BROKEN ALLEGIANCE (A Tom Kagan Novel) has been unleashed

By Mark Young

Stop the presses! I completely forget to share my latest bit of news. I have a new novel out!

Can you believe I forget to tell you about this? I have been so busy working on my next novel, posting other authors’ new releases and other blog-related interviews—I completely forget to let you know about my own novel.

I apologize.

Release of Broken Allegiance (A Tom Kagan Novel) may be known to those of you who pal around with me on other social media sites. However, I just realized that some of my reading friends might only cross paths here on Hook'em & Book'em. They may not know that another of my mystery, suspense, police procedural novels has been let loose on the world.

Here is the down-and-dirty:

Police gang detective Tom Kagan sought justice for more than ten years, leaving him a broken man. His only reason for living—the woman he loves and the badge he swore to uphold. When a man is brutally killed in a vineyard on the outskirts of Santa Rosa, California, it sparks a series of events that test what’s left of Kagan’s resolve to protect and serve. 

Secrets from the past thwart Kagan’s efforts to unravel a series of killings sanctioned from within the walls of California’s highest security prison. From the lush vineyards of Sonoma County to the shores of beautiful Lake Tahoe, the detective must outsmart a killer who is moving in for one epic killing spree. 

Leaders of the notorious Nuestra Family prison gang are fighting for power, a struggle that spills out onto the streets of California. Kagan joins forces with Special Agent Hector Garcia, a feisty supervisor of the Special Services Unit for the California Department of Corrections; Diane Phillips, a beautiful and hard-charging prosecutor; and Mikio Sanchez, a former gang member marked for death. Through the eyes of cops and gangsters, readers are able to glimpse the seldom seen workings of the gangster underworld. 

Broken Allegiance is about treacherous lies, broken promises, and shattered lives—about life, death and a man’s honor.

Does this pique your interest? If so, you can find a copy of Broken Allegiance through Amazon’s Kindle Store here or in print through Createspace here.

Grab a copy. A sequel will be coming out right on its heels. Next time, I will be a little quicker letting you know when another novel is released.

Promise! Cross my heart and hope to… Huh, I think I’ll stop right there. After all, I do write crime novels.

SWEET DREAMS: A Thriller by Bestselling Author Aaron Patterson

[Editor's Note: SWEET DREAMS is currently on sale for .99-cents through Bookbub as an eBook. Here is the link to Amazon: SWEET DREAMS ]

Mark Appleton is living the American Dream. Beautiful wife, loving daughter, and a high paying job in New York City. But when his family are killed in a accident he must reinvent himself. A year later in the midst of putting his life back together, Mark finds out that his family was killed and it was...No accident. Mark will stop at nothing to hunt down the men responsible for the death of his family and what he finds will change his life forever.

Kirk Weston is a Detroit detective. He hates his job, his ex-wife, and his life. He is hand selected to help the FBI on a high profile case and just when he thinks things could not get any worse...

They do.

* * * Book 1 in the WJA series is, SWEET DREAMS, Book 2, DREAM ON, and Book 3, IN YOUR DREAMS are also available! * * *

REVIEWS:

"I loved this book. It kept me turning one page after the other at a fast pace. Aaron Patterson is one of my favorite authors. I have read many on his books. Hoping to read all of them in my lifetime."--Amazon Reviewer

"Sweet Dreams was a book I read in 2 days. I truly enjoyed the read. It kept me wanting to know more. I'm looking forward to Part 2 of the WJA Trilogy!"
--Sharon Adams, Novi, MI

"Suspense, thriller with a perfect ending, leaving me wanting more. An on the edge of your seat, all night read. I most certainly will be reading "Dream On."
--Sheri Wilkinson, Sandwich, IL

"New authors come and go every day. Very few come on the scene with the ability to weave a tale that will make you sad to reach the end, longing for more. At a time when the world needs a real hero, Patterson delivers big with the WJA's Mark Appleton--an unlikely hero for the 21st century."
--The Joe Show

"Aaron Patterson spins a good tale and does it well."
--W.P.

"SWEET DREAMS is packed with action, suspense, romance, betrayal, death, and mystery."
--Drew Maples, author of "28 Yards from Safety"

* * *

SWEET DREAMS is an intense hard-boiled thriller of approximately 95,000 words / 395 pages. This book also contains the following bonus material: Excerpt from DREAM ON, by Aaron Patterson.

******

Aaron Patterson is the author of the best-selling WJA series, as well as the Breaking Steele series. He was

home-schooled and grew up in the west. Aaron loved to read as a small child and would often be found behind a book, reading one to three a day on average. This love drove him to want to write, but he never thought he had the talent. He wrote Sweet Dreams, the first book in the WJA series, in 2008. He lives in Boise, Idaho with his family, Soleil, Kale and Klayton. Aaron is an educator for Indie publishing and is the Co-Founder of StoneHouse University and speaks all over the country on subjects like eBooks, Amazon and the Future of publishing.

Visit Aaron's blog at TheWorstBookEver.blogspot.com
Follow Aaron on twitter at twitter.com/Mstersmith
Join Aaron on Facebook too!

Aaron Patterson CEO
StoneHouse Ink/StoneGate Ink
www.stonehouseink.net
www.stonegateink.com

Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur.

BLIND JUSTICE: A Legal Thriller by Bestselling Author James Scott Bell

Jake Denney has hit rock bottom. His wife has left him. He's drinking again. And his five-year-old daughter is in the middle of it all. When a judge calls him "a disgrace to the legal profession," Jake starts thinking things might be better for everyone if he wasn't around anymore.

Then a childhood friend's mother phones him. Her son, Howie, has been accused of murdering his wife. Jake takes the seemingly hopeless case in a last-ditch effort to save his client and his fading career.

Meanwhile, Howie's little sister, Lindsay, has grown into a beautiful woman. Though Jake is drawn to her, there's something about her he doesn't understand, even though it may be the very thing he needs to reclaim his humanity.

With the evidence mounting against his client, and a web of corruption closing  around them both, Jake Denney faces the fight of his life--not only in the courtroom, but in the depths of his own soul.

"Move over John Grisham. James Scott Bell has done it again with Blind Justice. A must read!" - Nancy Moser, author of The Invitation and The Quest

Excerpt from BLIND JUSTICE:

CHAPTER ONE

ON THE LAST Thursday in March, Howie Patino stepped onto Alaska Airlines Flight 190 out of Anchorage, carrying a teddy bear with a little ribbon across the front that read, Alaska’s Cool! Howie wore his best suit, his only suit, because he wanted to look like he was “dressed for success.” He also wore, he told me later, a huge smile. “A big, fat, dumb one,” he said. “How dumb, stupid, and blind can a guy be?”
     His sleep was peaceful on the trip to Los Angeles. Hardly a hint of turbulence. The guy sitting next to him was no trouble at all, chatting amiably without overdoing it. Mostly Howie slept and dreamed of Rae—Rae in a bathing suit. Rae sitting by the pool and offering him a long, cool drink. Rae making kissing noises at him just like she used to.
     Howie woke up smiling when the plane touched down at the Los Angeles Airport as smooth as a swan gliding onto a pond at Disneyland. That was one of Howie’s favorite places. He and Rae had gone there on their honeymoon. He told me that Rae’s favorite attraction was “Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride.” They went on it five times that night, laughing and screaming like little kids.
     The sleep on the plane had removed any creeping hint of fatigue, so Howie wasn’t tired when he finally made it to the Greyhound station and boarded the bus. It had all gone so well to this point. Howie closed his eyes and thanked God that he and Rae would be together even sooner than planned.
     The trip north, though, took forever.
     It was bumper-to-bumper into Westwood and through the Sepulveda Pass. Things opened up a little in Sherman Oaks but tightened again around Tarzana. All the way up, Howie ticked off the towns in his head in a cadence of anticipation: Calabasas and Agoura, Westlake and Thousand Oaks, Ventura and Ojai. Like stepping stones across dividing waters, they were taking him closer and closer to Rae.
     It was pure night when the bus finally pulled into Hinton. Moonless. And the town, in its peculiar rustic ceremony, was starting to fold up. Through the bus window Howie saw a few tourists sitting on the outside patio of the Hinton Hotel sipping evening wine and watching the passengers—all three of them—step out into a bit of country California.
     The first to alight was Howie, still holding the teddy bear. An older couple sitting at the hotel smiled at him. A good sign. Howie smiled back, snatched his duffel bag from the sidewalk where the bus driver had dropped it, looped it over his shoulder, and started walking west toward White Oak Avenue.
     Hinton was both strange and familiar, Howie told me. It seemed, as he got further and further from the town square, unnaturally still. Mixed with the hopeful perfume of orange blossoms and sage, the smell of cows and dry weeds wafted through the air. Howie said later that those were the last smells he remembered, until that final smell, the awful stench of fresh blood that he would mention in the police report.
     At White Oak he turned south under an awning of towering eucalyptus trees. It was like walking through a dark tunnel, Howie said, but he knew where the light at the end was—home and Rae, security and warmth. All would be well once again.
     When he finally reached the front door of the little house at the end of White Oak, he was dizzy with excitement. He tossed the duffel bag onto the porch and held the teddy bear behind his back as he reached for the doorknob. The door was locked, though, and Rae hadn’t given him a house key when he left for Alaska. This was one of her peculiarities, which Howie overlooked through eyes of love. He wouldn’t be sneaking in for the surprise he’d planned, so he knocked.
     And waited.
     And knocked again.
     He shouted, “Rae!” and pounded on the door.
     No answer. No lights on inside.
     He set the little bear on top of the duffel bag and went around to the side gate, finding it padlocked. It had never been padlocked before. Something wasn’t right.
     “Rae!”
     A dog barked in the yard next door.
     “Quiet!” Howie ordered as he scaled the wall and jumped into the side yard, knocking over a recycling container. It thudded hard on the walkway, its contents of bottles and cans spilling onto the concrete.
     The dog barked louder.
     “Quiet, boy!”
     Howie slipped around to the back patio. The sliding glass door was never locked. Never a need for it in Hinton. He would get in that way.
     But tonight it was locked. Howie banged on the glass with his fist. No answer from inside.
     Okay, so she wasn’t home.
     Where was she then? Out with friends maybe. She wasn’t expecting him, after all. He’d caught an early flight because he wanted to surprise her. All this was his own fault, Rae would tell him, maybe at the top of her lungs. That was her way sometimes. He’d grown used to it.

Howie considered his choices. He could grab his stuff and go downtown and have a Coke while he waited. He could see if she was at Sue’s house, and if not, he could ask Sue to make some calls.
     Or he could try to get in the house.
     With full force, Howie yanked the sliding glass door. The lock snapped, and the door slid open. Later, Howie would say he didn’t realize he had that much strength and speculated that his action might have been due to something more welled up inside him, a part of him he never knew he had, like when a mother suddenly gets the strength to lift an automobile when her child is trapped underneath.
     Howie entered the house, found a lamp, and turned on the light.
     The first thing he noticed was the sofa and the clothes tossed carelessly on it. Rae was never much of a housekeeper, but this was an out-and-out mess. On an end table was an ashtray with a few cigarette butts. Rae had supposedly quit smoking. Had she started up again while he was away?
     Howie stood and listened for a few moments, and not hearing anything, walked down the hall to the master bedroom.
     He opened the door and turned on the light.
     Someone was in bed. The covers moved and then Rae Patino sat up.
     “Rae, didn’t you hear me?”
     Her red hair was messy. With a head toss she whisked the strands out of her face and stared at him coldly. “What are you doing here?”
     “I’m home.”
     “Tomorrow. You said tomorrow night.”
     “Surprised?” He took a few steps toward her, his arms out for an embrace.
     Rae recoiled. “You can’t stay here.”
     “Honey, what are you talking about?”
     “You just can’t, that’s all.”
     “Can’t? But—”
     “Just leave, Howie.”
     “But Rae, I’m home.” He said it like he had to convince himself.
     Rae sighed and rolled her eyes to the ceiling. “Look,” she said, “you might as well know it now. I’m in love with somebody else.”
     It wouldn’t have been any different, Howie said later, if she had stuck a knife in his stomach and carved him like a Halloween pumpkin. That was the moment things started to go fuzzy on him. He was in and out after that, feeling dizzy half the time and plain lost the other half.
     He figured a half hour went by as he pleaded with her, cried in front of her, begged her to see someone for counseling. It seemed to him she was, by turns, cold and caring, obstinate and open. He thought there might be at least some hope of reconciliation, if only she’d try.
     And then there was the matter of Brian. During the course of the conversation, Howie asked Rae where their five-year-old son was, and she told him he was at Sue’s house, where he loved to visit. It seemed odd to Howie that Brian would be there in the middle of the week, but he paid it no mind. It was more important to talk about their future, the three of them, together.
     Howie finally said, “We can all move up there now. I’ve got a place and a good job. They’re building like crazy, and it’s a great place for a kid to grow up.”
     Rae was unmoved. “I’m not going to freeze in Alaska, you can bet on that.”
     “Rae, please. We need to be together. For Brian.”
     When he said that, her eyes seemed to darken. Howie remembered that explicitly. It was like looking into two dead pools at midnight.
     “What makes you so proud?” Rae said.
     “Proud?”
     “Yeah, proud.”
     “Proud of what?”
     “Brian.” Her voice seemed to spit the name.
     “What are you talking about, Rae?”
     “I’m talking about Brian, Howie.”
     “What about him?”
     “What makes you think he’s yours?”
     It was the smile on her face then that unlatched a dark door to some unnamed oblivion. Howie’s memories of the next few minutes were short, surreal images, which included that smile twisting her face into a funhouse clown expression, the mockery of it, and her hands clasped behind her head as she lay on the bed as if showing Howie what he would never have again. Then came the blackness followed by the gleam of a blade, a flash almost as bright as a tabloid photographer’s camera, a scream, the red stained sheets, the sounds of a woman sucking for breath, and that final image he couldn’t get away from, that he kept mentioning over and over. “The devil,” the police report stated. “Suspect keeps talking about the devil.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

JAMES SCOTT BELL is the author of the #1 bestseller for writers, Plot & 

Structure, and numerous thrillers, including Don't Leave Me, Try Dying and Watch Your Back. His novella One More Lie was the first self-published work to be nominated for an International Thriller Writers Award. He served as the fiction columnist for Writer's Digest magazine and has written highly popular craft books for Writer’s Digest Books, including: Revision & Self-Editing for Publication, The Art of War for Writers and Conflict & Suspense. Jim has taught writing at Pepperdine University and at numerous writers conferences in the United States, Canada and Great Britain. A former trial lawyer, Jim lives and writes in Los Angeles. His website is www.JamesScottBell.com.

Buy BLIND JUSTICE as an Ebook:

Amazon U.S.

Amazon U.K.

Barnes & Noble

Kobo

Or, in print:

Print Version

Poison: A Novel (Bloodline Trilogy)

Poison synopsis: Five years ago, Keelyn Blake's armed, mentally ill stepfather took her family hostage in their house in rural Colorado. She and her half-sister Raven made it out alive, but others did not. Authorities blamed the father's frequent hallucinations about a being named Lucent, but in the end, even the best of the FBI's hostage negotiators failed to overcome the man's delusions and end the standoff peacefully.

Now, Lucent is back, and he's no hallucination. In fact, he is a very real person with dangerous motives. He has kidnapped Raven's daughter, and--Keelyn worries--maybe has hurt Raven as well. Though she is estranged from her sister, Keelyn feels the immediate need to find Raven and save what family she has left. But when others who were involved in that fateful day start dying, some by mysterious circumstances, Keelyn wonders if she can emerge unscathed a second time.


Free Chapters 1-5:  Go to this link to get the first five chapters for free: http://www.jordynredwood.net/resources/

Where to buy this book:    Amazon

Short bio: Jordyn Redwood is a pediatric ER nurse by day, suspense novelist by

Jordyn Redwood

night. She hosts Redwood’s Medical Edge, a blog devoted to helping contemporary and historical authors write medically accurate fiction. Her first two novels, Proof and Poison, garnered starred reviews from Library Journal and have been endorsed by the likes of Dr. Richard Mabry, Lynette Eason, and Mike Dellosso to name a few. You can connect with Jordyn via her website at www.jordynredwood.net.

FREE 3-Day Promo on Amazon: REVENGE (A Travis Mays Novel) Available through Wednesday, May 27, 2013

When a trained killer threatens ex-cop Travis Mays—and those Travis loves—he finds a skilled adversary and an unexpected fight.

After a high stakes gamble ends in personal tragedy, Travis walks away from years of training and a highly successful law enforcement career. Determined never to look back, he starts a new life and a new career, teaching criminology at the university and building a cabin in the idyllic Idaho Mountains. He hires a beautiful river guide, Jessie White Eagle from the Nez Perce tribe, to guide him safely down the Lochsa. The turbulence of the whitewater, however, is just the beginning of his troubles. Travis finds himself in the crosshairs of a killer—calling himself Creasy—bent on revenge.

This fast-paced thriller takes readers on a wild ride down Idaho’s whitewater rivers, along the historic Lolo Trails once tread by the Nez Perce nation, and onto the city streets of California. Tighten your helmet. This ride never stops until the last shot is fired and the final body falls.

Link for Free copy of REVENGE

Amazon

Excerpt from Chapter 1, REVENGE (A Travis Mays Novel)

Prologue

Santa Rosa, California, December 2004

Raindrops splattered the windshield as Travis Mays raised his binoculars. Come on. Come on. Where are you? He squinted, trying to catch a glimpse of any movement near the building through this infernal darkness.

Nothing.

Travis flicked the glove box open and snatched a bottle of antacids, tossing a handful into his mouth. Jaw muscles ached from gritting his teeth. These tablets did little to ease the burning inside. He raised the glasses once again.
Carlos shifted in the passenger’s seat. “She’s still inside, dude. Don’t get your shorts in a twist.”

Travis ignored his partner, straining to see through the windshield’s fogged-up glass. A two-story building loomed in the darkness fifty yards away. A black-grated fence circled the office complex. A droopy-eyed security guard—sheltered from pelting rain inside a lighted shack—sat twenty yards away, scanning all vehicles coming and going. No way to sneak inside to check on her safety.

He glanced at his watch. Ten o’clock.

Travis gripped his binoculars, searching for any signs of life in the darkened building. “Something’s wrong. I told Michelle to get out of there before everyone went home. Get in. Get the documents. Get out. This is taking way too long.”

 “Chill out. Maybe she’s just waiting until everyone leaves. Then she can grab and run.” Carlos chuckled. “Michelle, is it?  Sound like this is more than business. I saw you making eyes at her. She’s just a snitch, man. Business is business. Don’t let it get personal.”

“That snitch is risking everything. She’s putting it all on the line. We get paid to take these risks. Not her. She gets nothing out of this.”

“Okay, Okay. She’s a saint. What do you want from me?”

 “I want you to give her some respect. Michelle willingly came forward to tell us what she found out. No one forced her. And now, we’re about to nab one of the most ruthless traffickers we’ve ever hunted down—because of her bravery. Who knows how far this network reaches.” Travis lowered his voice. “She went back in there—knowing the danger—because I asked.”

Carlos raised his hands. “Whoa, man. Lighten up. To set the record straight, the suits higher up the totem pole sent her back in. Not you. They forced your hand.”

“I had a choice. I could’ve told them to take a hike.”

A car emerged from the parking garage beneath the office building. Two on board. He scanned the car as it slowed at the guard shack. Two burly men, no one else. “I’m telling you something’s not kosher.”

“Okay, maybe you’re right,” Carlos said. “What are we—“

Travis’ cell phone emitted several sharp beeps. He glanced at the digital screen and grimaced. His sergeant, Timothy Heard, supervisor for Santa Rosa Police Department’s criminal intelligence unit, was calling. “Yeah, sarge.”

“Need you to break away right now. We just received a call from the county. Their VCI dicks are working a homicide near Goat Rock. I need you and Carlos to eighty-seven with them.”

“We’re still waiting for the CI to come out. Once we connect, we’ll head out—”
“—I need you out there now. Your CI’s a no-show, right?” Heard barged ahead, not waiting for an answer. “Their victim is a female. Description matches your gal.”
“No way. She is still—”
“—I need you to get out there immediately, Travis. That’s an order.  The victim matches your snitch, that’s all you need to know. We may have some damage control issues.”

“It can’t ... what do you mean ‘damage control?”

“I mean if your informant turns up dead, we’ve got to cover ourselves.”

“You ordered me to send her back into that killer’s den. Damage control? You mean protect your sad —” He felt a hand squeeze his arm. Carlos leaned over, silently mouthing the words, “Be cool.”

Travis snapped the cell phone shut, jamming it into his pocket. “The SO found a body out at the coast. They want us to check it out.”

“The boss thinks the body might be our gal? And we’re just supposed to drive away? What if she’s still in there?”

Grimacing, Travis fired up the engine. “Orders are orders. But if this victim is Michelle ...” He let the words dangle, not wanting to give them life.

Only six hours ago he’d held her in his arms. They’d met in a motel room where he gave her final instructions. Get in, get out. Carlos stood guard outside. It had been eight exhilarating months since she breezed into his life, gave him a reason to get up in the morning. The way she teased and cajoled him into doing things he never tried before—ballroom dancing, or using a palate machine with her instead of going out for a beer with the guys. Michelle squeezed joy and excitement into every day they spent together. For once in his life, Travis began to think about the future, about spending his life with her.  It had been a long time since he thought about anything other than police work. She changed all that. Before they parted ways today, she reached up and drew him close, almost like a premonition. Jasmine perfume still lingered on his clothing. A few moments later he followed Michelle to her car, watching her taillights disappear into the bowels of the garage across the street. The last time.

Travis gunned the engine, cutting through the darkness. Rain and wind rocked the car as he slowed at the next intersection. He pressed the accelerator to the floor, activating emergency lights embedded in the grill of his car. It would be a long drive to the coast.

Bio.~Novelist Mark Young

Mark Young is an Amazon bestselling author. Both his Travis Mays and Gerrit O'Rourke novels reached the top 100 list, and his debut novel, Revenge, hit #1 for bestselling mystery/suspense police procedurals. Mark worked as a police officer and sergeant with the Santa Rosa Police Department in California for twenty-six years after working as an award-winning journalist. He is a Vietnam combat veteran, honored to have served with Fox 2/5, 1st Marine Division, and later with Headquarters company. He worked on several law enforcement task force operations, including the presidential Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force targeting major drug traffickers, and the federal Organized Crime Task Force charged with identifying and prosecuting prison gang leaders. He lives in the Pacific Northwest with his family. You can find out more about Mark Young at his web site at MarkYoungBooks.com

BURNING HEARTS: A Historical Murder Mystery with Romance

MARK: Author Nike Chillemi's latest release, DARKEST HOUR is now available. Welecome, Nike! Give us a brief glimpse into your writing world and your latest novel.

NIKI: Mark, thank you for having me. Life has been a whirlwind recently and quite exciting. As you might suppose, as the chair and founder of the Grace Awards, I've been pretty busy with this year's literary contest. We announced the winners this week. I am thrilled with the quality of the winners. In fact, a few of the judging teams felt the finalists were so good they had a difficult time selecting a novel for top honors, but of course, they did. This should be the biggest problem facing Christian publishing today.

The other thing I want to brag about is my publisher's decision to go from ebook format to print. I'm thrilled my Sanctuary Point classic murder mystery series with romance was chosen by Desert Breeze Publishing to be among the first books to come out in paperback. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to share a bit about BURNING HEARTS, the first novel in this series, now out in paperback.

BURNING HEARTS:
Historical Murder Mystery with Romance, mid-1940s
---arson/murder, action, and romance
---Sweet romance, sophisticated themes presented tastefully

Can a sheltered young seamstress, disillusioned by the horrors of WWII, escape an

arsonist/murderer who has killed her employer and mentor, while trying to decide if she can trust the dashing war hero who’s ridden into town on his Harley—who some say is the murderer?

Erica Brogna’s parents doted on her and taught her to think for herself. Many boys she grew up with had fallen in the WWII, shaking her childhood faith. In rides a handsome stranger, at the hour of her most desperate need. A woman who is her close friend and mentor is trapped in a burning house. After making an unsuccessful rescue attempt, Erica stands by as this man rushes into the inferno and carries her friend’s lifeless body out.

Lorne Kincade can’t out run his past on his Harley Davidson WLA, the civilian model of the motorcycle he rode in the war. He’s tried. He’s been a vagabond biker in the year since the war ended. His Uncle Ivar bequeathed him a ramshackle cottage in Sanctuary Point, on the Great South Bay of Long Island, NY and now he’d like to hope for a future again, repair the miniscule place, and settle down. The only problem is, a young woman with hair the color of mink is starting to get under his skin and that’s the last thing he needs.

EXCERPT:

Chapter One

Long Island, New York
September 1946

Erica Brogna hurried down Hill Street, eager to sketch her new design, a forest green taffeta dress with a swirling skirt for a twenty-fifth wedding anniversary -- her first significant assignment. She paused to inhale the salt scent on the ocean breeze, and her gaze lingered on a copse of red, rust, and gold maples near Ada's house and dress shop.

She smiled, pulling her cardigan tight around her, and dropped the newspaper Poppa asked her to bring to her mentor and employer. She retrieved the paper and saw Bess Truman smiling as she entered Walter Reed Army Hospital. With the war over, the First Lady visited broken soldiers in long-term care. Erica slapped the paper closed before rage and depression overtook her. So many boys had not come home.

Chin jutted out, she smoothed the pleats of her skirt and marched toward Ada's house.

She'd think on pleasant things and hand the paper over without a fuss as she did every morning.

Nothing would ruin this day.

She climbed Ada's wooden front steps and opened the door.

Smoke filled the living room Ada had turned into a fabric shop. Erica waved a hand in front of tearing eyes. Gray vapors, like swirling fog, partially obscured bolts of fabric stacked against the opposite wall.

"Ada! Ada, answer me please." Dropping the newspaper, Erica rushed toward the stairs, trampling Bess Truman's image. "Ada can you hear me?"

Coughing, she grabbed on to the cutting table in the middle of the room, steadied herself, and reached for the phone -- no dial tone. Perhaps the fire melted the line.
She yanked the collar of her blouse over her nose and mouth against the smoke. The stairs loomed before her, seeming as impossible to scale as Mount Everest. She lunged forward, gripping the baluster, and thrust herself up two steps. Since Ada wasn't outside, she had to be upstairs.

As Erica climbed, the smoke thickened and swirled around her. It was darker with each step.

One hand clasped the rail and pulled, and she advanced a few more steps. Heat blasted against her skin from above, and soft crackling sounds drew her gaze to the upstairs landing.

Squinting into the smoke, she lost her grip on the banister, missed the next step, and fell backward tumbling to the bottom.

The back of her head smacked against the baluster, and wooziness followed sharp pain.

She tried to stand but couldn't get her bearings.

Will triumphed over ability. She hoisted herself, ignoring the dull throb at the back of her skull. Her palms stung, the skin scraped off during her fall. She took a deep breath, and a coughing fit seized her. Shallow breaths were the better alternative.
Planting her penny loafer on the bottom step, Erica began her climb again, shaken but with new resolve. If she could reach the top of the stairs, she could also make it to Ada's bedroom.

Halfway up, the scratches on her palms pulsated as the temperature rose. So did her knees -- must've scraped those, too. The pungent smoke shrouding her darkened, and grit clung to her skin. She couldn't see the banister or the top of the stairs and each breath took effort.

Poppa's lectures on fire drills flashed into mind -- stay low in a fire to get fresh air. She dropped to her knees and crawled, ignoring her pain. A sickening smell made her stomach lurch.

Inch by inch she crept, now three quarters of the way up. Hot, putrid air assaulted her windpipe, and she doubled over, her insides trembling.

Heaving herself forward, she maneuvered up one more step, but the smoke pushed back, choking her. She sobbed, knowing she couldn't make it to Ada, and scrambled down, hoping she could find help.

AUTHOR BIO:

Like so many writers, Nike Chillemi started writing at a very young age. She still has the Crayola, fully illustrated book she penned (penciled might be more accurate) as a little girl about her then off-the-chart love of horses. Today, you might call her a crime fictionista. Her passion is crime fiction. She likes her bad guys really bad and her good guys smarter and better.

She is the founding board member of the Grace Awards and is its Chairman, a reader's choice awards for excellence in Christian fiction. She writes book reviews for The Christian Pulse online magazine. She was an Inspy Awards 2010 judge in the Suspense/Thriller/Mystery category and a judge in the 2011 and 2012 Carol Awards in the suspense, mystery, and romantic suspense categories. BURNING HEARTS, the first book in the crime wave that is sweeping the south shore of Long Island in The Sanctuary Point series, finaled in the Grace Awards 2011 in the Romance/Historical Romance category. GOODBYE NOEL, the second book in the series released in December, 2011 won the Grace Award 2011 in the Mystery/Romantic Suspense/Thriller category. PERILOUS SHADOWS, third in the series released July, 2012, and DARKEST HOUR, the fourth in the series released in February, 2013.  She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) and the Edgy Christian Fiction Lovers (Ning). http://nikechillemi.wordpress.com/

PURCHASE LINKS:
Amazon. http://tiny.cc/wfl6ww
Barnes and Noble.  http://tiny.cc/oil6ww

Interview: NYT bestselling author John Lescroart

By Mark Young

It has been more than two years since New York Times bestselling author John Lescroart visited us here on Hook’em & Book’em. There has been a least one major change in his writing career since that time which we will cover in the Q&A section below. It has been too long. Join me as we find out what has been happening in John’s literary world since we last visited.

After his release of The Hunter last year, I intended to try to corner him with questions about that novel but I fell into my own writing cave, emerging months later to realize I never followed up on this opportunity. One of my 2013 New Year’s resolutions was to make sure I did not miss another chance to visit with this gifted author. I wanted to interview John before his next novel, The Ophelia Cut, comes out this May. Between the two novels, I felt I might be able to kill two birds with…oh, enough of the clichés.

In The Hunter, the subject of adoption is an intricate part of the story. This subject matter is close to my heart, and this novelist quickly drew me into the story after I learned the main character found out his adoptive mother may have been killed. Not that John needed this heart tug to get me to read another of his great novels. After discovering this author a few years ago, I’d follow his writings anywhere.

John Lescroart has crafted a community of crime-investigating individuals –characters that stay with you long after the novel ends—who live and work in the San Francisco bay area. In this novel, The Hunter, San Francisco private investigator Wyatt Hunt must dig into his own past after receiving a disturbing text message: “How did your mother die?” Hunt learns his mother might have been murdered, and he begins down a path into his past that he never knew existed. What he finds out will shock him and the reader. Do not assume you know where this story might be headed. You would be wrong!

MARK: Thanks for joining us again, John. Let’s start off with The Hunter. Tell us a little about the plot and the main character, Wyatt Hunter.

JOHN: Well, you’ve done a great job of that already. Wyatt Hunt is a San Francisco private investigator whose fictional debut was in The Hunt Club. Wyatt was an adopted child, raised by loving foster parents, and hadn’t really given too much thought to his birth parents. Then one day he gets a mysterious text that asks: how did your mother die? And once he opens that can of worms, he cannot rest until he finds the answer, and that answer is as traumatic as it is unexpected.

MARK: The topic of adoption is a central theme in this story. Just this subject alone would grab my attention for personal reasons. How did you come to choose this as an intricate part of Hunt’s character history?

JOHN: When I’m creating my characters, I try to give them what I think are interesting backgrounds, even if I’m not sure of all the details. In Wyatt’s case, I thought it was inherently provocative that he came from a foster background, even though in my first two Wyatt Hunt books, I didn’t go into much detail about this other than the bare fact of it. Then, as I started thinking about the book that would become The Hunter, this background moved to center stage, and I knew I would have to explore it to get to the core of Hunt’s character. It was an exciting and powerful opportunity, and I couldn’t pass it up.

MARK: Without giving the story away, there is one well-known cult you use in the novel to build upon the plot. Is the missing funds from the cult something you came across in research or is this a part of your creative fiction?

JOHN: Actually, both the well-known cult and all of the facts that I attribute to it, including all of the financial details are, to the best of my knowledge, absolutely true. I always like to ground my stories in reality, and this aspect of The Hunter turned out to be one of the most resonant that I’ve used in any of my stories.

MARK: The Hunter sales seem to be doing quite well in the market place. I noticed on your blog that this novel rose from #10 to #4 on the New York Times Paperback Mass-Market Fiction list. Congratulations! And I took a peek on Amazon regarding your upcoming novel, The Ophelia Cut, a Dismas Hardy novel, to be released May 7, 2013. The ranking on Amazon is rising fast even before your release. Your readership really seems to be snowballing. Besides writing outstanding novels, what other ways have you been able to connect with readers?

JOHN: I try not only to write books that are timely and fun to read, I also keep in touch with my readers in a variety of ways. I speak at writing events quite regularly. I also have a webpage that I update all the time. Beyond that, I’m on Facebook and Twitter and I have a blog page. So all in all, I try to keep in close contact with my readers, and to respond to requests about the writing process, or individual books. Also, I invite emails from my readers. If you write me on my web page, I try to respond every time. That’s a great source of connection and fun.

MARK: I noticed that you’ve switched publishers this last year, leaving Penguin’s imprint, Dutton after many years and joining Simon & Schuster’s Atria Books. Can you give us a little inside information about these changes? How are you managing this major shift in your publishing career?

JOHN: I think that sometimes it just gets to be time for a change. Dutton was a wonderful publisher for twelve of my books, with every one a NY Times bestseller. My editors there, Mitch Hoffman and later Ben Sevier, are both great guys with whom I’m still on excellent terms. My publishers, Carole Baron and Brian Tart, are likewise terrific people. But I think there just got to be a kind of expectation of where I fit into the sales projections, and then this tends to become a self-fulfilling prophecy. The sales force of any one company can only go out so many times saying, “This is so-and-so’s best book. You’ve got to stock it in big numbers.” And unfortunately, if they don’t do that, the book doesn’t “happen.” So, after The Hunter spent only one week on the NT Times list, I decided it was time to get involved with a company whose enthusiasm for my work, and belief in its commercial prospects, was a little greater. And Atria has been nothing if not wildly enthusiastic and gung-ho. I’m very excited to be bringing The Ophelia Cut out with them.

MARK: Looking toward the near future, your main character, Dismas Hardy, returns to center stage in the next novel, The Ophelia Cut, in what appears to be a suspenseful legal thriller. Tell us a little about this story and what kind of trouble Dismas might be headed for in this new adventure.

JOHN: The Ophelia Cut has Dismas Hardy threatened from all sides. In the first place, faithful readers will remember that he and three of his closest friends (Abe Glitsky, Gina Roake, and his brother-in-law Moses McGuire) were involved in an extra-legal solution to a big problem a few books back (in The First Law). If any of the details of that solution came out, it would cause huge problems for all of the principals, probably ruining lives as well as careers. As this book begins, Moses McGuire, a recovering alcoholic, shows dangerous signs of spilling the beans about this event. At the same time, McGuire’s daughter Brittany gets involved with a boyfriend who is nothing but trouble, and who eventually rapes her. When the boyfriend then winds up dead, McGuire becomes the chief suspect. After he falls off the wagon, he becomes a great threat to reveal the earlier secret. As the McGuire’s trial progresses, the ratcheting tension spills over into every aspect of Dismas Hardy’s life, where it seems that every one of the choices he has to make is more awful than the last one. How far can he go before his world, and that of his friends and family, falls completely apart?

MARK: Can you tell us how you came to select this title, The Ophelia Cut, without giving away the story?

JOHN: The Ophelia Cut is that rare example of a phrase showing up in the book in the course of the writing. In this case, I was on my third draft, on the very last page of the book, and a character brought up this phrase in conversation. As soon as I wrote it down, I empathized so much with the phrase, and it seemed to encapsulate the very essense of the book, that I actually teared up. Ambiguous though it might at first appear to be, to me it simply captured the deepest themes that the book explored. It simply had to be the title.

MARK: There have been a lot of changes in the book publishing industry over the last few years. Major publishers seem to be cutting back on the number of authors they sign, book advances seem to be shrinking, and even some major authors have chosen to follow a more independent publishing path. From your prospective, where do you think the world of book publishing is headed?

JOHN: Since I’ve signed a three-book deal with Atria, I hope it’s headed to great things over the next couple of years. But in a general sense, I hope that the turmoil calms down somewhat. I believe the royalty structure around eBooks needs to be corrected. It would also be nice if we could return to having the “secondary” publication of books (e.g. downloading, paperbacks), after the hardcover release, take place after giving the hardcover a few months at least to sell in that format.

MARK: Many authors like Stephen King, Dean Koontz, and others seem to be experimenting with shorter works in the digital market—novellas and short stories—as a way of attracting readers to their novels. I noticed that writers like James Patterson are offering the first nineteen chapters of their novel for free to entice readers to buy the complete work. How do you feel these efforts are paying off? Have you contemplated offering shorter works as part of your marketing strategy?

JOHN: In fact, I contemplated it with The Ophelia Cut. I wrote a short story that was, I though, tangentially related to the book. When I submitted it to my agent and editor, they decided that it would be great as the book’s prologue! And so it came to be. I would expect over the next book or two, these “teaser” elements will become even more prevalent. Although I must say that giving away the first 19 chapters for free seems a bit excessive. (Although I will also admit that James Patterson probably has a slightly better idea about how to market books than the rest of us!)

MARK: With The Ophelia Cut now set for release, can you tell us a little about your next project?

JOHN: My next book is tentatively entitled The Keeper, and all I know about it is that it begins with a man coming home from picking up his brother at the airport on the day before Thanksgiving to find that his wife is gone. I’m taking any and all suggestions for what happens next. J (Yee Gods, my first emoticon in an interview! What is the world coming to?)

MARK: I can imagine with your writing schedule, coupled with promotional tours and marketing efforts, you have little free time left to blow off stream. When that time is available, how do you enjoy spending it? Playing in the band? Watch the Giants win some games?

JOHN: Free time? Hmmm. Maybe not so much. I’m in “work mode” now on The Keeper, putting down as many pages a day as I can, as it is due in the middle of July. My tour for The Ophelia Cut will take most of May. Meanwhile, for fun, I still love cooking. I’m playing a little bit of guitar, but not enough. And I’m very much looking forward to the Giants winning the World Series again this year. My wife, Lisa Sawyer, and I still have many good times together, and spending time with her is mostly what I look forward to day to day. If I didn’t like my work, I might find the schedule grueling, but fortunately, I love what I do. And that’s the secret to never really working a day in your life. 

MARK: John, I appreciate you taking time out of your busy schedule to join us here on Hook’em & Book’em. We look forward to your upcoming novel.

********* 

Readers can find out more about John Lescroart and his writing career by visiting his web site at JohnLescroart.com or interviews here on Hook’em & Book’em on May 10, 2010 and January 1, 2011.

Peek into the future on Hook'em & Book'em

Ready for the New Year? I am excited about what this year will bring our way. New books to read. New publishing opportunities. New friends. Let me share a little of what might be coming up.

Let’s start with reading. Now, I know some of you still prefer the traditional print novel where you can feel the texture, smell the print, and use that ol’ bookmark between the pages to signal just where you left off the next time you pick up that book. I still like the print version myself, although if I choose to buy a hardback novel for my library shelves, most likely it will be a Costco special of one of my favorite authors. Otherwise, it is eBooks for me. Everyone has their preferences.

For the less traditional folks, let’s talk about digital copies for a moment. Recently, my first Kindle reader bit the dust when my daughter accidentely leaned on the face of the reader and cracked the cover. I tried to read my digital books on my Samsung tablet, which was nice but not quite the same—particularly as I tried to categorize my novels and books for easy retrieval. So, I ordered the Kindle Paperwhite and just got it set up a week ago. Wow! Easy to read, the size of a paper back novel that easily fits in my pocket, and easy to organize the hundreds of novels and non-fiction books I have lingering in my Kindle Cloud in Amazon’s digital sky. I won’t bore you…uh, am I too late…with all the reading features, but I am once again a very satisfied reader

No matter your reading choice—Kindle, Nook, iPad, Kindle Fire, Kobo or print—there are marvelous opportunities in store for you. The publishing world is changing—for readers and authors.

Here on Hook’em/Book’em, we have a lot to look forward to over the coming year. For example, one of my favorite authors, Dean Koontz, promises to return for a visit later this spring after his next novel is put to bed. And I hope that such authors as John Lescroart, James Scott Bell, and Tess Gerritsen, among many others—will rejoin us throughout the year to tell us what is happening in their corner of the publishing world.

I would like to expand our coverage of new and independent writers who are emerging among the ranks of authors that readers might want to know about. As the eBook world continues to find its place in this publishing environment, new indie writers and indie publishers are rising to prominence in this wild west frontier of the new digital age. What was true in 2009 is old news, and might not work in 2013. Join us as we learn about these changes coming up in the not-so-distant future.

I need to get back to our friends in law enforcement and the intelligence world to find out how fiction and reality come together in mystery/suspense/thriller novels. Everything from border searches to predator drones, from human trafficking to forensic science, will be examined through the eyes of my experts in the military, law enforcement, and the intelligence community. As I started to jot down ideas for a Gerrit O’Rourke sequel (release in 2014) I was interested in the predator drone technology and how that impacts our world today. After I finished my latest novel, Fatal eMpulse (A Gerrit O’Rourke Novel), I came across sources and information about the on-going war on terror that I thought might interest readers here on Hook’em & Book’em.

Which brings me back to my roots—law enforcement. I have been editing the final changes to Broken Allegiance (A Tom Kagan Novel), which will be released in 2013. This police procedural focuses on the struggle between gang officers and gangsters going on throughout our nation. This novel deals primary with the notorious Nuestra Famila prison gang in California, but its tentacles—like those of many prison gangs—extend into every state and federal institution throughout our nation, and on the streets of every city in American. As I edited this novel, it rekindled my desire to rejoin my friends in law enforcement and share with you some of the insight and work experiences cops face today.

Coming back to law enforcement issues is like coming home after a long trip abroad. In my last two international thrillers, I and my readers traveled all over the world and landed in some pretty exotic and dangerous locations. But now, it is time to come home. The Tom Kagan novels (yes, there will be more than one) and our friend, Travis Mays, will be joining us again as they travel through the twists and turns of investigations into murder, drug trafficking, and political corruption. After Broken Allegiance, I plan on putting together a sequel to Revenge, titled Blood Quantum (A Travis Mays Novel). Travis Mays and his girlfriend, Jessie White Eagle, and her father—Frank, chief of the Nez Perce Tribal Police—once again join forces over one of the hottest issue facing the Indian nations today, a concept called blood quantum. After two long years, I and my readers get to travel back to this beautiful Idaho reservation along the Clearwater River. Travis and his friends find themselves in trouble once again as tribal and BIA politics erupt in murder and deception.

Come with us as we explore—on Hook’em/Book’em—all of the above ideas and opportunities as well as try to keep up with changes exploding within the publisher world. 

Here are a few topics:  

• Expansion of digital inroads by traditional publishers.
• New developments and opportunities within the indie publishing community.
• Social networking, publicity and marketing. 
• Finding out about some of the new and promising authors emerging in this ever-changing community of writers, readers, and publishing outlets.

I trust that something mentioned above will pique your interest. And, I welcome any other topics of interest that our readers might want to explore. This coming year is going to be exciting. I hope to be able to share some of that with you here on this blog. Thank you for your faithfulness to to Hook’em/Book’em. Happy New Year!

John Verdon: On Writing and LET THE DEVIL SLEEP

By Mark Young

Author John Verdon’s third novel, LET THE DEVIL SLEEP, is comprised of many interesting elements—a compelling story, a population of vivid characters, and an opaque and dangerous plot whose literary waters only become clearer in the novel’s closing pages. All the earmarks of a fabulous read! For me, however, above all else, is the character of David Gurney and how he developed from the debut novel, THINK OF A NUMBER, navigating his way through SHUT YOUR EYES TIGHT, and finally culminating with LET THE DEVIL SLEEP.

In this third of a series tracking down serial killers, main character David Gurney—a highly decorated, retired NYPD homicide detective—reluctantly agrees to take a young television reporter under his wing as she interviews survivors of the victims targeted by The Good Shepherd, a vicious serial killer. This novel is about two journeys—finding the killer and Gurney finding himself.

We are privileged to have John Verdon share his thoughts and comments about his latest novel, LET THE DEVIL SLEEP, the art of writing, and a little insight into his own life. It has been more than two years since John joined us here on Hook’em & Book’em after launching his debut novel. We welcome him back.

MARK: John, please tell us what you want the readers to know about LET THE DEVIL SLEEP.

JOHN: I couldn’t possibly come up with anything better to tell readers than what Publisher’s Weekly said in their starred review:  "Verdon, who rejuvenated the impossible crime in his 2010 debut, THINK OF A NUMBER, shows there’s much more that can be done with the serial killer plot in his breakneck, knockout third Dave Gurney whodunit .... The tension is palpable on virtually every page of a story that perfectly balances the protagonist’s complex inner life with an elaborately constructed puzzle."

MARK: As I understand, one of the techniques for creating a unique character is showing a person’s often-shallow external desire—one that is often self-serving, goal-minded—conflicting with the character’s internal desire, an internal motivation that is often  more selfless.  How would you identify and describe these conflicting desires within David Gurney throughout all three novels? What might be Gurney’s interpretation of his internal desire be for the greater good?

JOHN: Wow, that’s a big question. But it’s a particularly relevant one, since Gurney is often troubled by a sense of conflict concerning his own motives. I think the best way I can answer you is to quote a brief passage from the new Gurney novel (still untitled) that I’m working on right now:

“The truth was that a complex murder case attracted his attention and curiosity like nothing else on earth. He could make up reasons for it. He could say it was all about justice. About rectifying a terrible imbalance in the scheme of things. About standing up for those who had been struck down. About a quest for truth.

But there were other times he considered it nothing more than a form of high-stakes puzzle-solving, an obsessive drive to fit all the loose pieces together. An intellectual game, a contest of minds and wills. A playing field on which he could excel.

And then there was Madeleine’s dark suggestion: the possibility that he was somehow attracted by the terrible risk itself, that some self-hating part of his psyche kept drawing him blindly into the orbit of death.

His mind rejected that possibility, even as his heart was chilled by it.

But ultimately he had no faith in anything he thought or said about the why of his profession. They were just ideas he had about it, labels he was sometimes comfortable with. Did any of the labels capture the essence of the gravitational pull? He couldn’t say.

The bottom line was this: Rationalize and temporize as he might, he could no more walk away from the challenge of a complex murder case than an alcoholic could walk away from a martini after the first sip.”

MARK: This last summer, you wrote an article about serial killers for Publisher’s Weekly. It appears you have become an expert on these psychopaths since each of your novels is populated by serial killers. How do you go about creating these killers’ state of mind so that their personalities and motivations become a believable part of each story?

JOHN: The subject that actually interests me most is the destructive impact of self-centeredness. Like any human failing, selfishness exists in many forms on a continuous spectrum from peccadillo to true horror; and serial murder, killing people for personal gratification, could be seen as representing one extreme of that spectrum. This is the reason I write about it. The state of mind of the killers in my novels is dominated by the desire for instinctual gratification, warped and intensified to the point where all inhibition and empathy disappear. From a creative point of view it’s a matter of taking basic human desires and ratcheting up the volume until the output becomes severely distorted.

   

MARK:  I read somewhere that there is often a semiotic relationship between the protagonist and the antagonist where one becomes a reflection of the other—good versus evil. There lurks within the protagonist a choice whether to cross that line, to emulate the antagonist as they both struggle to achieve that final objective. Do you see that in Gurney’s psychic, struggling against that pull to the dark side, that willingness to cross the line in order to achieve the greater good?

JOHN: Gurney has a strong, traditional moral compass. He is honest and truthful. His failings lie more in the area of ignoring the emotional needs and feelings of others and becoming intellectually obsessed with his professional challenges. Although he is certainly no saint, he has perhaps fewer problems with temptation than he has with love itself. He is often more comfortable dealing with people who want to kill him than with people who want his attention and affection.

MARK: In Robert McGee’s how-to book on writing, Story, he explains that a story is a design in five parts: The Inciting Incident, Progressive Complications, Crisis, Climax, and Resolution. In Let The Devil Sleep, without giving away the Inciting Incident, what are some of the factors leading up to it in this story?

JOHN: At the beginning of Let the Devil Sleep, Gurney is struggling with the physical and emotional damage he suffered at the end of SHUT YOUR EYES TIGHT. He’s depressed and needs to get back in the game. The opportunity to help a young journalist writing about the lasting effects of a ten-year-old serial murder case begins to pull him out of his lethargy. Discovering a few initial oddities about the situation awakens him further. And the deal is sealed when he encounters real peril and mystery. (This echoes part of my answer to your previous question -- the fact that Gurney seems to be drawn more strongly to danger than to his family.)

MARK: As a novelist, I’ve tried to find the best way of developing plot and story structure to help me keep on track throughout the novel. One suggested method calls for a very detailed story structure in which each chapter, each scene, is meticulously outlined before a writer sits down and writes the first draft. On the other extreme, another suggested alternative is to use the free flow, seat-of-your-pants technique in which everything emerges as you work through the story. What have you found works for you?

JOHN: Typically, an idea for a certain kind of crime will come to me -- let’s say the series of shootings of motorists in LET THE DEVIL SLEEP -- and I’ll jot it down on an index card. Then I may think of a number of possible motives for it, and I jot them down. Then I may think of a way into the story -- in this case a journalist writing about the surviving family members ten years after the event, or maybe something else -- and jot all that down on index cards. Then I have to figure out how Gurney might get involved -- and jot the various possibilities on index cards. That kind of free-association see-where-my-mind-leads-me process goes on for three or four months. My little cards fill up with notes about major plot points, key discoveries, red herrings, characters, subplots, descriptions of settings, snippets of dialogue. I generally end up with three or four hundred of these cards, as well as a growing sense of a central story skeleton -- places where all these details might appear in some rational progression. Then I start to see new relationships among the people, new twists in the story line. I lay out all my cards on the dining room table, and organize them roughly into a three-act structure. As soon as I’m convinced I have an exciting, coherent story to tell, I begin the linear writing process. In the course of that process, the characters themselves become more assertive and change some of my original ideas. Maybe I can sum all this up by saying that I have a reasonably detailed plot structure laid out before I start writing a first draft, but then the characters take over and bring it to life in ways that hadn’t occurred to me.

MARK: On your website, you share photos of the area upstate New York where you and David Gurney reside. Very picturesque! Like Gurney, you migrated from New York City to take up life in the country. I presume it was a very stark contrast in life styles. What initially drew you to that area? And—separating expectations from reality—what surprised you the most about this transition?

JOHN: The fact that there were no negative surprises. We had expected to like living here, and we ended up loving it. Even in the small details, there is something pleasantly benign about our mountain surroundings. For example, there are no poisonous snakes in this area, no poison ivy. There’s also no traffic, no noise, a slow pace, endlessly beautiful countryside, pure air, wonderful water, nice people.

MARK: Also on your web site bio, you wrote, “Along the way I also got a commercial pilot’s license, as an alternate route to the horizon, but that’s another story.” Could you elaborate?

JOHN: It’s a long story, but the short version is that flying always fascinated me. And I was equally fascinated by the idea of doing something completely different from my career in advertising. So I took lessons, got a private pilot’s license, then got an instrument rating, then got a commercial license with the notion that I might start a small air-charter business -- at which point I got distracted by another business opportunity and never followed through with the charter plan. But I still have a fond place in my heart for flying.

MARK: Now that you have three, widely entertaining novels under your belt, what does the future hold for John Verdon? Can we expect more Dave Gurney adventures, or are you considering traveling in another direction?

JOHN: The fourth Gurney novel is happily underway. There may be a fifth and even a sixth. My feeling so far is that the mystery-thriller form and the core personality dynamics of the Gurney novels are an adequate framework for anything I would be interested in writing about.

MARK: I enjoyed reading your web page bio about your journey through life. You mentioned that after settling in upper New York you finally lost that need of “wanting to be somewhere else.” What brought this about—your new location or something else?

JOHN: Maybe it’s just a form of contented old age.

MARK: Again, thanks for joining us, John. We look forward to reading whatever and wherever your creative mind takes you in the next novel.

*****

Author John Verdon’s three bestselling novels won international acclaim and have been translated into 20 languages. Leaving the life of a Manhattan advertising executive, he and his wife moved to upstate New York, where he learned to build Shaker-style furniture and earned a commercial pilot’s license before turning his attention to writing. You can find out more about John at his website.