Death Pans Out
by Ashna Graves
Hardcover, 288 pages,
from Poisoned Pen Press
Reporter Jeneva Leopold, faced with a life-altering decision, takes a leave of absence from her job to recover from surgery. Breast cancer has claimed part of her body and she wants time to recover in relative peace. Not just from the debilitating effects of the surgery itself, but she wants to be in a place where she can think about her life and her existence. This is a novel about an unusual woman with an unusual plan to rehabilitate herself.
There are great stories surrounding the searches for precious metals from California, South America and the Yukon, as well as the production of gold from less well-known regions, and this one takes its cue from those stories. Fact or fiction, we are never quite sure, but here is a story which may well become a part of that so interesting body of literature.
Jeneva’s family has long owned an idle gold mine in the mountains of Southern Oregon, a harsh, vastly rural region of high deserts, mountains, isolated communities, wild animals and, legends. One legend surrounds the mysterious disappearance of Jeneva’s uncle, Mathew. Mathew disappeared one night from the cabin at the mine almost twenty years before the story opens, and his mining partner has retreated into a silent years from which he may never emerge.
Jeneva takes a long leave of absence and moved to the cabin at the mine where she intends to spend several months of the summer physically and mentally recovering from her trauma. Almost immediately, a parade of compelling characters begins to invade her peaceful existence, from a weird self-styled “artifact hunter,” who insists that he always camps on Bureau of Forestry land and visits the area regularly, to a hearty sheriff who seems at times too good to be true, to a taciturn former model and beauty queen turned rancher, to assorted miners, a tall funeral director and other assorted characters. They all make for some fascinating scenes and while the action is never of a high order, the rising tension and sense of danger to Jeneva and her friends, is well-handled.
I enjoyed the story, learned some things about governmental land management and local attitudes toward government, and found the ending quite a surprise. If there are small problems with this debut novel, they stem from an experienced reporter acting entirely too trusting and naive to serve the story, and a couple of the rants are a little too long. That said, I look forward to another adventure with Jeneva Leopold.
Carl Brookins
www.carlbrookins.com, www.agora2.blogspot.com
Case of the Greedy Lawyer, Devils Island,
Bloody Halls, more at Kindle & Smashwords!
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Authorsday: Misha Crews
1. When did you know you wanted to be a writer?
I can't remember ever not wanting to be a writer. I enjoyed stories so much as a child that the idea of creating my own just seemed a natural extension of that!
2. How long have you been writing?
I wrote my first musical-comedy variety show when I was about eight, and I never looked back! I don't remember what I called this theatrical masterpiece, but I do recall that it involved a "clown" wearing roller skates with a pillow tied to his derriere (I was safety conscious, even then!) and someone getting hit in the face with a powder puff. High comedy!
3. Do you plot or do you write by the seat of your pants?
I would definitely call myself a plotter, but I don't map out the whole book before I get down to work. I like to get a general sense of the story line and then start writing. I will usually plot and write, plot and write.
4. What drew you to the subject of HER SECRET BODYGUARD?
I’d been wanting to try writing a kind of light romantic suspense for a long time (my other two books are also romance, but they’re a bit longer and more serious). One night I was listening to an old Bob Seger song, and I thought, “This song has a great story. Somebody should make a movie out of it!” Well, I don’t make movies, but I do write books. I drew my inspiration from that, and though the book turned out very differently from where it started, I’ll always think of Hollywood Nights as the anthem for HER SECRET BODYGUARD.
5. What was the name of the first novel you wrote? Did you try to publish it?
My first novel was called HOMESONG and it was published in 2008 by Vanilla Heart Publishing. It’s a book that started out as a simple love story about childhood sweethearts who are reunited after twenty years, but it grew from there into an exploration of a small town and its secrets.
6. Tell me one thing about yourself that very few people know?
I love 1980s horror movies! I grew up in the ‘80s, and my mother would never let me watch scary movies. So of course when I was old enough to rebel, that’s all I watched! During the month of October I will usually end up watching all of the Halloween movies. It doesn’t matter how cheesy they are: I still love them!
7. Describe your book.
It’s a pretty straightforward romantic suspense: girl meets guy, guy turns out to be a thug, other guy is hired to protect girl…well, you get the picture!
Really, it’s about a young woman, Blake Sera, who finds out that Rube Jeffries, the man she’s been living with, is a dangerous criminal. The problem is, Rube is all that Blake’s got in the world, and she can’t help but care about him. At the same time she’s coming to this realization, a new man comes into her life: Caleb McKenna. Blake is kind of jaded; she thinks that Caleb is just some Iowa farm boy who’s come to Hollywood for a vacation. But Caleb is actually Blake’s secret bodyguard: he’s been hired to protect her, although he doesn’t know who or what is putting her in jeopardy.
8. What’s your favorite quote?
I admit I'm kind of a quote-aholic, so it's hard to pick, but one of my favorites is this: "I have a very simple philosophy. Fill what's empty. Empty what's full. And scratch where it itches." - Alice Lee Longworth. That seems to cover everything!
9. What three things would you want with you on a desert island?
A fully-stocked Starbucks, a fully-loaded Kindle, and a fully-charged iPod. (Hmmmm, maybe "roughing it" is not for me....)
10. What other time period besides your own would you like to experience?
Well, my second novel, STILL WATERS, is set in 1956. While I was writing it I became enamored of mid- to late-1950s art: the music, the paintings, the literature. All of it seemed to be speaking of a culture straining at the seams, ready to break out, and heralding the drastic and remarkable changes that came only a little more than a decade later. I would love to take a trip back in time and experience a little of that for myself.
STILL WATERS Blurb:
When a Special Forces veteran is hired to protect a Malibu playgirl, sparks fly faster than bullets. But will they live long enough to realize they're falling in love?
In an exciting twist on her timeless tales of heart and home, author Misha Crews sets her latest story in Los Angeles, playground of former model Blake Sera. Although she's not yet thirty, jaded Blake is sure she's seen it all. Until she discovers that the man she's been living with is up to his neck in the murky underworld of crime. When Special Forces veteran Caleb McKenna is secretly hired to protect the glamour gal, he's sure that Blake is just another pretty face whose only interests are sunning, funning and shopping till she drops. But soon he realizes that there's more to her than big blue eyes and a killer smile. Can they survive their passion? Can they survive at all?
I can't remember ever not wanting to be a writer. I enjoyed stories so much as a child that the idea of creating my own just seemed a natural extension of that!
2. How long have you been writing?
I wrote my first musical-comedy variety show when I was about eight, and I never looked back! I don't remember what I called this theatrical masterpiece, but I do recall that it involved a "clown" wearing roller skates with a pillow tied to his derriere (I was safety conscious, even then!) and someone getting hit in the face with a powder puff. High comedy!
3. Do you plot or do you write by the seat of your pants?
I would definitely call myself a plotter, but I don't map out the whole book before I get down to work. I like to get a general sense of the story line and then start writing. I will usually plot and write, plot and write.
4. What drew you to the subject of HER SECRET BODYGUARD?
I’d been wanting to try writing a kind of light romantic suspense for a long time (my other two books are also romance, but they’re a bit longer and more serious). One night I was listening to an old Bob Seger song, and I thought, “This song has a great story. Somebody should make a movie out of it!” Well, I don’t make movies, but I do write books. I drew my inspiration from that, and though the book turned out very differently from where it started, I’ll always think of Hollywood Nights as the anthem for HER SECRET BODYGUARD.
5. What was the name of the first novel you wrote? Did you try to publish it?
My first novel was called HOMESONG and it was published in 2008 by Vanilla Heart Publishing. It’s a book that started out as a simple love story about childhood sweethearts who are reunited after twenty years, but it grew from there into an exploration of a small town and its secrets.
6. Tell me one thing about yourself that very few people know?
I love 1980s horror movies! I grew up in the ‘80s, and my mother would never let me watch scary movies. So of course when I was old enough to rebel, that’s all I watched! During the month of October I will usually end up watching all of the Halloween movies. It doesn’t matter how cheesy they are: I still love them!
7. Describe your book.
It’s a pretty straightforward romantic suspense: girl meets guy, guy turns out to be a thug, other guy is hired to protect girl…well, you get the picture!
Really, it’s about a young woman, Blake Sera, who finds out that Rube Jeffries, the man she’s been living with, is a dangerous criminal. The problem is, Rube is all that Blake’s got in the world, and she can’t help but care about him. At the same time she’s coming to this realization, a new man comes into her life: Caleb McKenna. Blake is kind of jaded; she thinks that Caleb is just some Iowa farm boy who’s come to Hollywood for a vacation. But Caleb is actually Blake’s secret bodyguard: he’s been hired to protect her, although he doesn’t know who or what is putting her in jeopardy.
8. What’s your favorite quote?
I admit I'm kind of a quote-aholic, so it's hard to pick, but one of my favorites is this: "I have a very simple philosophy. Fill what's empty. Empty what's full. And scratch where it itches." - Alice Lee Longworth. That seems to cover everything!
9. What three things would you want with you on a desert island?
A fully-stocked Starbucks, a fully-loaded Kindle, and a fully-charged iPod. (Hmmmm, maybe "roughing it" is not for me....)
10. What other time period besides your own would you like to experience?
Well, my second novel, STILL WATERS, is set in 1956. While I was writing it I became enamored of mid- to late-1950s art: the music, the paintings, the literature. All of it seemed to be speaking of a culture straining at the seams, ready to break out, and heralding the drastic and remarkable changes that came only a little more than a decade later. I would love to take a trip back in time and experience a little of that for myself.
STILL WATERS Blurb:
When a Special Forces veteran is hired to protect a Malibu playgirl, sparks fly faster than bullets. But will they live long enough to realize they're falling in love?
In an exciting twist on her timeless tales of heart and home, author Misha Crews sets her latest story in Los Angeles, playground of former model Blake Sera. Although she's not yet thirty, jaded Blake is sure she's seen it all. Until she discovers that the man she's been living with is up to his neck in the murky underworld of crime. When Special Forces veteran Caleb McKenna is secretly hired to protect the glamour gal, he's sure that Blake is just another pretty face whose only interests are sunning, funning and shopping till she drops. But soon he realizes that there's more to her than big blue eyes and a killer smile. Can they survive their passion? Can they survive at all?
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
All Things Romantic Suspense Tour: Marie-Nicole Ryan
Bio:
Marie-Nicole Ryan is an award-winning author, and most of the time she writes contemporary romantic suspense. On occasion she’s been known to go to the dark side with an erotic historical western. She grew up in Western Kentucky, but moved to Nashville where she lived for several decades. Recently she came back to her roots and is once again living about ten miles from where she grew up. She lives with one very spoiled wonder sheltie by the name of Cassie.
LOVE ME IF YOU CAN, Marie-Nicole Ryan
Amazon Buy Link
Also available at The Wild Rose Press, Fictionwise, Barnes & Noble
Blurb:
Nashville sizzles in the summer. No wonder Tess and Scott combust.
Nashville Homicide Detective Tess O’Malley has a lot to prove. She comes from a long line of police officers, including her father and older brothers. First she and her partner are taken off a high profile case and sidelined with a cold case instead. After reviewing the files, she’s certain her cold case is connected to the current one, and she sets out to prove it. Too bad it means locking horns with a handsome PI who could win her heart and derail her career.
Scott Holt is all business when it comes to running his family’s PI firm. When the lovely Detective O’Malley comes to question him about his possible involvement in her cold case, he has everything but business on his mind. Like locking lips with the fiery redhead.
Love Me If You Can, © 2010 Marie-Nicole Ryan
All rights reserved, The Wild Rose Press
Excerpt:
Tess took another bite of pizza, her silver gaze never leaving his. “You going to help me out or not? Forbes is your client, after all.” Her voice rose and, again, heads turned in their direction.
“Calm down. I’d like to live long enough to walk you home…and maybe get a good-night kiss.”
Taking a deep breath, she leaned back and signaled everything was cool. “You want to walk me home and kiss me good-night? How sweet.”
Her soft tone mocked him, but he didn’t care.
“Like we’re high school sweethearts.” She wrinkled her nose, but her eyes shone with moderate good humor.
“Would you rather I said what I was really thinking?”
Her lashes fluttered briefly, then she eyeballed him directly. “Maybe. Depends on what you were really thinking.”
He lowered his tone a notch. “About pressing you up against the wall and having my way with you.”
For a second, her gray eyes flashed silver.
Damn. He was a goner—as in, he’d gone too far. Said too much. Too soon.
She leaned forward. “I’ll have you know I don’t engage in up-against-the-wall, wild animal sex on the first date, not that this is even a date.” Her tone was matter-of-fact, but her cheeks flushed a pretty pink. Maybe he could still pull his nuts out of the fire before they went up in smoke.
“A guy can always hope,” he said, without a chance in the world she wouldn’t kick him to the curb. Or have one of her fellow officers do the honors.
“A guy can hold his breath…until he turns purple.”
“I can see I’ve put my foot in it. I’m sorry… But damn, the sight of your mouth. Your skin. Your eyes. Dammit. You’re driving me up a wall.”
“Another reference to the wall? Would that be the same wall?”
“Bad choice of words.”
Marie-Nicole Ryan is an award-winning author, and most of the time she writes contemporary romantic suspense. On occasion she’s been known to go to the dark side with an erotic historical western. She grew up in Western Kentucky, but moved to Nashville where she lived for several decades. Recently she came back to her roots and is once again living about ten miles from where she grew up. She lives with one very spoiled wonder sheltie by the name of Cassie.
LOVE ME IF YOU CAN, Marie-Nicole Ryan
Amazon Buy Link
Also available at The Wild Rose Press, Fictionwise, Barnes & Noble
Blurb:
Nashville sizzles in the summer. No wonder Tess and Scott combust.
Nashville Homicide Detective Tess O’Malley has a lot to prove. She comes from a long line of police officers, including her father and older brothers. First she and her partner are taken off a high profile case and sidelined with a cold case instead. After reviewing the files, she’s certain her cold case is connected to the current one, and she sets out to prove it. Too bad it means locking horns with a handsome PI who could win her heart and derail her career.
Scott Holt is all business when it comes to running his family’s PI firm. When the lovely Detective O’Malley comes to question him about his possible involvement in her cold case, he has everything but business on his mind. Like locking lips with the fiery redhead.
Love Me If You Can, © 2010 Marie-Nicole Ryan
All rights reserved, The Wild Rose Press
Excerpt:
Tess took another bite of pizza, her silver gaze never leaving his. “You going to help me out or not? Forbes is your client, after all.” Her voice rose and, again, heads turned in their direction.
“Calm down. I’d like to live long enough to walk you home…and maybe get a good-night kiss.”
Taking a deep breath, she leaned back and signaled everything was cool. “You want to walk me home and kiss me good-night? How sweet.”
Her soft tone mocked him, but he didn’t care.
“Like we’re high school sweethearts.” She wrinkled her nose, but her eyes shone with moderate good humor.
“Would you rather I said what I was really thinking?”
Her lashes fluttered briefly, then she eyeballed him directly. “Maybe. Depends on what you were really thinking.”
He lowered his tone a notch. “About pressing you up against the wall and having my way with you.”
For a second, her gray eyes flashed silver.
Damn. He was a goner—as in, he’d gone too far. Said too much. Too soon.
She leaned forward. “I’ll have you know I don’t engage in up-against-the-wall, wild animal sex on the first date, not that this is even a date.” Her tone was matter-of-fact, but her cheeks flushed a pretty pink. Maybe he could still pull his nuts out of the fire before they went up in smoke.
“A guy can always hope,” he said, without a chance in the world she wouldn’t kick him to the curb. Or have one of her fellow officers do the honors.
“A guy can hold his breath…until he turns purple.”
“I can see I’ve put my foot in it. I’m sorry… But damn, the sight of your mouth. Your skin. Your eyes. Dammit. You’re driving me up a wall.”
“Another reference to the wall? Would that be the same wall?”
“Bad choice of words.”
Monday, February 21, 2011
ExcerpTuesday: Geraldine Evans
Deadly Reunion
A Rafferty & Llewellyn crime novel by Geraldine Evans
Publication: 24 February 2011 (UK) 1 June 2011 (US)
Blurb
Detective Inspector Joe Rafferty is barely back from his honeymoon before he has two unpleasant surprises. Not only has he another murder investigation - a poisoning, courtesy of a school reunion, he also has four new lodgers, courtesy of his Ma, Kitty Rafferty. Ma is organising her own reunion and since getting on the internet, the number of Rafferty and Kelly family attendees has grown, like Topsy. In his murder investigation, Rafferty has to go back in time to learn of all the likely motives of the victim's fellow reunees. But it is only when he is reconciled to his unwanted lodgers, that Rafferty finds the answers to his most important questions.
EXCERPT FIVE from Chapter Two
Given that Dr Sam ‘Dilly’ Dally had performed the post mortem late on Tuesday and the toxicology reports hadn’t come through until the afternoon of the next day, it was eight in the evening by the time Rafferty and Llewellyn finished questioning the seven suspects amongst the reunees. They had also questioned the cook, Mrs Benton, who had got on her high horse when Rafferty had asked her if she had any idea how hemlock might have found its way into either Ainsley’s vichyssoise soup or his chicken salad.
‘That food was perfectly all right when it left my kitchen,’ she had insisted, bosom and grey curls bouncing indignantly. ‘Has anyone else died or been taken ill? No,’ she answered her own question. ‘Of course they haven’t. It’s that lot out there you need to interrogate.’ She stabbed her right index finger in the direction of the dining hall where the seven suspects had been joined by the other reunees for their evening meal. To judge from the racket going on beyond the serving hatch, the news of the day was still being avidly discussed, but Rafferty noticed that the seven were being given a wide berth. As though conscious of their leper status, they huddled together for warmth. Even the oh-so-confident Giles Harmsworth and the bad boy, Sebastian Kennedy seemed subdued and kept their heads bent over their melon and Parma ham starter.
Mrs Benton reclaimed Rafferty’s attention. ‘Thirty years I’ve worked at this school and some of that lot were vicious thugs back then; it seems they’re no better now. Yes, it’s them what you want to question, Mr Detective, not me. I’ve always been a good, honest woman, never done anything wrong in me life, not like that lot. That Giles – the one who’s now ‘something in the City’, he’s not as holier than thou as he’d have you believe. Teacher’s pet and a snitch is what he always was. I don’t suppose he’s changed much and it won’t be long before he’s confiding something to you. It just better not be about me, that’s all or I’ll fetch him a clout round the ear, big and self-important as he is, that he won’t forget in a hurry. And that Kennedy boy, he was always a troublemaker. Lives on a trust fund, or so I gather. The saying that the Devil finds mischief for idle hands is true enough. And another thing. You want to ask yourselves why it was that too handsome for his own good, Adam Ainsley was the one who was poisoned. He always had the girls after him. You mark my words, this’ll be one of them crimes of passion that the Froggies go in for. I always thought he’d come to a sticky end.’
Rafferty had, in spite of her unhidden antagonism, questioned the cook thoroughly, though she’d inadvertently told them as much about several of the suspects as any snitch. He thought he could discount Mrs Benton and Tom Harrison, the grounds-man cum caretaker from the list of suspects, as even though Mrs Benton had admitted little liking for the dead man or a number of his fellow reunees and had prepared Ainsley’s last meal on this Earth, he couldn’t see how she could have poisoned him without taking out some of the rest of the table: each table’s soup was served up in a tureen from which it was ladled out into the individual dishes at the table. The same applied to the salad main course. The lemon sponge that they’d had for pudding would have given no opportunity for doctoring. And, however chippy her personality, he didn’t have Mrs Benton tagged as a psycho. Harrison, the grounds-man, had been in the kitchen earlier in the day, for his elevenses, and could have added hemlock to the ingredients for the meal. But again, like Mrs Benton, he would have had to have no qualms about taking out whoever was unfortunate enough to share Ainsley’s table.
Mrs Benton had explained that one person at each of the dining hall’s eight-seater tables would come to her hatch and collect each course. For the suspects’ table, it had been the Senior Common Room peacemaker, Victoria ‘Brains’ Watson, who had collected the food and dished it out. This would then be passed along the row, first on one side and then on the other. Adam Ainsley had been sitting at the far end of the table on the opposite side from Victoria. From this, Rafferty had concluded that any one of four people would have had the best opportunity to slip something in Adam Ainsley’s food: There was Victoria ‘Brains’ Watson, who had served up each portion, Giles Harmsworth, the over-serious Alice Douglas and Simon Fairweather, the quiet young man who, beyond mentioning that he was a civil servant at the Home Office, had had little to say for himself, even at the interview. This left the other three as less than prime suspects: Sebastian Kennedy, Sophie Diaz and Asgar Sadiq, it seemed unlikely, though possible that either Kennedy, Ainsley’s left-hand neighbour or Gary Sadiq, Ainsley’s neighbour across the table from him might also have had a chance to slip a foreign substance in his food. Anyway, they would all remain on the suspects’ list for the present.
Rafferty had brought in some more uniforms to help question the other hundred reunees. Although it didn’t seem they would have had the opportunity to poison Ainsley, Rafferty had the feeling that the cause of this murder – if murder it was, as it might turn out that Llewellyn was right and they could still be labouring over a suicide – lay deep in the past when they had all been teenagers together. So they might well have useful information. The motive for murder was, he thought, going to take some digging out. But at least, for now, he was more than happy to simply burrow into the surface memories of each of them. Any deeper digging would have to wait until they’d separated those who’d been amongst Adam Ainsley’s intimates, whom Rafferty and Llewellyn would question more deeply, and the rest.
Paxton, beyond supplying them with their room, the map of the school and the list of the reunion’s attendees and their home addresses, had been able to provide them with little other information. Of course, he had been in post for less than a year. Rafferty made a mental note to find out the name and current address of the school’s previous headmaster, who had, according to Paxton, been in situ for several decades and who had certainly been in his post when the current reunees had attended the school.
They returned to the station and while Llewellyn typed up the interviews of the seven suspects, Rafferty sat and made a list of chores for the next day. If he was to find out about possible vendettas, soured love affairs and the like, he would need to go and see Adam Ainsley’s parents, who lived in Suffolk. And he would need to send somebody to question Adam Ainsley’s two ex-wives. For that he thought a woman’s touch was called for and Mary Carmody, the motherly, thirty-something, sergeant sprang immediately to mind. People confided in her; even Superintendent Bradley tended to seek her out in the canteen and bend her ear over budgetary worries and insubordinate inferiors – not that Mary had betrayed his confidence – but Bradley’s earnest stance over the tea cups and Mary’s motherly, head on one side air, had given it away. That, and the fact that, even when he was whispering, Long-Pockets Bradley had something of a booming voice. Quietness wasn’t in the man. Yes, he’d despatch Mary with Llewellyn, who was diffident with women, to one ex and he’d take the other himself.
LINK TO MY PAGE WITH THE BLOG TOUR DATES:
http://www.geraldineevans.com/wednesday_14_december_2010_035.htm
Links:
amazon.com: http://tinyurl.com/4qjgay4
amazon.co.uk: http://tinyurl.com/4f56pxp
ebooks on amazon.com: http://tinyurl.com/4re8apo
ebooks on amazon.co.uk: http://tinyurl.com/6du98kq
Geraldine Evans’s website: http://www.geraldineevans.com
Geraldine Evans’s blog: http://www.geraldineevanscom.blogspot.com
PRIZES
The draw of all the comments throughout the Tour will take place at the end of the Tour (end-Feb). There will only be three winners, each of whom wins one signed copy of Deadly Reunion, my latest hardback (fourteenth in my Rafferty & Llewellyn crime series), one copy of each of two ebooks that are the first and second novels in my Rafferty & Llewellyn crime series, that is, one of Dead Before Morning and one of Down Among the Dead Men. They will also receive a subscription to my blog (which they can let lapse when it runs out).
BIO
Crime Author, Geraldine Evans
Geraldine Evans has been writing since her twenties, though only began to get novels published halfway through her thirties. As well as her popular Rafferty & Llewellyn crime series, she has a second crime series, Casey & Catt and has also had published an historical, a romance and articles on a variety of subjects, including, Historical Biography, Writing, Astrology, Palmistry and other New Age subjects. She has also written a dramatization of Dead Before Morning, the first book in her Rafferty series.
She is a Londoner, but now lives in Norfolk England where she moved, with her husband George, in 2000.
Deadly Reunion is her eighteenth novel and fourteenth in the humorous Rafferty & Llewellyn crime series. She is currently working on the next in the series.
A Rafferty & Llewellyn crime novel by Geraldine Evans
Publication: 24 February 2011 (UK) 1 June 2011 (US)
Blurb
Detective Inspector Joe Rafferty is barely back from his honeymoon before he has two unpleasant surprises. Not only has he another murder investigation - a poisoning, courtesy of a school reunion, he also has four new lodgers, courtesy of his Ma, Kitty Rafferty. Ma is organising her own reunion and since getting on the internet, the number of Rafferty and Kelly family attendees has grown, like Topsy. In his murder investigation, Rafferty has to go back in time to learn of all the likely motives of the victim's fellow reunees. But it is only when he is reconciled to his unwanted lodgers, that Rafferty finds the answers to his most important questions.
EXCERPT FIVE from Chapter Two
Given that Dr Sam ‘Dilly’ Dally had performed the post mortem late on Tuesday and the toxicology reports hadn’t come through until the afternoon of the next day, it was eight in the evening by the time Rafferty and Llewellyn finished questioning the seven suspects amongst the reunees. They had also questioned the cook, Mrs Benton, who had got on her high horse when Rafferty had asked her if she had any idea how hemlock might have found its way into either Ainsley’s vichyssoise soup or his chicken salad.
‘That food was perfectly all right when it left my kitchen,’ she had insisted, bosom and grey curls bouncing indignantly. ‘Has anyone else died or been taken ill? No,’ she answered her own question. ‘Of course they haven’t. It’s that lot out there you need to interrogate.’ She stabbed her right index finger in the direction of the dining hall where the seven suspects had been joined by the other reunees for their evening meal. To judge from the racket going on beyond the serving hatch, the news of the day was still being avidly discussed, but Rafferty noticed that the seven were being given a wide berth. As though conscious of their leper status, they huddled together for warmth. Even the oh-so-confident Giles Harmsworth and the bad boy, Sebastian Kennedy seemed subdued and kept their heads bent over their melon and Parma ham starter.
Mrs Benton reclaimed Rafferty’s attention. ‘Thirty years I’ve worked at this school and some of that lot were vicious thugs back then; it seems they’re no better now. Yes, it’s them what you want to question, Mr Detective, not me. I’ve always been a good, honest woman, never done anything wrong in me life, not like that lot. That Giles – the one who’s now ‘something in the City’, he’s not as holier than thou as he’d have you believe. Teacher’s pet and a snitch is what he always was. I don’t suppose he’s changed much and it won’t be long before he’s confiding something to you. It just better not be about me, that’s all or I’ll fetch him a clout round the ear, big and self-important as he is, that he won’t forget in a hurry. And that Kennedy boy, he was always a troublemaker. Lives on a trust fund, or so I gather. The saying that the Devil finds mischief for idle hands is true enough. And another thing. You want to ask yourselves why it was that too handsome for his own good, Adam Ainsley was the one who was poisoned. He always had the girls after him. You mark my words, this’ll be one of them crimes of passion that the Froggies go in for. I always thought he’d come to a sticky end.’
Rafferty had, in spite of her unhidden antagonism, questioned the cook thoroughly, though she’d inadvertently told them as much about several of the suspects as any snitch. He thought he could discount Mrs Benton and Tom Harrison, the grounds-man cum caretaker from the list of suspects, as even though Mrs Benton had admitted little liking for the dead man or a number of his fellow reunees and had prepared Ainsley’s last meal on this Earth, he couldn’t see how she could have poisoned him without taking out some of the rest of the table: each table’s soup was served up in a tureen from which it was ladled out into the individual dishes at the table. The same applied to the salad main course. The lemon sponge that they’d had for pudding would have given no opportunity for doctoring. And, however chippy her personality, he didn’t have Mrs Benton tagged as a psycho. Harrison, the grounds-man, had been in the kitchen earlier in the day, for his elevenses, and could have added hemlock to the ingredients for the meal. But again, like Mrs Benton, he would have had to have no qualms about taking out whoever was unfortunate enough to share Ainsley’s table.
Mrs Benton had explained that one person at each of the dining hall’s eight-seater tables would come to her hatch and collect each course. For the suspects’ table, it had been the Senior Common Room peacemaker, Victoria ‘Brains’ Watson, who had collected the food and dished it out. This would then be passed along the row, first on one side and then on the other. Adam Ainsley had been sitting at the far end of the table on the opposite side from Victoria. From this, Rafferty had concluded that any one of four people would have had the best opportunity to slip something in Adam Ainsley’s food: There was Victoria ‘Brains’ Watson, who had served up each portion, Giles Harmsworth, the over-serious Alice Douglas and Simon Fairweather, the quiet young man who, beyond mentioning that he was a civil servant at the Home Office, had had little to say for himself, even at the interview. This left the other three as less than prime suspects: Sebastian Kennedy, Sophie Diaz and Asgar Sadiq, it seemed unlikely, though possible that either Kennedy, Ainsley’s left-hand neighbour or Gary Sadiq, Ainsley’s neighbour across the table from him might also have had a chance to slip a foreign substance in his food. Anyway, they would all remain on the suspects’ list for the present.
Rafferty had brought in some more uniforms to help question the other hundred reunees. Although it didn’t seem they would have had the opportunity to poison Ainsley, Rafferty had the feeling that the cause of this murder – if murder it was, as it might turn out that Llewellyn was right and they could still be labouring over a suicide – lay deep in the past when they had all been teenagers together. So they might well have useful information. The motive for murder was, he thought, going to take some digging out. But at least, for now, he was more than happy to simply burrow into the surface memories of each of them. Any deeper digging would have to wait until they’d separated those who’d been amongst Adam Ainsley’s intimates, whom Rafferty and Llewellyn would question more deeply, and the rest.
Paxton, beyond supplying them with their room, the map of the school and the list of the reunion’s attendees and their home addresses, had been able to provide them with little other information. Of course, he had been in post for less than a year. Rafferty made a mental note to find out the name and current address of the school’s previous headmaster, who had, according to Paxton, been in situ for several decades and who had certainly been in his post when the current reunees had attended the school.
They returned to the station and while Llewellyn typed up the interviews of the seven suspects, Rafferty sat and made a list of chores for the next day. If he was to find out about possible vendettas, soured love affairs and the like, he would need to go and see Adam Ainsley’s parents, who lived in Suffolk. And he would need to send somebody to question Adam Ainsley’s two ex-wives. For that he thought a woman’s touch was called for and Mary Carmody, the motherly, thirty-something, sergeant sprang immediately to mind. People confided in her; even Superintendent Bradley tended to seek her out in the canteen and bend her ear over budgetary worries and insubordinate inferiors – not that Mary had betrayed his confidence – but Bradley’s earnest stance over the tea cups and Mary’s motherly, head on one side air, had given it away. That, and the fact that, even when he was whispering, Long-Pockets Bradley had something of a booming voice. Quietness wasn’t in the man. Yes, he’d despatch Mary with Llewellyn, who was diffident with women, to one ex and he’d take the other himself.
LINK TO MY PAGE WITH THE BLOG TOUR DATES:
http://www.geraldineevans.com/wednesday_14_december_2010_035.htm
Links:
amazon.com: http://tinyurl.com/4qjgay4
amazon.co.uk: http://tinyurl.com/4f56pxp
ebooks on amazon.com: http://tinyurl.com/4re8apo
ebooks on amazon.co.uk: http://tinyurl.com/6du98kq
Geraldine Evans’s website: http://www.geraldineevans.com
Geraldine Evans’s blog: http://www.geraldineevanscom.blogspot.com
PRIZES
The draw of all the comments throughout the Tour will take place at the end of the Tour (end-Feb). There will only be three winners, each of whom wins one signed copy of Deadly Reunion, my latest hardback (fourteenth in my Rafferty & Llewellyn crime series), one copy of each of two ebooks that are the first and second novels in my Rafferty & Llewellyn crime series, that is, one of Dead Before Morning and one of Down Among the Dead Men. They will also receive a subscription to my blog (which they can let lapse when it runs out).
Crime Author, Geraldine Evans
Geraldine Evans has been writing since her twenties, though only began to get novels published halfway through her thirties. As well as her popular Rafferty & Llewellyn crime series, she has a second crime series, Casey & Catt and has also had published an historical, a romance and articles on a variety of subjects, including, Historical Biography, Writing, Astrology, Palmistry and other New Age subjects. She has also written a dramatization of Dead Before Morning, the first book in her Rafferty series.
She is a Londoner, but now lives in Norfolk England where she moved, with her husband George, in 2000.
Deadly Reunion is her eighteenth novel and fourteenth in the humorous Rafferty & Llewellyn crime series. She is currently working on the next in the series.
Sunday, February 20, 2011
A Talk With Kate from Double the Trouble
But now I’m back and I’m opening my own florist shop here. Problem is, I heard my ex is back too. Not that I care. I mean seriously, I’m over him. The fact my heart beat a little faster the first time I ran into him didn’t mean a thing. Heck, it flipped twice as hard when I met my client’s brother. Not that I was looking for a guy, believe me, I wasn’t. Good grief I was happy just the way I was. I didn’t have to answer to anyone and no one had to answer to me. Nope, I was quite happy, thank you very much
Life was fine until I visited my Aunt Kate’s grave, well mostly fine. I mean my ex and Emma’s brother seemed to be vying for my attention. I never had that happen before and quite honestly, I could live without it. Talk about uncomfortable. But the florist shop was doing well for just having opened. Emma’s wedding helped that.
So there I was, minding my own business, going to the cemetery and that’s when I found a dead body.
Well let me tell you, life turned upside down, backwards, forwards, and everything in between. Between my ex, Emma’s brother –who had twin daughters I might add, and the dead body, let’s just say life got complicated.
To make matters worse, the twin sister of the victim showed up in town. Well, let’s just say things got real interesting after that.
You’ll have to read Double the Trouble to find out what happened. It’ll be released in March 2011.
Visit me at my website – www.roseannedowell.com and/or my blog http://roseannedwellauthor.blogspot.com
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Authorsday: Ian Pattinson
Today I welcome author Ian Pattinson:
How did you pick the genre you write in?
I write in various genres. I concentrate on the story I want to tell rather than trying to force it to comply to a set of rules. Consequently I'm not sure which, if any, genre Sounds of Soldiers would fit into. It's a satire on technothrillers, with very few technothriller-y bits. Or maybe science fiction, though all of the technology described is currently available. I think it would end up on the General Fiction shelves of a bookshop.
I have written a couple of crime novellas, which are the beginnings of what I hope will be a long running series. And the story I'm working on at the moment is a horror comedy.
Do you plot or do you write by the seat of your pants?
It depends upon how I feel about the story. Sounds of Soldiers was fairly seat of the pants. I had a strong idea of what had happened before the story opened, some of which is related in flashbacks, but no real plan for the main body of the story. The narrator was exploring, and the early chapters mostly came from me imagining how something would work in the world I'd created and then having him encounter an example. As the details built up I expanded upon them until the point where it was fairly obvious where the story was going.
Other stories have been more tightly plotted before I started them. My current story has a plan for the first three chapters, and I will plan the rest of the book once I'm sure I've established everything I want to.
What drew you to the subject of Sounds of Soldiers?
I used to read lots of technothrillers- Tom Clancy, Dale Brown and the like. They were something of a guilty pleasure for me, I liked the background research and tight plotting, but found the dialogue was often wooden and the attitude to the rest of the world patronising. The books all seemed to assume that the USA, and, more specifically its Right wing and military, was always right and would always prevail.
For a long time I wanted to write a technothriller satire, taking the excesses of the genre- a blind worship of technology, the assumption that might is always right, etc.- and do a story about a war started for the most dubious of reasons. However, the technothriller writers kept placing themselves beyond satire- for example, in Rainbow Six Clancy painted environmentalists as genocidal extremists and defended the West's right to destroy the planet. There was the danger that, no matter how far over the top I went, some people would think I was serious.
In the end I approached the subject from a different angle. I began wondering what would happen if the US started a poorly judged war and lost, and how would a technothriller style big dumb conflict affect civilians. Apart from filling body bags, everyday citizens are generally ignored by the genre.
The final planning for the story was coming together in late 2008, and news from the US gave me another angle. What if a politician as dogmatic and uninformed as Sarah Palin was in charge of the States? What sort of bad policies would result?
The way I told the story was influenced by the book Stasiland, a great book about life in East Germany before and after the fall of the Berlin Wall. From this I got the idea to tell the story as a travelogue. With everything in place it all went together quite easily.
Did you encounter any obstacles in researching it?
I found researching the story quite easy. For a few years I wrote a blog on Green developments and technology, and lots of the details in the story were based upon things I'd already investigated for that. Scenes in Paris were based upon a few days I'd spent there. The trickiest part was a sequence on France's Mediterranean coast, as I'd never been there, but I managed to get the geographical information I needed from Google Maps.
What’s your writing schedule?
I don't have a schedule. I work part time, and the days can shift around the week. I also have other projects on the go. Because I'm a bit disorganised this all means that I'm not writing anywhere near as much as I ought to, though I am working to rectify that.
What’s your favorite quote?
"No plan survives first contact with the enemy."
What is your favorite word?
Most of my favourite words are rude. I do like "discombobulate" which means to confuse someone.
(Chris Redding note: That's one of my faves, too.)
What place that you haven’t visited would you like to go?
Probably Japan. But I'd also like to spend a month or two in New York City, or live in Paris for a year. And there's a lot- most, in fact- of Europe that I haven't visited. This year or next, when I've made enough money, I plan to Interrail around Europe. I'll have to be careful, though, that's what the narrator of Sounds of Soldiers was doing when the war broke out......
What other time period besides your own would you like to experience?
The Future. I know that's a bit of a facetious answer, but if you go back more than a few years you'll find yourself in a nastier, more brutal world. And then you'll realise that you don't have the skills needed to conjure up things the locals imagine are magic. I don't know how to make gunpowder, I've only once skinned and filleted a dead animal, despite my country upbringing I never learnt to fish and I've completely forgotten how to control a computer from the command line. I don't even have an encyclopedic knowledge of key sporting results so I could gamble my way to wealth.
No matter what people may say, things are better now than they've ever been. Life spans are lengthening- not just in the West but all across the globe- diseases are being eradicated and we're illuminating the areas previously darkened by superstition. We run the risk of reversing the positive trend, it's true, but I'm optimistic. I want to see what great things we can do as a planet in the years to come.
Where do you write?
Recently I've been writing in coffee shops, because it's good to get out of the house. Sometimes I write in bed. Because I have a netbook now I'm trying take it with me more often and get in a bit of writing wherever I end up.
You are welcome to make up your own questions if you like also. Anything you think will illuminate what you want your readers to know.
Author Bio:
Ian Pattinson was born in Wales in 1970. Growing up, he lived in Brazil, Lancashire and Cumbria before going to university in Manchester and settling there. Ian blogs regularly at http://www.spinneyhead.co.uk and often draws inspiration from the links he posts. He wishes he could drag himself away from the computer more often so he could get more cycling done.
Book Blurb:
Sounds of Soldiers imagines a Green future after a cataclysmic war rips apart Europe and destroys the United States. Returning to Manchester after five years on the continent reporting on the war, Robert Jones sets out to reconnect with friends and family and find out how life changed away from the front line. Presented as a travelogue with flashbacks to the war, Robert finds recycling projects, a new sense of community and shadows and ghosts reaching across the Channel for him.
Sounds of Soldiers can be bought in paperback or as a pdf from http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/sounds-of-soldiers/13399260
Or for Amazon's Kindle- https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004A157PS (UK), http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004A157PS (US)
Information about other books, and formats as they become available, can be found at http://www.spinneyhead.co.uk/books/
I write in various genres. I concentrate on the story I want to tell rather than trying to force it to comply to a set of rules. Consequently I'm not sure which, if any, genre Sounds of Soldiers would fit into. It's a satire on technothrillers, with very few technothriller-y bits. Or maybe science fiction, though all of the technology described is currently available. I think it would end up on the General Fiction shelves of a bookshop.
I have written a couple of crime novellas, which are the beginnings of what I hope will be a long running series. And the story I'm working on at the moment is a horror comedy.
Do you plot or do you write by the seat of your pants?
It depends upon how I feel about the story. Sounds of Soldiers was fairly seat of the pants. I had a strong idea of what had happened before the story opened, some of which is related in flashbacks, but no real plan for the main body of the story. The narrator was exploring, and the early chapters mostly came from me imagining how something would work in the world I'd created and then having him encounter an example. As the details built up I expanded upon them until the point where it was fairly obvious where the story was going.
Other stories have been more tightly plotted before I started them. My current story has a plan for the first three chapters, and I will plan the rest of the book once I'm sure I've established everything I want to.
What drew you to the subject of Sounds of Soldiers?
I used to read lots of technothrillers- Tom Clancy, Dale Brown and the like. They were something of a guilty pleasure for me, I liked the background research and tight plotting, but found the dialogue was often wooden and the attitude to the rest of the world patronising. The books all seemed to assume that the USA, and, more specifically its Right wing and military, was always right and would always prevail.
For a long time I wanted to write a technothriller satire, taking the excesses of the genre- a blind worship of technology, the assumption that might is always right, etc.- and do a story about a war started for the most dubious of reasons. However, the technothriller writers kept placing themselves beyond satire- for example, in Rainbow Six Clancy painted environmentalists as genocidal extremists and defended the West's right to destroy the planet. There was the danger that, no matter how far over the top I went, some people would think I was serious.
In the end I approached the subject from a different angle. I began wondering what would happen if the US started a poorly judged war and lost, and how would a technothriller style big dumb conflict affect civilians. Apart from filling body bags, everyday citizens are generally ignored by the genre.
The final planning for the story was coming together in late 2008, and news from the US gave me another angle. What if a politician as dogmatic and uninformed as Sarah Palin was in charge of the States? What sort of bad policies would result?
The way I told the story was influenced by the book Stasiland, a great book about life in East Germany before and after the fall of the Berlin Wall. From this I got the idea to tell the story as a travelogue. With everything in place it all went together quite easily.
Did you encounter any obstacles in researching it?
I found researching the story quite easy. For a few years I wrote a blog on Green developments and technology, and lots of the details in the story were based upon things I'd already investigated for that. Scenes in Paris were based upon a few days I'd spent there. The trickiest part was a sequence on France's Mediterranean coast, as I'd never been there, but I managed to get the geographical information I needed from Google Maps.
What’s your writing schedule?
I don't have a schedule. I work part time, and the days can shift around the week. I also have other projects on the go. Because I'm a bit disorganised this all means that I'm not writing anywhere near as much as I ought to, though I am working to rectify that.
What’s your favorite quote?
"No plan survives first contact with the enemy."
What is your favorite word?
Most of my favourite words are rude. I do like "discombobulate" which means to confuse someone.
(Chris Redding note: That's one of my faves, too.)
What place that you haven’t visited would you like to go?
Probably Japan. But I'd also like to spend a month or two in New York City, or live in Paris for a year. And there's a lot- most, in fact- of Europe that I haven't visited. This year or next, when I've made enough money, I plan to Interrail around Europe. I'll have to be careful, though, that's what the narrator of Sounds of Soldiers was doing when the war broke out......
What other time period besides your own would you like to experience?
The Future. I know that's a bit of a facetious answer, but if you go back more than a few years you'll find yourself in a nastier, more brutal world. And then you'll realise that you don't have the skills needed to conjure up things the locals imagine are magic. I don't know how to make gunpowder, I've only once skinned and filleted a dead animal, despite my country upbringing I never learnt to fish and I've completely forgotten how to control a computer from the command line. I don't even have an encyclopedic knowledge of key sporting results so I could gamble my way to wealth.
No matter what people may say, things are better now than they've ever been. Life spans are lengthening- not just in the West but all across the globe- diseases are being eradicated and we're illuminating the areas previously darkened by superstition. We run the risk of reversing the positive trend, it's true, but I'm optimistic. I want to see what great things we can do as a planet in the years to come.
Where do you write?
Recently I've been writing in coffee shops, because it's good to get out of the house. Sometimes I write in bed. Because I have a netbook now I'm trying take it with me more often and get in a bit of writing wherever I end up.
You are welcome to make up your own questions if you like also. Anything you think will illuminate what you want your readers to know.
Author Bio:
Ian Pattinson was born in Wales in 1970. Growing up, he lived in Brazil, Lancashire and Cumbria before going to university in Manchester and settling there. Ian blogs regularly at http://www.spinneyhead.co.uk and often draws inspiration from the links he posts. He wishes he could drag himself away from the computer more often so he could get more cycling done.
Book Blurb:
Sounds of Soldiers imagines a Green future after a cataclysmic war rips apart Europe and destroys the United States. Returning to Manchester after five years on the continent reporting on the war, Robert Jones sets out to reconnect with friends and family and find out how life changed away from the front line. Presented as a travelogue with flashbacks to the war, Robert finds recycling projects, a new sense of community and shadows and ghosts reaching across the Channel for him.
Sounds of Soldiers can be bought in paperback or as a pdf from http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/sounds-of-soldiers/13399260
Or for Amazon's Kindle- https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004A157PS (UK), http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004A157PS (US)
Information about other books, and formats as they become available, can be found at http://www.spinneyhead.co.uk/books/
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
All Things Romantic Suspense: Jess Anastasi
Today I welcome fellow All Things Romantic Suspense Tour participant, Jess Anastasi.
1. What drew you to the subject of Dead Reality?
I actually got the idea for Dead Reality in a dream, which, as weird as that might sound, isn't that unusual for me. A lot of my ideas come to me that way. Anyway, once I had the idea of agents going undercover on a reality TV show, I couldn't stop thinking about it and turned it into this book.
2. What was the name of the first novel you wrote? Did you try to publish it?
Oh no, it's bad. Okay, I called it My Raven Storm, it was a historical romance and it was terrible! I wasn't ever dumb enough to think I could actually get it published. It was more of an experiment to see if I could actually write. Which, apparently I can.
3. What do you consider your strengths in terms of your writing?
I think my strength has always been in my dialogue, that's one thing I've never had a problem with. My crit partner constantly has to remind me to 'trust my dialogue', that my characters are conveying a lot with their words and I don't need to go over explaining. I always worry my readers aren't going to 'get' what I'm talking about.
4. What do you consider your weakness and what strategies do you use to overcome it?
No matter how much I try, I just can't weed passive voice out of my work. I write it even when I think I'm no writing it! Thank god for my crit partner and editor!
5. What is your favorite word?
'Apparently'. I say it all the time. Look, I already used it once in this interview. And it tends to slip into my books quite a bit. Its one of those words I have to go do a find and delete/replace for when I've finished a manuscript.
6. What would you like to learn to do that you haven’t?
I would love to learn how to play the piano. I took some basic lessons when I was a kid, but you know what kids are like, never stick to anything for longer than five minutes. I keep telling myself that when I grow up and have more time, I'll go buy a piano and get lessons!
7. What did you enjoy most about writing this book?
I always felt like these two characters, Ella and Bryce, really had something. Every time they were in a scene together, you never quite knew what was going to happen. Their relationship really drove this book and I only hope that comes across when people read it.
8. Who is your favorite character in your book?
I love Bryce. He's one of my favorite characters out of all the books I've written. Though he was a bit of a player, and could be a total smart alec, once he realized he loved Ella, he manned up and made the HEA happen.
9. What was the hardest scene to write?
After Ella and Bryce have an intimate moment, Ella runs off because she realizes she loves Bryce and is scared about what that'll mean for her. But, Bryce hasn't come to the same realization yet. Except he's having all these feelings and doesn't really know what he's doing or why he's doing it. I found it hard to honestly portray his confusion, for him to be too stubborn to see the light, yet make it believable. I think it worked in the end, but when people read that scene, I'm sure they'll be yelling "because you're in love, you idiot!" like I was at the time. But, Bryce just wasn't able to see it yet at that point.
10. What was your favorite scene to write?
There were a few scenes I really enjoyed writing, small moments when you could see the relationship evolving. But I think I really liked writing the ending. Not because it was the end! Because Ella and Bryce had to get through some tough issues to get their HEA, not to mention someone trying to kill them! It was good to see it all come together in the end.
Author Bio:
Jess has been making up stories since she can remember. Though her messy handwriting made it hard for anyone else to read them, she wasn't deterred and now she gets to make up stories for a living. She loves loud music, dumb movies, and a good book on a rainy day. Jess lives in regional Victoria, Australia with her very supportive husband, two kids and one spoiled border collie. Learn more about Jess at www.jessanastasi.com
Book Blurb:
FBI Special Agent Ella Waverly is wrapping up one last assignment before heading off on her first holiday in five years. But flip-flops and cocktails are the last thing on her mind when she meets the new team leader, Special Agent Bryce Lain, and finds out her holiday is being scuttled for an undercover assignment.
Agent Lain is gorgeous, the kind of gorgeous that guarantees he’s an arrogant jerk. The news that he’ll be her partner in the dangerous mission is almost enough to make her head explode. Before the day is out, Ella finds herself at Little Palm Island Resort in Florida, masquerading as a contestant on the latest reality TV show – Lord Bachelor. The bachelor in question, a disgraced British peer, is suspected of raping and murdering several women back in London.
As humidity frizzes her hair beyond the help of any type of de-frizzing, smoothing, glossing product, Ella tries to wrangle working against nineteen husband-hungry bimbos, one suspected serial killer and one seriously hot agent who’s trying everything he can to get under her skin.
Buy links:
Noble Romance Publishing: http://www.nobleromance.com/BrowseListing.aspx?author=130
Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=jess+anastasi
Thanks for stopping by Jess.
cmr
1. What drew you to the subject of Dead Reality?
I actually got the idea for Dead Reality in a dream, which, as weird as that might sound, isn't that unusual for me. A lot of my ideas come to me that way. Anyway, once I had the idea of agents going undercover on a reality TV show, I couldn't stop thinking about it and turned it into this book.
2. What was the name of the first novel you wrote? Did you try to publish it?
Oh no, it's bad. Okay, I called it My Raven Storm, it was a historical romance and it was terrible! I wasn't ever dumb enough to think I could actually get it published. It was more of an experiment to see if I could actually write. Which, apparently I can.
3. What do you consider your strengths in terms of your writing?
I think my strength has always been in my dialogue, that's one thing I've never had a problem with. My crit partner constantly has to remind me to 'trust my dialogue', that my characters are conveying a lot with their words and I don't need to go over explaining. I always worry my readers aren't going to 'get' what I'm talking about.
4. What do you consider your weakness and what strategies do you use to overcome it?
No matter how much I try, I just can't weed passive voice out of my work. I write it even when I think I'm no writing it! Thank god for my crit partner and editor!
5. What is your favorite word?
'Apparently'. I say it all the time. Look, I already used it once in this interview. And it tends to slip into my books quite a bit. Its one of those words I have to go do a find and delete/replace for when I've finished a manuscript.
6. What would you like to learn to do that you haven’t?
I would love to learn how to play the piano. I took some basic lessons when I was a kid, but you know what kids are like, never stick to anything for longer than five minutes. I keep telling myself that when I grow up and have more time, I'll go buy a piano and get lessons!
7. What did you enjoy most about writing this book?
I always felt like these two characters, Ella and Bryce, really had something. Every time they were in a scene together, you never quite knew what was going to happen. Their relationship really drove this book and I only hope that comes across when people read it.
8. Who is your favorite character in your book?
I love Bryce. He's one of my favorite characters out of all the books I've written. Though he was a bit of a player, and could be a total smart alec, once he realized he loved Ella, he manned up and made the HEA happen.
9. What was the hardest scene to write?
After Ella and Bryce have an intimate moment, Ella runs off because she realizes she loves Bryce and is scared about what that'll mean for her. But, Bryce hasn't come to the same realization yet. Except he's having all these feelings and doesn't really know what he's doing or why he's doing it. I found it hard to honestly portray his confusion, for him to be too stubborn to see the light, yet make it believable. I think it worked in the end, but when people read that scene, I'm sure they'll be yelling "because you're in love, you idiot!" like I was at the time. But, Bryce just wasn't able to see it yet at that point.
10. What was your favorite scene to write?
There were a few scenes I really enjoyed writing, small moments when you could see the relationship evolving. But I think I really liked writing the ending. Not because it was the end! Because Ella and Bryce had to get through some tough issues to get their HEA, not to mention someone trying to kill them! It was good to see it all come together in the end.
Author Bio:
Jess has been making up stories since she can remember. Though her messy handwriting made it hard for anyone else to read them, she wasn't deterred and now she gets to make up stories for a living. She loves loud music, dumb movies, and a good book on a rainy day. Jess lives in regional Victoria, Australia with her very supportive husband, two kids and one spoiled border collie. Learn more about Jess at www.jessanastasi.com
Book Blurb:
FBI Special Agent Ella Waverly is wrapping up one last assignment before heading off on her first holiday in five years. But flip-flops and cocktails are the last thing on her mind when she meets the new team leader, Special Agent Bryce Lain, and finds out her holiday is being scuttled for an undercover assignment.
Agent Lain is gorgeous, the kind of gorgeous that guarantees he’s an arrogant jerk. The news that he’ll be her partner in the dangerous mission is almost enough to make her head explode. Before the day is out, Ella finds herself at Little Palm Island Resort in Florida, masquerading as a contestant on the latest reality TV show – Lord Bachelor. The bachelor in question, a disgraced British peer, is suspected of raping and murdering several women back in London.
As humidity frizzes her hair beyond the help of any type of de-frizzing, smoothing, glossing product, Ella tries to wrangle working against nineteen husband-hungry bimbos, one suspected serial killer and one seriously hot agent who’s trying everything he can to get under her skin.
Buy links:
Noble Romance Publishing: http://www.nobleromance.com/BrowseListing.aspx?author=130
Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=jess+anastasi
Thanks for stopping by Jess.
cmr
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