Sarah Caffety are traveling a northern Arizona highway in a downpour when a Mercedes convertible goes off the mountain road. They find the body of a young woman shot to death in her car and the killer returns to disable their motorhome. A woman trucker comes to their rescue and the chase is on, which leads to a wreck, flash flood and kidnapping by homegrown terrorists. Humor and light romance are sprinkled amid the drama.

Authorsday: Mike Gerrard

1. When did you know you wanted to be a writer?

From the age of about 7 or 8. My dad wrote in his spare time, mainly humorous columns for the local paper. I loved playing with his typewriter – which tells you how long ago that was. I loved comedy on radio and TV, and it was a revelation to me when I discovered that people wrote the scripts. I just imagined the comics made it up as they went along. So I decided I wanted to write sitcoms for TV. I never made it. The nearest I got was having the pilot episode of a sitcom bought by the BBC, but the Producer didn’t like Episode Two, so that was that.

2. How did you pick the genre you write in?

I didn’t, really. It just sort-of happened, as lots of things do in life. I’ve been making my living as a travel writer for about 20 years now, and that was only because I enjoyed travelling and enjoyed writing, and like everyone else it seemed the dream job. I now know it isn’t, it has its downsides like any other job, but back then I decided I wanted to try to get into this travel writing. I sold one or two articles, then a few more, and slowly it built up till I was able to make a living from it.

I’d always read crime novels, but alongside lots of other fiction and non-fiction. A few years ago I discovered writers like George Pelecanos and Michael Connolly, and began to read more and more crime as I discovered other brilliant crime writers like that. I wanted to write something that was more of a challenge than writing travel. Not that there’s anything wrong with writing travel, but I think any kind of writer would want to try something they hadn’t done before, to see if they could do it. So I decided I wanted to try writing a crime novel

3. What drew you to the subject of Strip till Dead?

I went out with a stripper for a while when I first lived in London, and it was an insight into a remarkable and very colourful world. I really wanted to write about it somehow, one day. It might have been comedy, it might have been non-fiction, but that world all came back to me when I decided to try my hand at crime writing, and I knew it would make a brilliant setting.

4. How many rejections have you received?

Hundreds, probably. I’ve been a journalist for about 30 years, and a travel writer for about 20. Travel writing is very very competitive, and you’re always sending in ideas and having them turned down. You have to be able to take that. You soon learn that there are all kinds of reasons why an idea or even a finished piece can be rejected. It isn’t simply that it isn’t good enough. It’s nothing personal. One travel editor told me she received something like 400 story ideas a month, of which she could use only a handful. That’s just the way it is.

Strip till Dead was turned down by several agents and publishers, although some of them said some very nice things about it. None of them said the nicest thing of all, though, which is ‘yes’. I got frustrated with the agents who never got back to you, who would ask to see the book on the basis of a synopsis and sample chapters, and then you never heard from them again. In a 5-month period over the summer of 2010 I sent the book to 3 agents and 2 publishers in the UK, all of whom had asked me to send it in. By the end of the 5 months when it was time for me to go back to the USA, where we also have a house, not one of the 5 had got back to me, so I decided to publish it myself. I can take ‘no’, like I said. What I can’t take is not knowing, and being ignored when you send in polite follow-ups to ask what’s happening.

5. If you have a day job, what is it?

It’s still travel writing, which these days includes updating a lot of guidebooks, writing very little journalism, but also now publishing and writing three travel websites with my wife. The main one, www.Pacific-Coast-Highway-Travel.com, is now well on the way to becoming a full-time job in itself.

6. What do you consider your strengths in terms of your writing?

I can write good dialogue. I’ve had three radio plays broadcast by the BBC, and radio really tests your ability with dialogue. I think I can also be funny, and I’m interested in people and their quirks, and personalities. I hope I can create believable characters.

7. What do you consider your weakness and what strategies do you use to overcome it?

My great weakness is plotting. I’m just not good at creating strong storylines, but fortunately that is something you can work on, and I have. One of my Amazon reviews in the States said: ‘Gerrard plots his story well and carries it off with flair.’ And no, it wasn’t by a friend of mine. I was more pleased with that one line than anything else in the review. I’ve read books on story structure and plotting, over and over, and of course when you come to work on a story, you just have to try to create a strong plot, otherwise it goes nowhere. But it doesn’t come naturally to me.

8. What authors do you admire?

John Steinbeck and Flannery O’Connor are the two I admire most. In crime, it’s the grittier writers, usually American, like George Pelecanos, Michael Connolly, James Lee Burke, Megan Abbott, Dennis Lehane.

9. What did you enjoy most about writing this book?

The liberation of writing fiction, of being free to make things up. That’s hard to do when you’re writing guidebooks! They have to be factually accurate. With fiction, if you want someone to be born in 1976 instead of 1966, you obviously need to think about the implications on the story – but you can just do it. Set a scene in Brixton? Well, if it’s right for the story and characters, you do it. Believe me, when you’ve spent 20 years being obsessed by museum opening hours and how many rooms a hotel has, fiction is a complete liberation of the mind.

10. What was your favorite scene to write?

The whole final chapter. Not because it meant I’d got to the end of the book, but because I didn’t know what was going to happen in it. I knew the main characters were going to come together in it, and it was going to be nasty, but the actual ending surprised and shocked me a little – so I hope it does the same for the reader. It was one of those sections that almost wrote itself. The characters took over, and they decided what was going to happen, not me. I really enjoyed writing both the two main final scenes, and when I put the book aside for a while and re-read it some time later, it still worked for me. Also, I had intended the book to be a stand-alone, and when I did the ending it seemed obvious that it would have to be a stand-alone. But after a while I started to wonder what happened to the characters next. ‘You can’t leave them like that,’ I thought. So I have been thinking about another book with the two main characters, though given what does happen in the final chapter, it presents a challenge. Though that’s what made me write the book in the first place, to face a challenge, so what’s another one?

Author Bio:

Mike Gerrard has won several awards for his travel writing and guidebooks, and has written for The Times, National Geographic, American Express, Michelin, the AA, AAA, Fodor’s, and many other leading travel publishers. He has published a collection of his travel writing, Snakes Alive, and written three radio plays for the BBC. Strip till Dead is his first crime novel. He divides his time between Cambridgeshire in the UK, and Arizona in the USA.

Book Blurb:

Liz is Nicola. Nicola is a stripper. And a stripper is about to die. When Liz Pendle moves from the north of England to go to university in London, her life is about to change in more ways than she can imagine. Persuaded by her flatmate Zuzzi that stripping is an easy way to make money, Liz is soon taking her clothes off in some of London’s seediest pubs and clubs. But when a stripper is found murdered, Liz is lured further into this secret world and must decide how far she’s prepared to go to help unmask the killer.

My website:

www.mikegerrard.com

Strip till Dead

US Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/4fv32zf

UK Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/48vgygc

Paperback: http://tinyurl.com/striptilldead

Upping the Stakes: Goals and Motivation

by Ellis Vidler

Usually the characters are the first thing that comes to mind for me. Occasionally there's a crime that I want to use, but it doesn't matter. The important thing is to find powerful goals and motivation—the kind that creates conflict and compels the reader to turn the pages.

When I have a serious idea, I try to come up with the goal, motivation, and conflict for two or three main characters, the heroine/hero or both, and (since I write suspense) the villain. Everyone needs a reason for their behavior, and the stronger the reason, the more compelling the story will be.

Weak motivation makes a weak story. Say the heroine, Millicent, is usually a nice honest person, someone we could like and want to know, but today she steals a rare plant to make tea from. Why? The reader won't be happy about finding she's a thief. Did she just crave the tea and thought one little plant from the scientist's greenhouse wouldn't hurt? Poor motive. But what if her child is terribly ill and the only thing she can keep down is tea from this plant (not exactly believable, but this is to illustrate a point, not become a great plot). Millicent is penniless, has lost her job, her house is in foreclosure, and her child may not last the night. So her reason for stealing becomes more acceptable. She has a strong motivation. What if some enzyme in the plant is a possible cure for the illness? She wants to cure her child, so she has a strong goal, one we can share in.

You can always ask Why? and What if? Increase the stakes for the protagonist until you have something the reader will really care about and sympathize with. A deadline can add to the suspense and motive. If Millicent's child is near death, she can't wait around till she earns the money or can convince the scientist to help her. What if he's already turned her down? She's tried the legal paths but at this point, has no choice.

Now for the bad guy. What if he's the inventor of a new drug that contains the enzyme and stands to make a lot of money from it? He needs a motive too. Just wanting the money is poor and not something we'll have any sympathy for.  He needs a compelling motive too. Let's say he grew up poor and his mother died because the family couldn't afford medical care. That's why he became a drug researcher. He wants to create miracle cures and make money, but because power corrupts, he's become selfish and greedy. He can have all kinds of secondary reasons and complications. But the villain needs a goal and a motive too. The story will be a much more compelling read if their goals and motives are strong and in direct conflict.

Keep adding to the Why? If your heroine is a doctor, make her the only doctor in a small community during an avian flu epidemic. She's exhausted but still going. So have her run out of medicine. Block the only road in or out—how about a landslide caused by the forest fire that drove the chickens carrying the flu into town in the first place? The events that worsen the situation should be tied together and related, not acts of fate that come out of the blue. Ask what other terrible things could happen to worsen the situation. But don't forget the bright spot, something to give a faint ray of hope. Maybe the child who drank the tea survives (combining stories, I know), but the fire destroyed the plants. And so on. As you write, details will come, things will change, and surprises will emerge. But at least you'll have the basis for a good story.

____________________

Ellis Vidler is an editor and the author of Haunting Refrain, a romantic mystery with a touch of paranormal. It's available on Kindle. She co-wrote The Peeper, a suspense novel, with retired LEO Jim Christopher.

Her new book, Cold Comfort, romantic suspense, will be available from Echelon Press this month. When Christmas shop owner Claire Spencer is attacked, she hires PI Ben Riley to find out why. Together they find everything she believed is a lie, but the truth is . . . Cold Comfort.

You can find her at www.ellisvidler.com or her blog, http://theunpredictablemuse.blogspot.com

Links: Haunting Refrain  http://www.amazon.com/Haunting-Refrain-ebook/dp/B00336F3QE

The Peeper  http://www.amazon.com/The-Peeper-ebook/dp/tags-on-product/B003VYBQGY

Cold Comfort  http://www.echelonpress.com/

Author Excerpt: Vincent Zandri

Excerpt:

From my bed, I shoot a glance at his wedding finger and see that it’s empty. Moonlight the observant. I also see that the sun’s rays haven’t quite tanned the white ring-line that remains. Another newly-separated-on-the-way-to-divorce cop. Big surprise there.

“Mind if I ask you a few questions, Mr. Moonlight?”
“Dick,” I offer. “Dick.”
“’Scuse me?” the uniformed side of beef breaks in. He’s obviously under the impression I’m trying to mess with his boss. Or maybe he’s just trying to pick a fight with the near dead, or the hardly alive.“That’s my name. Dick. As in, your boss may call me Dick, as opposed to a dick.”

Book Details:

Genre:Adult Suspense, Mystery, Thriller
Publisher: StoneGate Ink
Publication Date: August 13,2011

Synopsis:
“Life sucks. Then you die. Or, if you’re Dick Moonlight, first you die and then you live.”

Dick Moonlight is dead.

Really dead this time, now that three President Obama-masked thugs dressed all in black and communicating only with hand-held voice synthesizers pressed up against their voice boxes have beat the life right out of him inside a dark, downtown Albany alley. What are the thugs after? A box. Size, weight, description unknown. They also want him to stay away from his newest and only client: a handicapped nuclear engineer of dubious Russian heritage by the same of Peter Czech.

But then, now that they’ve killed him, Moonlight’s problems seem to be over. In fact, as he undergoes an out of body experience, his soul floating above his train-wreck of a corpse inside the Albany Medical Center I.C.U., he feels pretty damned good. Great in fact. To make death all the more sweeter, his one true love, Lola, is standing by his bedside. With her long dark hair draping her chiseled face and big round Jackie O sunglasses hiding tear-filled eyes, she appears every bit the grieving sig other. Nothing could make the dead-and-gone Moonlight prouder.

But then something happens. Something bad. A man enters into the I.C.U. Some young guy. He takes hold of Lola’s hand, and pulls her into him. Together, the two share a loving embrace over Moonlight’s dead body. Now, what seemed like a peaceful death is anything but. Moonlight wants back inside his body so he can face-off Some Young Guy and find out if his true love has in fact been cheating on him. At the same time, he wants to find out the true identity of those thugs who killed him so he can exact his revenge. No doubt about it, Moonlight needs to live if he’s going to uncover some pretty painful answers and take care of business.

Like a little kid dropping down a playground slide, Moonlight slides right back inside his bruised and broken body. Opening his eyes the white light blinds him. He feels the pain of his wounds and the pain of his breaking heart.

Life sucks, then you die.

But Moonlight rises. 

Author Bio:
Vincent Zandri is the No. 1 International Bestselling Amazon Kindle author of THE INNOCENT, GODCHILD, THE REMAINS, MOONLIGHT FALLS, CONCRETE PEARL and the forthcoming MOONLIGHT RISES. He is also the author of the bestselling digital shorts, PATHOLOGICAL and MOONLIGHT MAFIA. Harlan Coben has described his novels as "...gritty, fast-paced, lyrical and haunting," while the New York Post called THE INNOCENT, "Sensational...Masterful...Brilliant!" In March, April and May of 2011, he sold more than 100,000 Kindle E-Books editions of his novels, and is rapidly closing in on the 200K mark all totaled. An MFA in Writing graduate of Vermont College, Zandri's work is translated into many languages including the Dutch, Russian and Japanese. An adventurer, foreign correspondent, and freelance photo-journalist for RT, Globalspec, IBTimes and more, he divides his time between New York and Florence, Italy.

Connect With Vincent:

Facebook

Twitter

Blog

Website

The Next Stop:

October 27th-Review@Thoughts In Progress

Purchase Links: 

Amazon|BarnesAndNoble

ExcerpTuesday: Marcia James

Marcia James Interview

1.                  How did you pick the genre you write in?

I love romance novels and their happy endings.  It's so much fun watching the hero and heroine falling in love and overcoming obstacles on their way to their happily ever after.  But I also enjoy reading mysteries, where good always triumphs.  So combining my two favorite fiction genres into my "Dr. Ally Skye, Sex Therapist" comic romantic mystery series has been a blast to write.

2.                  What drew you to the subject of Sex & the Single Therapist?

I have a sense of humor that's been described as "offbeat."  ;-)  And the premise of the series appealed to my slightly bent funny bone.  The idea of a female sex therapist/amateur sleuth offers lots of comic possibilities, especially if the homicide detective hero is a "meat-and-potatoes" guy sexually (read "prude"), who's not too keen on the heroine's profession.  Dr. Ally Skye's specialized knowledge, however, proves useful to the police when they're trying to solve sex-driven crimes.  I had a great time writing about these two very different characters who are drawn together by murder and an inconvenient -- put powerful -- attraction.

3.                  Did you encounter any obstacles in researching it?

The series is set in Las Vegas, which is known for its widely available legal and illegal sexual activities.  Dr. Ally Skye could solve a sex-related murder a day and probably not run out of different kinky crimes for years.  Researching sex in "Sin City" has been interesting, but it's also led me to some pretty disturbing websites.  I'd say the toughest part of the research is the crime scene and forensic procedures.  I don't go into graphic detail about the murders in my books, however.  The series is a comic one that is closer to cozy mysteries than to thrillers...IF cozy mysteries had lots of love scenes in them.  ;-)

4.                  What is the one thing your hero would do that you wouldn’t?

He would attend an autopsy.  I'm so squeamish about blood and such that I don 't even watch TV crime shows -- except for Castle because the gore is kept at a minimum and it stars Nathan Fillion.  Yum!

5.                  What did you enjoy most about writing this book?

I enjoy putting my characters into situations where they are "fish out of water."  In this series, Zack Crawford, the prudish detective hero, is uncomfortable being attracted to a woman he first mistook for a sex trade worker.  As their relationship progresses, he's worried she'll expect more than "vanilla sex."  When she jokingly offers to put an ice cube on his male G-spot, he tells her the only way he'd agree is if his G-spot was on his tongue and the ice was in a glass of Scotch.  He eventually discovers that lovemaking can be playful and even funny.  My heroine has a good time "loosening up" Zack a little.  ;-)

6.                  What was your favorite scene to write?

Zack and Ally's first love scene, although their first kiss scene runs a close second.  I LOVE writing love scenes.  The characters are so emotional and vulnerable that first time especially, and their physical love can often trigger a realization that their hearts are also involved.  Love scenes are a big payoff for romance readers, of which I am one.

7.                  What was the name of the first novel you wrote? Did you try to publish it?

The first novel I completed was a comic romantic mystery titled, Southern Exposure.  It won a contest and was requested in full by Harlequin for the now defunct Temptation line.  The editor held onto the manuscript for two years before rejecting it because they "had just published something too similar to it."  I'm turning that book into a single title.  My second manuscript was a comic romantic suspense titled, At Her Command.  It won six Romance Writers of America contests and ultimately found a home at Ellora's Cave.  At Her Command explores what could happen if the DEA, FBI, and Washington, DC police put operatives undercover at the same sex club -- without bothering to tell each other.  At Her Command is available in trade paperback and e-book, and Ellora's Cave has a great sale going on right now for the e-book (http://www.jasminejade.com/p-4206-at-her-command.aspx).

8.                  Where do you write?

I have a home office where I do the majority of my work on my desktop computer.  The office is filled with too many files, books, and stuffed dogs (because all of my books feature 4-legged characters, particularly Chinese crested hairless dogs).  But the office is still a cozy "writer's cave."  If I go outside on a pretty day -- or when I'm on the road -- I work on my netbook.  And if I'm stuck in a doctor's office waiting room, I write long-hand in a print notebook.

9.                  If you have a day job, what is it?

I'm a freelance marketing consultant, though my fiction writing is my main profession these days.  I've always supported myself by writing -- as an advertising copywriter, a corporate video scriptwriter, a journalist, etc.  I also present author promotion online and in-person workshops.  I'm presenting two workshops at the 2012 RT Book Reviews' "Booklovers" convention.

10.              What do you do when you are not writing?

I'm brainstorming plots and "researching" love scenes with my husband and hero of many years.  ;-)

  

Author Bio:

Marcia James writes hot, humorous romances and finaled in eleven Romance Writers of America contests before selling her first romance, At Her Command.  Her short story, "Rescue Me", appears in Tails of Love, a Berkley anthology being reissued in December.  In her eclectic career, she has shot submarine training videos, organized celebrity-filled nonprofit events and had her wedding covered by People Magazine.  After years of dealing with such sexy topics as how to install traffic lights, Marcia is enjoying writing happily-ever-after novels.  She lives in Ohio with her wonderful husband and her virtual pet, Smokey, a Chinese crested hairless dog.

Sex & the Single Therapist Book Blurb:

A crime of passion…

            To clear a friend, sex therapist Ally Skye investigates a patient’s murder. Soon she's trading heated words and hot kisses with a sexy cop. Can this amateur sleuth solve the crime before the killer targets her?

A sexy complication…

            Cynical detective Zack Crawford has the murder to solve. He doesn't need a red-hot therapist haunting his dreams. Given Ally's job, she'd probably grade his performance in bed.

A dynamic duo…

            Zack and Ally form an uneasy alliance. Murderers, extortionists and psychos are no match for these reluctant partners. Crime-solving was never this sexy or this fun!

Authorsday: R. Ann Siracusa

1. When did you know you wanted to be a writer?

My mother was a librarian, so I’ve always liked to read and write stories. Also, I had a wonderful English teacher in high school who encouraged me to write, but I never considered it as a profession. I earned my degree in Architecture from UC Berkeley, worked in Rome, got married there, and was caught up with family and profession.

I did a lot of non-fiction and professional writing in my work, but I didn’t follow up on my interest in fiction writing until I was in my forties. I read a novel that everyone was raving about and said, “Oh, man. Even I can write better than this.” So I wrote a novel in about 8 months. It wasn’t better – learning the craft took a while – but I was on my way. I’d been writing seriously (in spite of my demanding family, a 60 hr+/week job, and a two-hour-each-way commute) for about ten years before I realized that fiction writing was my “calling.”



2. How did you pick the genre you write in?

I think it picked me, at least for the humorous romantic suspense series I’ve been writing for Sapphire Blue Publishing. I get bored writing in the same genre, so I like to switch, which didn’t help getting a writing career established. (Publishers, and readers, like to know what kind of book they are getting when they pick up something by a particular author.)

World travel and writing are my two passions. I had no idea when I started traveling that I’d work the things I saw and learned into novels, but I’ve managed to combine them. No matter what genre I’m writing in, my work tends to be action/adventure oriented, and I’d say most of my work is 60% external action driven and 40% character/relationships driven. And I don’t have much success writing to guidelines. I tell the story that’s inside me to tell, so my work never quite fits the genre guidelines.


3. Do you plot or do you write by the seat of your pants?

I’m about fifty-fifty. I wrote my mafia thriller with only a loose outline and ended up with 300,000 words. Cutting over 600 pages was like killing my children. Some of my favorite scenes and best writing had to go. I cried for 6 months, and then it took another year and a half to revise.

After that, I wrote from a very tight outline until my experiment with writing humor in first person (All For A Dead Man’s Leg). That started out with a general idea and not a clue what was going to happen. It worked, but I was so lucky. Since then, I settled into using a one-page plotting outline (one sentence per scene about what has to happen) so I know where I’m going, what scenes I need to get there, and the plot points, but not specifically how I’ll accomplish it. And, of course, things change along the way (no matter whether you’re a plotter or pantser). I update the plot outline if modifications are important enough to impact other scenes, plot points, and overall direction.

4. What was the name of the first novel you wrote? Did you try to publish it?

The first novel I wrote was entitled “Ride on the Back of Lightning,” a romance about a young woman who wants to make a career in motocross racing. You have to understand this was in the early 1980s when Harlequin Presents was about the only romance line, and the heroines were limited to being nannies, school teachers, and nurses, or they just stayed home and lived with their parents. Boring! I was an architect. I didn’t want to write about nannies, grammar school teachers, or nurses. I thought American woman wanted more challenging and adventurous heroines. (This was before Harlequin had ever published a novel set in the US.) I got an agent (Florence Feiler) who liked the concept, but Harlequin told her they never touched entertainment or sports heroines because readers didn’t relate. Ho Hum. Well, I didn’t sell that one.

Years later, I thought about rewriting it as a young adult, but before I got it finished, Disney came out with a movie based loosely on the same idea (a young woman successful in motocross racing). While the story line was different than mine, I felt it would look like I’d lifted the concept from the Disney movie, so it’s still sitting in a three ring binder somewhere in box in my garage.

5. What do you know now that you are published that you didn’t know pre-published that you wish you knew?

A whole lot. In fact, I’m giving a class through my RWA chapter on “Everything I Wish I’d Known (and done) a Year Before I Published.” Once you’re published, writing becomes a business, and being a good writer doesn’t make someone a good business person.

A lot of what I didn’t know has to do with marketing in today’s electronic world, but a lot is preplanning, organization, and contacts that make life a lot easier and less stressful. My first novel (Family Secrets: A Vengeance of Tears) was published in 2008. Since then, I’ve had six published by Sapphire Blue and a seventh coming out in January. I’m still playing catch up.

6. How many rejections have you received? Lots! Was I supposed to be counting? Oh, man.

7. Why did you pick the publisher that ultimately published your book?

Like most beginning authors, I accepted the first offer I got. Not the smartest way to pick a publisher, but I believe it’s fairly common. And I haven’t been unhappy about the choice.

I went with an e-publisher because, as I pointed out, I can’t write to guidelines, so my work never quite fits the genre requirements. With the market as it is, my chances with a NY publisher were slim. E-publishers are more open to new authors, mixing genres, and approaches that are a little less “formula.” And I accepted the offer knowing the differences in business plan and marketing and accepting those differences.

That said, I would advice aspiring authors to really understand why they write, to pin down their expectations and goals, and to analyze the styles and the genres they write in. Then, do serious homework to select the appropriate publishers/agents to submit to. If the author has done a good job being honest with him/herself and has found appropriate matches, it probably won’t matter who makes the offer (unless there is something personal about the agent or editor, or the money deal stinks).

8. Tell me one thing about yourself that very few people know?

Let’s see. I like these two because they always let me know which of my friends and colleagues have actually read my interviews.

I had to look up the word fidanzata in the English-Italian dictionary to find out I was “engaged”, and the most unusual place I ever made love was on the steps of Palazzo della Civiltá Italiana in Rome. (Well, it was late at night and dark.)

9. What do you consider your strengths in terms of your writing?

Describing locations, cultures, attitudes, and ways of life vividly and with the kind of details you can’t get any other way than being there so the readers feel as though they have been there.

10. What’s your favorite quote? There are many that strike a chord, depending on the moment. One of my favorites is: We have met the enemy, and he is us! ~ Pogo.




Author Bio:


R. Ann Siracusa is involved in many activities, but her two favorite are traveling the world and writing fiction. This talented author combines those passions into novels which transport readers to exotic settings, immerse them in romance, intrigue, and foreign cultures, and make them laugh.

Retired from a career in architecture and urban planning (multi-published in professional non-fiction), she lives in San Diego, California, and writes full time. Her first novel was published in 2008, and since then seven additional works have been published by Sapphire Blue Publishing. She has been active in Romance Writers of America since 1985.





Book Blurb:

Title: Destruction Of The Great Wall

I’m Harriet Ruby, Tour Director Extraordinaire, and my fondest wish has come true! Will Talbot, my favorite Super Spy, wants to include me in his covert mission to recover a list of double agents. I am so-o going to love this!


I only have to pretend we’re husband and wife when he accompanies me on my China tour. How hard can that be?

Surprise! My parents show up on the tour. Then my mother and I are kidnapped, luring Will into a trap. Not to mention the damage my assault rifle does to the Great Wall. It wasn’t my fault. Really!

ExcerpTuesday: E.F. Watkins

ONE BLOOD Excerpt:

A powerful force pulled the energy out of her. Kat knew she must be losing blood, but even that couldn’t be enough to explain this terrible sensation of life draining from her body. She could feel Sharpay’s hunger and intense pleasure as he fed upon her, drawing out something he needed, something that went beyond any mere physical substance.

At the back of her mind, Kat knew she should try to fight back, but both her body and her will seemed paralyzed. Her heart pounded faster, desperate to make up the loss of blood. She started to slip down into a dark vortex, the room swirling around her. She knew she would have collapsed to the floor, if not for the iron arm holding her.

At the same time, her belly stirred with another sensation—half sexual, half suicidal—to surrender and let him have as much of her as he needed.

It seemed an hour before she felt Sharpay, with difficulty, tear himself away. Released from his grip, she tottered and saw stars. He pulled up one of the straight-backed dining chairs and sat her in it.

He left her briefly. Slumped, head spinning, she heard him rummaging in her cabinets. He came back with a juice glass half-filled with a pale gold, acrid-smelling liquid.

“Drink this.”

Kat obeyed. The brandy seared her throat until she coughed, but then she drank some more. In a minute, warmth began to seep back into her depleted veins.

Bent over her, Sharpay pressed a finger against the spot he had bitten. At first Kat thought he was staunching the wound, but then realized he was taking her pulse.

“Much better,” he murmured, in a clinical tone.

She glanced up at him. No trace of blood showed on his lips, and as she watched, the sharpness of his canine teeth reverted to normal. The red light also left his eyes. His face had recovered a healthier color and his hair had darkened again, with silver only at the temples.

He spoke now in a cold, crisp tone. “After I leave, eat some of the dinner you’ve prepared and go to bed. You’ll have the weekend to recover. If you have to cancel any activities, make up a plausible excuse. You will come to my house again Monday night. Do you understand?”

Still dazed as a sleepwalker, Kat could only nod.

He gave her a last, tight smile. “You’ll be fine. You have an excellent constitution and a strong will to live. Just what I would expect from a Van Braam!”

Blurb:A vampire travels to Princeton University to hunt down and romance a brilliant and beautiful archaeologist, the last living descendant of his arch-enemy. She fights his control, though, and resolves to destroy him. After centuries of preying on humanity, has he finally met his match—in more ways than one?



BIO: E. F. Watkins specializes in paranormal thrillers and mysteries. Her novel DANCE WITH THE DRAGON won the 2004 EPPIE in Horror, and her s-f thriller BLACK FLOWERS was a 2006 EPPIE finalist in Action/Thriller. She also has published the romantic mystery RIDE A DANCING HORSE and the paranormal thrillers PARAGON, DANU‘S CHILDREN and ONE BLOOD.