Weekend Wrap

It’s Friday, but my weekend is starting … as soon as I take my three youngest kids to the dentist for their annual check-up. Then, my oldest daughter comes home from Phoenix for Easter weekend! I just saw her when I was in Arizona, but it’s always great to have her home.

Yesterday, I took my husband to the Giants/Dodgers game. As many of you know, I love the Giants … and Dan loves the Dodgers. The Dodgers won, but that’s okay since the tickets were his birthday present. The Giants won the first two games in the series …

On Monday, I’m taking my daughter Kelly to visit three colleges on the East Coast — it’ll be a whirlwind three days, but that’s okay! She has a major decision to make buy April 30th … which also happens to be her 18th birthday.

I’m also finishing a novella this weekend, my half of the second book Laura Griffin and I are co-writing in the Moreno & Hart Mystery Series. HIT AND RUN will be out late July! But until then … Laura has FAR GONE out now, and my NOTORIOUS is still available. Also, book #8 in the Lucy Kincaid series — DEAD HEAT — is out on June 3.

Next week I have an exclusive excerpt from DEAD HEAT, plus a guest blogger on Wednesday. I’m hoping to post about my travel through the East next Friday … if I’ve recuperated enough! I’ll be posting pictures on my Facebook page, so check in there.

It’s a busy few weeks. I wish you all a blessed and safe Easter weekend.

April 18, 2014Allison Brennan, Writing Life — 7 Comments ↓

Tagged with: baseball, Easter, family, Laura Griffin, Lucy Kincaid
Posted in Allison Brennan, Writing Life

Captain America 2

I’m a big fan of action adventure movies. I love everything about them. The story, the choreography, the bigness of the production. THE AVENGERS was one of my recent faves, and probably one of my all-time-favorite movies ever. Joss Whedon is not only a fabulous storyteller, but he also brings the best out of his cast.

I know this all started because of Star Wars. I was 8 when Star Wars came out and it wowed me on all the best ways. Other world. Great characters. Fabulous story arc of love, honor, betrayal, revenge, hope … when you’re a kid, everything is bigger and better. There was nothing else like it, nothing as epic, especially for the younger generation.

Ever since, I’ve always gone to see the big production pictures. Some are disappointing. (Batman and Robin. Superman III. The Phantom Menace.) Some are fabulous. (The Avengers. The Star Trek reboot. The Matrix Reloaded.) But I’m usually willing to fork over my $10 because even the disappointing action movies deliver on the thrills, even when the story falls apart.

April 16, 2014Movies and Television — 12 Comments ↓

Tagged with: Captain America, Joss Whedon, movies, Scarlett Johansson, Star Wars, storytelling, The Avengers
Posted in Movies and Television

Welcome Back Laura Griffin!

I am so, so, so thrilled to have Laura Griffin here with me today. She’s an amazing author and wonderful person and I am so excited that FAR GONE is on sale today! Please give her a big congrats on her debut hardcover romantic thriller! ~ Allison

It’s so fun to be back at Murder She Writes! Allison, thanks for the invitation.

I love to meet readers at book signings. I’m impressed by the number of people who come up to me and say something along the lines of, “I’ve always wanted to write a book.”

My response is always the same: “You should do it!”

Many writers I know got their start as voracious readers who couldn’t finish a book without thinking they could write something as good or better. To many writers that nagging inner voice is what prompts them to one day sit down at the computer and write the terrifying words CHAPTER ONE.

April 15, 2014Our Guests & Friends, Writing & Publishing — 13 Comments ↓

Tagged with: books, Far Gone, hardcover, Laura Griffin, romantic suspense, thriller, writing
Posted in Our Guests & Friends, Writing & Publishing

Starting in the Middle of a Series

I love reading a series. It’s the same reason I prefer television to movies. I like revisiting my favorite characters, finding out what they’re doing, how they’re growing, how they’re going to solve the Next Big Crime. So when I had the opportunity to write the Lucy Kincaid series I jumped at it.

I knew from the minute Lucy survived her ordeal in FEAR NO EVIL that I wanted her to be a series character. It wasn’t until I wrote CUTTING EDGE six books later that I started to think that Sean Rogan might be the best man for her. He was cute, charming, smart, and fun. Lucy was pretty, intelligent, sad, and driven. They needed each other — Lucy to temper Sean’s wild “live in the moment” lifestyle, and Sean to make Lucy laugh. They are good for each other.

But when I started writing the first book, I originally envisioned a trilogy — maybe because I’d written so many trilogies I think in threes. I wanted to write as many books in the series as made me (and my readers!) happy, but I had a three book romantic story arc. I wanted each book to stand on it’s own — meaning, I wanted the mystery to have a complete arc in each book — but I wanted the love story to go beyond one book. In LOVE ME TO DEATH, Sean and Lucy meet and connect. In KISS ME, KILL ME, Sean confesses his love for Lucy. She cares for him, but holds back — out of fear, mostly, and her own insecurities. In IF I SHOULD DIE, Lucy realizes she loves Sean … only they have to survive before she can tell him.

April 10, 2014Books, Books, Books!, Writing & Publishing — 20 Comments ↓

Tagged with: Allison Brennan, Dead Heat, Lucy Kincaid, Notorious, Sean Rogan, series, writing
Posted in Books, Books, Books!, Writing & Publishing

Writers: Nature or Nurture?

Writers: Nature or Nurture?

By MSW Guest Blogger Grant Blackwood

Blackwood … Brennan … we met at a book signing. At many book signings. And share much in common … namely, we often sit next to authors in the Bs and Cs who have long, curving lines waiting for signatures, while we … don’t. At least, not yet! We’ve been lucky enough to get to know each other over the last few years signing at Thrillerfest. Grant is one of the nicest, most easy-going writers I know and I will happily perch beside him at any conference … or bar. (Yes, writers are known for imbibing once in awhile …) Anyway, Grant is a prolific author who has co-written with some of the absolute greatest authors in the thriller genre — Clive Cussler, Tom Clancy, and my friend James Rollins. He also writes his own books! And people ask me when *I* have the time to write! Grant has his own heroic backstory … A U. S. Navy veteran, he spent three years aboard a guided missile frigate as an Operations Specialist and a Pilot Rescue Swimmer. Isn’t that totally cool? So please, give Grant a big MSW welcome!

Do writers come into this world with the “scribe’s spark” or can it be born later through random forces in our lives? It’s a popular and hotly debated question among writers and readers alike.

When I was ten, Irwin Allen style disaster movies such as The Poseidon Adventure and The Towering Inferno were all the rage. I loved them all. So I tried to write one. Its tentative title was “Death in Airtight Tube” and it involved a undersea train tunnel that partially collapses, trapping a slew of fascinating characters in the doomed vehicle. A decent premise, perhaps, but I hadn’t the vaguest concept of the basics — dialogue, point-of-view, exposition, and so on. I was about a thousand words into the story when I got distracted by collecting doodle bugs in my backyard and abandoned the project. The question is, had I decade earlier emerged into this world with the desire to tell stories? I have no idea. And I don’t think anyone else does either — about themselves or about anyone else.

April 9, 2014Our Guests & Friends — 7 Comments ↓

Tagged with: Grant Blackwood, James Rollins, publishing, The Kill Switch, writing
Posted in Our Guests & Friends

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Bio:

Allison Brennan

Allison Brennan is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of twenty-two romantic thrillers and mysteries, including the Lucy Kincaid series and the Max Revere series. She lives in Northern California with her husband and five children.

Maximum Exposure
February 4, 2014

Two years before the events in Notorious, Max travels to Colorado Springs to investigate the disappearance of a college student. Frustrated over the lack of interest from both friends of the victim and campus authorities, Max tags along with the leader of search and rescue and his dog through the beautiful and deadly Rocky Mountains in the hopes of finding answers. Every answer she finds leads to more questions--questions neither the police nor the college want Max asking.
Read more

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Weekend Wrap

Captain America 2

Welcome Back Laura Griffin!

Starting in the Middle of a Series

Writers: Nature or Nurture?

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