From my guest post on Best Selling Reads

As writers, we often get questions on where our story ideas come from. 

They come from a story in the news, something read, an observation from the world, or discussion with friends. Something out there tugs at the corner of the mind: What if? What would happen if? What if that was merged with, Why did that …? 

Today, we’re going to explore where six of the Best Selling Reads authors got their ideas for a completed work or a work in progress. 


Douglas Dorow – author of the FBI thriller THE NINTH DISTRICT

The idea for my second book in my FBI thriller series, that I’m currently writing, came from an event a few years ago. 

On a summer afternoon, my wife and our two kids were visiting a beach at a Minnesota state park. While I was resting in the sun, my wife was wading in the water where the kids were playing. I heard her calling to me with a tension in her voice that got my attention right away. 

I sat up and saw her standing in the water, pointing to a spot in front of her. She told me her wedding ring slipped from her finger into the water. 

We looked for it for a while, but we couldn’t find it. 

We returned to the beach a couple of weeks later, armed with a metal detector that my wife rented. Exploring the area we found pieces of metal and her ring!

After putting her ring back on her finger we checked out the other pieces of metal. There were tire weights, rusted metal grommets and a dog license from 1941. That last item got my attention. How did a dog license from 1941 end up in the water at this beach? 

I thought about that for a while and put together a story line and a thriller that begins with my protagonist, FBI Special Agent Jack Miller, finding a 1941 dog license at the beach after his wife loses her wedding ring in the water. 


Andy Holloman – author of SHADES OF GRAY

The seed for my first novel, Shades of Gray, came from a real life experience.  I was a travel agency owner for 12 years and we had a client who made unusual requests whenever she purchased airline tickets (and she always traveled First Class). One day, the sales person that managed her travel reported to me that this client was murdered, execution style, in her home, and the home was set on fire.  Based on the news story reporting this event, it appeared that she was involved in smuggling drugs.

In 2003, my business was in rapid decline and I couldn’t shake the thought of what a business owner might do to try and save their company.  I never crossed the line into drug smuggling, but the seed was planted and the story remained stuck in my brain, haunting me day and night.  So I just had to write it down!!


Diane Capri -  author of DON’T KNOW JACK   part of the Hunt For Jack Reacher Mystery/Thriller series

The idea for my book, Don’t Know Jack, and my entire Hunt for Jack Reacher series was sparked by a conversation with my friend Lee Child at an event in New York City. We were discussing our work and the subject of Reacher naturally came up.

I asked, “Where is Reacher, anyway? Between books, I mean? And what about all of those people he’s helped over the years? Whatever happened to them? And really, is it even possible that he hasn’t fathered a child or two?” 

Lee replied, “He does what he wants and lives where he wants and helps who he wants. Besides, who in their right mind would go looking for Reacher? You?”

Not me. No. But the question lingered. “Who in her right mind would go looking for Jack Reacher? And maybe more importantly,why?”


Raine Thomas author of YA fantasy romance BECOMING

I’m often asked where I got the inspiration to write my YA fantasy romance books.  Here’s my response:

Becoming was inspired by my work with youth diagnosed with mental illnesses and/or behavioral disorders, many of whom endured multiple foster home placements. Becoming‘s protagonist, Amber Hopkins, is loosely based on a seventeen-year-old young woman with whom I worked. Like that young woman, Amber bounces from foster home to foster home, developing emotional issues as a result. I wanted to write a story about a young woman who experiences this type of difficult past and finds the strength to overcome it, like the young woman who inspired the story.

 
Kathleen Valentine author of THE OLD MERMAID’S TALE  – A Novel of the Great Lakes

When I was a kid my godparents lived in Erie, Pennsylvania, and every summer I was allowed to go and stay with them for a week or two. My godfather, Uncle Buddy, would always take me down to the docks and show me the big ships–”lakers” that came into port–and tell me stories about the ships and the legends that surrounded them. There was a tavern on the waterfront called The Mermaid Tavern and I was absolutely mesmerized by it.

Later, while I was in college in Erie, I used to take the bus down to the docks just to see the big ships and always I had to check on The Mermaid Tavern. It just looked dangerous, and my Uncle Buddy warned me that I’d be in big trouble if he ever caught me going in there.

About ten years after I graduated from college, I went back to Erie for a visit and, by this time, I was well-experienced at going in to bars.  I was determined to go into The Mermaid Tavern and have a drink or two. I was so excited! But when I got down to the docks I discovered that the whole waterfront had been “urban renewed,” and The Mermaid Tavern was now a fast-food restaurant. I was crushed, but that is when the idea for The Old Mermaid’s Tale began to grow in my mind.


Tawdra Kandle author of FEARLESS

When my kids were babies, I used to joke that if I woke up in the middle of the night and thought about them, they seemed to ‘hear’ me and awaken as well. That made me wonder what that would look like. . .raising a child who had that ability. What would you do to protect her? How would she turn out? Those musings morphed into Fearless, Book 1 in The King Series. Tasmyn refers to her parents’ discovery of her extraordinary talent; how they responded to it informs the girl she is at the beginning of the series as well as the young woman she becomes by the end.

Delighted THE NINTH DISTRICT was nominated for Best Novel http://bit.ly/YBpow9 2013 eFestival of Words! 

It’s spring! That means rain, mud, green grass, robins and BASEBALL. And my yearly mystery.

When baseball starts each Spring, I think back to my childhood. There were two things I loved to do when I was young: play baseball and read.

I played baseball in elementary school for the Longfellow Lions. We were a group of kids who went to the same school and signed up together to play park board baseball. We were OK. I played second base and right field.

One year during the baseball season,  I found a fictional story about baseball to read. I really liked the book.  Iit is one of the few books I remember reading more than once.

The book was about a young boy who was the batboy or ballboy for a team. He did odd jobs for the team. He searched through clover fields and made some of his own four-leaf clovers to give to the players for good luck. There was also a big play in a game. The batter was going to fake a bunt and then take a full swing at the ball to drive in a winning run. 

That’s all I remember about the story. That, and the fact that I liked the book so much that I wanted to write the author and let him know. The librarian showed me how to figure out who the publisher was from the copyright page. We found the address for the publisher, and I wrote to the author via his publisher. And he wrote back! I remember the typed pages on flimsy paper. I had them for a while, but that was a long time ago, and I don’t know where they are now.

My mystery is I can’t remember the name of the book or who the author is.

Today, as a reader and an author, I enjoy how easy it is for reader and author to connect via social media or email. As an author, I’ve received some great emails from readers who are surprised to hear back from me. I respond because I remember how I felt getting a letter back from an author so long ago.

I still want to solve this mystery. I’ve looked for the book on-line, talked to librarians, made other posts about this, but still the mystery goes on. I was hoping to find the book and share it with my son as he was growing up and playing baseball. He’s almost too old to enjoy it today, but it’s still something I’d like to share with him.

If you can help solve my mystery, I’d appreciate it. There are a couple of clues above from what I remember about the story and here are some more:

Ball or batboy makes four-leaf clovers for the baseball team for luck. They think he found them.

There’s a big hit in the game, fake bunt to full swing hit.

Probably written in the 1960’s as I read it from my school library around 1970.

US - New York publisher, I think.

Not a lot to go on, but if it was easy I would’ve found it by now.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to find the name of the book. 

Thanks and good luck!

I'm at douglasdorow@gmail.com

One Shade of Red

Women want the perfect man, so they can change him. But when university student Damian Serr discovers a rich, beautiful woman who’s voracious about sex, he doesn’t try to improve on perfection. It’s all that he can do to hold on for the ride.

Damian has always followed the rules, always tried to please others. At 20, he still dates the girl next door because his parents like her parents. When Nick, his university roommate, asks Damian to take over his pool-cleaning business so he can take an internship in London, Damian can’t say no — especially to Nick’s first and only client, a rich widow.

But widow Alexis Rosse is far from helpless or lonely. This beautiful financial genius is busy turning the markets upside-down, and she revels in sex wherever, whenever and with whomever she wants.

Over the summer, Alexis gives Damian an intense education. Day after day, she pushes him to his sexual limits. The only question he has is: will she break them?

“So well-written that it flows easily, hooking the reader right from the beginning. I had real problems to stop reading it.” — Cinta Garcia de la Rosa, author of A Foreigner in London and reviewer of Indie Authors You Want to Read.

“How nice it is to see a dude lit-style book! And well-written at that!” Lisa Jey Davis, “Ms. Cheevious”

“So hot, you’ll want your own pool boy.” — Charity Parkerson, author of The Society of Sinners
 
  *  *  *  *  *
That's the blurb for Scott Bury's ONE SHADE OF RED, released April 2. I first met Scott via twitter, like so many of the authors I've met. I've also been in a couple of Indie author groups with him. And now I'm getting to know him even better through this blog tour. We can all get to know him a little better from his guest post below. 


The One Shade of Red launch blog tour

Guest post by Scott Bury

Thank you, Doug, for agreeing to host the blog tour today, to help launch my new book, One Shade of Red.

This is a real departure for Doug and his blog, well outside the thriller genre: One Shade of Red is a spoof of the incomprehensibly bestselling Fifty Shades of Grey.

My parody, turns the original book upside down. The narrator is the naive, under-confident university student, Damian Serr; and the slightly older mentor figure is the beautiful, smart and independent businesswoman, Alexis Rosse. Alexis teaches Damian about business —and about that mysterious other thing between women and men.

This excerpt comes from Chapter 9, “Mrs. Casales,” where Damian learns just what he has agreed to do for another customer. 

One Shade of Red is now available on Amazon, Smashwords and other fine e-tailers. For links, visit Scottswrittenwords.blogspot.com.

The previous stop on the tour was April 2, on Cinta Garcia de la Rosa’s Indie Authors You Want to Read. 

The next stop, April 4, is Valjeanne Jeffers’ blog, Collision of Worlds 

Mrs. Casales 

 By the end of the third week, I had Mrs. Casales’ pool and deck looking much better. In fact, they looked great.

For no reason I could define, I had gone well beyond pool cleaning. I had cleaned the inside of the pool and scraped out all the slime and goop, vacuumed the accumulated dust out of the bottom and cleared the skimmers until they looked new.

Every time I had come, I had scrubbed the concrete pool deck. I even went to far as to bring clippers from my parents’ tool shed and hack back the overgrown hedges so that they would not drop so many leaves into the pool. I told myself that I was only making my work easier for myself in the long run, but my brain did not believe me.

Mrs. Casales obliged me by exclaiming how much better her whole back yard looked every time I finished. Occasionally, her two little kids, a boy and girl, both under 10 years old, would scamper in and wait impatiently when I told them they had to wait after I poured in the chlorine. “The water’s not good for swimming yet,” I said every time. “You’ll have to wait at least an hour.” They would stand at the side of the pool, bouncing on the balls of their feet, until one would think of something else to do and they’d chase each other across the yard or into the house.

Mrs. Casales always came out with iced tea or lemonade when I was done, and we’d sit at her patio set and chat about the pool-cleaning business, or the upcoming university year, or sometimes about her kids.

She seemed cheerful enough when we talked, but she never mentioned a husband. I remembered what Alexis had said about her marriage breaking up, but I did not know how to ask her about that without risking spoiling her mood.

At the end of the third week, the sixth time I had cleaned the pool, deck and the back yard in general, I took a deep breath and surveyed my handiwork. Part of my brain demanded to know why I had gone so far beyond pool cleaning, and another part of my brain refused to admit why.

Mrs. Casales came out of the kitchen with two bottles of Heineken. No children were in sight. “The water is perfectly balanced today, Mrs. Casales, so the kids can come swimming right away,” I said as I took a bottle from her hand.

“The kids are at their cousin’s this afternoon. We’re alone today,” she said and took a sip of her beer. “And call me Leda.”

On that hot afternoon, cold beer went down like salvation. I could feel heat radiating off my skin. I pressed the cold bottle against my hot forehead, relishing the ache it caused.

We sat at her squeaky, unsteady patio table. I stretched my legs in front of me. Mrs. Casales’ — Leda’s — pool was the last on my itinerary, and the day seemed to be going in an excellent direction.

I looked at her; she was wearing a thin cover-up over a two-piece bathing suit. I watched her neck pulse as she drank more beer. She had tied her crazy hair with one of those scrunchie things that girls like. “Thanks for the beer.”

She wasn’t bad looking, I thought. A little overweight, but that gave her nice curves. She was no Alexis, but to borrow Patrick’s tired joke, I wouldn’t kick her out of bed for eating cookies.

“Thank you, Damian, for doing such a great job. I appreciate how you’ve gone well beyond the pool cleaner’s job description. I did notice the way you trimmed the bushes and neatened up the whole yard.” She patted my knee and moved a little closer toward me.

“It was just to keep so many leaves and branches from falling into the pool,” I said. “So it made my own job a little easier.”

“Nonsense. You were trying to make me happier. And I truly appreciate that, Damian. Really, I do. And I should pay you back. One good turn deserves another.”

“No, no, the payment is what it is. We agreed. A deal is a deal.”

“Then, I should pay you back in some other way.” She looked right into my eyes.

My mouth felt dry, and pouring more beer into it did not help.

“Do you always work with your shirt off?” she said, and I suddenly felt conscious of my bare chest.

“Just when it’s this hot...”

I could not finish answering her because her mouth pressed against mine. Her tongue pushed into my mouth as her hands went around my shoulders. She pulled herself onto my lap as she ran her hands up and down my back.

I hope you enjoyed Scott's guest blog post. Check out his blog, or better yet, his newly released book. 

I'm back from a weeks vacation, a great time in Mexico with my family. Vacation is a great time to sit on the beach and read books. One of the books is Chris Allen's HUNTER - INTREPID 2.  

Before vacation, I was contacted by Chris' publicist to see if I was interested in reading HUNTER. I was, and I'm glad I did. We also decided to share interviews as we got to know each other. 

If you enjoy international thrillers, check out Chris' books. I thoroughly enjoyed HUNTER. You can tell Chris has the background to make the story real. 

Let's learn more about my new Aussie friend and fellow thriller author, Chris Allen. 


Doug: I must say I'm a little jealous. You have more than one book out and you aren't in the throes of winter right now. I'm in Minnesota with about 8 inches of snow on the ground and it's below freezing.  

Chris: You’re jealous! My wife Sarah keeps giving me stick about wanting to go skiing overseas with our boys. It sounds like you’re much closer to snowfields at this time of year than we are. I know we're usually renowned for our enviable weather Down Under, but these past few summers it seems we’ve had nothing but floods, cyclones and bush-fires in equal measure. Not exactly weather to relax and enjoy. Still, on the whole, we're very lucky.

Doug: I assume we'd have a lot to talk about in person comparing notes on thriller writing, but we'll give it a go here. I have made some friends around the world since I've gotten into social media and have a friend in Australia I look to to answer questions on Australian phrases and that mysterious game of rugby :)

Chris: Absolutely, I'd enjoy sharing a few schooners with you in my local pub and swapping a few thriller writing anecdotes, it would be a good laugh. In fact, it’s a past-time I do indulge in occasionally with fellow Aussie writers - when I get a leave pass (I think 'They' call it networking). Of course, with you in Minnesota and me here in Sydney, I reckon that’s all part of the joy of social media, mate. It's just incredible that we can connect with people from all over the planet by searching them out or simply stumbling across them, via shared interests. I love that. I'm impressed by your fascination with our Australianisms - or Ockerisms as we say. I also enjoy a great appreciation for the many iterations of our English language and local dialects. I throw a bit of slang in my conversation here and there, to do my bit in keeping them alive - before Gen Y abbreviate everything! I have a similarly great affection for some of the British turns of phrase from my time attached to the British Parachute Regiment in the 90’s. 'Mucker' is one of my favourites; it means friend, buddy or mate!

Doug: It looks like we both published our first book about the same time, 2011. Can you share a little of your journey up to the time you published your book, how you decided to write and publish, what you've learned and what you wish you knew before you took the plunge. 

Chris: Well, it all really started after meeting my wife Sarah in 2006. I'd been working on my first book for years and, like many writers, had endured the humiliation, on more than one occasion, of having my dreams scuttled by publishing industry gatekeepers. Anyway, when Sar came along she found a whole decade’s worth of the drafts for my first thriller floating around and she became curious.  Honestly, I was almost resigned to giving up on it ( I said almost), but Sar who'd majored in English Literature at university, got out her red pens and started to mark up what would soon become my first action thriller novel, Defender, featuring my chief protagonist, the incomparable Alex Morgan!

Around the time that our first son, Morgan, was born, I finished the rewrite of Defender and the hunt for a publisher began again in earnest. It'll probably come as no surprise to many writers that I was once again up against the accursed (default) 'No' affliction, sadly so common amongst publishers! Despite that, this time around I actually did secure the interest of an independent publisher whom I had great regard for.  However, almost concurrently Sar and I had been researching the publishing revolution and discovered the explosion of self-publishing options available to authors wanting to break into the market on their own terms and make a name for themselves. Once we started learning more about eBooks and print-on-demand technology in 2010, and learning about all the exciting growth in digital publishing happening around the world, we had little choice but to give it a red hot go. So, incredibly, we respectfully declined the publishing deal on offer, bit the bullet, established our own little enterprise 'Bright Sea Publishing' and set off on our own.

After utilizing strategies to bring fans and readers in social media along for the ride, such as crowdsourcing the final book cover design and picking character names via online communities, the book Defender enjoyed great coverage in the traditional media and online - all under our own steam with Sar driving the publicity, marketing and social media. Sales took off, and we attracted the attention of Pan Macmillan Australia’s new digital-only imprint, Momentum Books (www.momentumbooks.com.au), resulting in a two-book deal. 

The deal with Momentum was an opportunity to partner with a new ‘start-up’ organisation and have the input of supremely good editors and designers, and ultimately to benefit from their strong relationships with booksellers such as iBooks, Google Play, Kobo and Amazon.

The catch-cry of my books is that they are ‘Thrillers for Realists’ – informed by my experience and knowledge, all with a liberal dose of escapism thrown into the mix.

Since both books were released late last year, the re-edited/re-booted Defender and my second Alex Morgan adventure Hunter – which I finished just around the time our second son, Rhett, was born - there have been great opportunities to connect with many enthusiastic readers, writers and bloggers all over the world. From the launch party and an online blog tour to celebrate the books being launched; a series of author events around New South Wales including the upcoming prestigious Sydney Writers’ Festival; competitions and thousands of followers talking about the books online; and even a film deal underway which will one day see my books on the big screen; the focus now is on getting the third book Avenger and its successor researched, written and into the eager hands of my incredibly loyal and supportive readers.

The further Sarah and I get along on this rollercoaster ride of writing, publishing, marketing and selling my action adventure stories, the more we realise how much we still have to learn – for example, you can never rely on anyone to do all the work for you, and you need to balance the creative process with the marketing process as you go into writing the rest in the series while still promoting my first stories. But I guess that’s part of the fun – and we just figure it all out along the way.

Doug: Do you write with an audience in mind? Australian readers, global audience? Do you think about it?  

Chris: I absolutely think about the audience. I set out to write thrillers with international appeal right from the outset. While Alex Morgan, as an individual has a British/Australian flavour, the organisation he belongs to - Intrepid - which is at the centre of all the books, is by default international. The first books in the series Defender and Hunter are the very beginning of my espionage series that follows Alex Morgan, star recruit for Interpol’s ultra-secret agency: Intrepid. As an Intrepid agent - part-policeman, part-soldier and part-spy, Morgan and his fellow operatives are the faceless strangers who serve the greater good in a post-9/11 environment – the means that justify the end. Every member of Intrepid represents a different country or culture, all with values particular to and synonymous with the ethos of Intrepid – unassailable super-agents serving the world community. As the series progresses I intend to add to the organizations diversity so as not to marginalize any particular ethnic or cultural group. My readers are global and so that’s who I write for. I do have a very engaged fanbase in Australia and New Zealand but I'm hoping to build upon that as more readers come to know about Alex Morgan and Intrepid. 

Doug: What's the writing, reading, publishing environment like in Australia? What are some of the unique challenges for a writer in Australia? 

Chris: Like everywhere, the publishing industry in Australia is undergoing huge amounts of upheaval and change. There are players who are innovating and there are players who are going under. Bookstore chains are closing down and traditionally focused, long established publishing houses are reducing staff. Right now, I believe the time is right for market savvy, forward thinking independent publishers to increase their market share by partnering with authors to mutual benefit, identifying gaps and opportunities in the changing marketplace that the bigger publishes just can't reconfigure quickly enough to exploit. I think that’s what we need – a much more diversified and collaborative approach.

So while budgets and advances may be significantly smaller than the ‘golden years’ of publishing, I am happy to report I still find lots of great opportunities to connect with readers globally - without being reliant on a massive budget. The challenge is in devising ways to  be creatively innovative both online and offline, and thankfully the appetite for good storytelling remains. Let’s face it, just as the music industry has had to come to terms with constantly changing media and devices, the modern world has finally caught up with the publishing industry. And, in exactly the same way that the music industry had to respond to the needs, preferences and expectations of listeners, the publishing industry is being forced to similarly respond to the marketplace. I mean, who would have thought that after the purity and crispness provided by digital sound devices, people would eventually go full circle, prompting the return of the classic vinyl LP record format?

So, when all is said and done, writers want to connect with their readers and readers want to connect with their writers. How they all do that will always be a matter of personal preference.

Doug: You have two in the series. Plans for more? 

Chris: Too right. I’m currently planning and writing Avenger the third in the series, and masterminding a fourth. As long as people want to read them, I’ll keep writing them. That said, I have another quite different series in development that I’m really excited about and I'm already enjoying mapping it out. I feel almost ready to start writing it... But it'll have to wait until I've finished Avenger!

Doug: Do you consider yourself traditionally published or independant? 

Chris: Well, we are currently signed to Momentum Books, the digital-only imprint of Pan Macmillan, and they’ve released both Defender and Hunter eBooks and print-on-demand via a variety of online channels. So, we’ve been indie, and now we’re lucky enough to have the backing of a publisher. That said, I describe my current position as straddling the traditional publishing divide. That’s not to say that I don’t have plans for traditional deals in Australia, New Zealand, the US, UK, Canada, Germany and other parts of Europe, and to get the stories onto the big screen worldwide. That would be for starters. But certainly I see that eBook and indie publishing has been a game changer and given us a lot in terms of the ability to connect with a wide and appreciative audience around the world – for that I’m hugely grateful.

Translations:

·         Schooner = glass vessel containing amber ale or beer

·         Mate = buddy

·         Leave pass = a rare night out

·         Ockerisms = Aussie sayings

I love supporting other authors. Today I'm sharing a new cover for a new book that is coming out. 

One Shade of Red by Scott Bury comes out April 2, 2013, with a stunning cover by David C. Cassidy (author of Velvet Rain).

What's it about?

Women want the perfect man, so they can change him. But when university student Damian Serr discovers a rich, beautiful woman who’s voracious about sex, he doesn’t try to improve on perfection. It’s all that he can do to hold on for the ride.

Damian has always followed the rules, always tried to please others. At 20, he still dates the girl next door because his parents like her parents. When Nick, his university roommate, asks Damian to take over his pool-cleaning business so he can take an internship in London, Damian can’t say no — especially to Nick’s first and only client, a rich widow.

But widow Alexis Rosse is far from helpless or lonely. This beautiful financial genius is busy turning the markets upside-down, and she revels in sex wherever, whenever and with whomever she wants. 

Over the summer, Alexis gives Damian an intense education. Day after day, she pushes him to his sexual limits. The only question he has is: will she break them? 

You can learn more about Scott Bury here >>

Scott Bury on Amazon

Blog > WRITTEN WORDS

Twitter > @ScottTheWriter

You're always looking for a good book, a new author to check out; here are samples of 8 great books from 8 Fantastic authors. 

Jet - Russell Blake
The Ninth District - Douglas Dorow
A Man Overboard - Shawn Hopkins
A Cape May Diamond - Larry Enright
3 Lies - Helen Hanson
Twisted - Jeff Bennington
Easy Innocence - Libby Fischer Hellmann
Vigilante - Claude Bouchard

MOBI download

EPUB download 

Feb 14, 15 & 16 I am partnering up with two of my author friends to offer our books on Kindle for Free. Show your kindle some love, or get your book lover some Free books. 

They're all excellent reads. My THE NINTH DISTRICT features FBI Special Agent Jack Miller who finds himself up against the toughest opponent of his career. The Federal Reserve has never been robbed and Jack means to keep it that way. 

Shawn Hopkins' A MAN OVERBOARD is a thriller, spy, espionage and love story all rolled into one novel. I think this is Shawn's breakout novel. 

John R Kess' ELLY'S GHOST is a multi-layered outdoor adventure thriller that I really enjoyed. John's proven to be a fantastic story teller. 

I know you'll enjoy these books. After you finish reading them, remember to show the author some love and write a review for the book. 

Keep Reading - for the THRILL of it. 

I wrote a post for Best Selling Reads > Surprise Me! < on why my son doesn't like to watch movies with me and why it's important as an author to surprise yourself so you can surprise your reader.  Check it out.  

And while you're there, enter the Feb giveaway for a mini ipad and Amazon gift cards!

Surprise Me! on Best Selling Reads

2013 is my "year of writing". That's my goal, my resolution, my promise to you. 

Let's look back:

2011 was the year I published THE NINTH DISTRICT. I went from writer to author June 2011. Thank you to all of you who have read it. I've gotten some great reviews, emails directly from readers and the push to keep writing as you've told me you'd like another book from me.

2012 was a year of learning about marketing, promotion, connection and expansion. 

In an attempt to find readers, I dove into Twitter and Facebook, held a few Goodreads giveaways, partnered with other authors in promoting Free and 99 cent books.  

I also decided I would expand the story I wrote. Readers enjoy their books in different ways. I first pubbed THE NINTH DISTRICT as an ebook, expanded it to paper for those who haven't embraced ebooks as I have, and also hired a narrator to create an audiobook version. And readers don't all read in English, so I found a talented translator and released a Spanish version in December. 

I received a lot of great feedback on the original cover, but finding it hard to contact the cover artist to make changes or alter it for Spanish, I worked with a new cover artist for DISTRITO NUEVE and liked the cover so much I had him create it in English as well. I'm very happy with the new cover. 

2013 is my year of writing. I plan to publish the second in the series with Special Agent Jack Miller following him and his family into Minnesota lake country for a Labor Day vacation. All he wants is to spend time with his family and recharge after battling The Governor over The Fourth of July in THE NINTH DISTRICT. He finds himself dragged into a local crime/conflict and works to bring down a local small-town crime family so he can get back to relaxing, fishing, spending time with his family. 

I've also decided to spin off a series of short stories following Special Agent Ross Fruen as he moves on from the Minneapolis field office into the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team and their adventures. 

How to get this writing done and make 2013 My Year of Writing? Through setting goals and making "writing" a priority. I followed a well documented plan for training for the 3 marathons I've run and I'm setting goals and deadlines for my writing. What do they say? Plan the work and work the plan? That's what I'm doing. 

I'm also working with groups; continuing to meet with my writers critique group every two weeks, we've met for years to support and learn from each other, and I've joined with Best Selling Reads, a group of indie authors who are talented and publishing in different genres. Check them out now and register for the February promo where you could win a mini-iPad or Amazon gift cards while you check out some new authors.  

Keep reading, I'll keep writing and I'll let you know when those new thrillers are ready!