Yes, we do!  Late, yes, and you may blame Rocki who was trick or treating and not posting winners names.  So here you go…and thank you to the entire MSW community of readers for another week of non-stop fun!

Commenter #26, Rochelle, wins a copy of BLOOD LITE II: OVERBITE and commenter #33 Diane wins a copy of KILLER YEAR! Congratulations! Please  email allison@allisonbrennan.comwith your snail mail  addresses. Happy Halloween!

The winner of Lori Armstrong’s gift card is commenter #38 — Hope Hix!  Hope, please contact Lori — lorelei@loreleijames.com — with your preferred online bookstore. Congrats!

Congratulations to Miranda, commenter #22 and Bridget Werbin, commenter #58 – you’ve each one signed copies of EDGE OF SIGHT!  Email Rocki at roxannestc@cfl.rr.com with a snail mail addy and you’ll be in Zach’s arms in no time!

Once again, hubby strikes a poetic note for all of us at MSW!

 

Fact or Fiction

By Gary Tabke

In the mist of the night on a Hollow’s eve

I strolled down a path with a gait of ease

For in my hands a book I did grasp

That was a fine read and a kick in the ass

Paranormal it seems is now all the rage

And everyone’s reading no matter the age

Stories that certainly have quite a bite

That cause their readers to startle and fright

Skeleton’s of oak now barren of leaves

Jut out of the dark and attempt to tease

Yet I stroll forward and fail to fear

No ghosts or goblins do I hear

Words of the read that I carry in hand

Start to penetrate, intrude and then demand

That I question surroundings so bleak and chilling

Yet this night of nights is not nearly as thrilling

 

For this story on paper with print of bold

Is of living and dying and souls that are sold

Of immortals and lovers who troll life’s depths

But always triumph when set upon death’s steps

There in the dark did something shutter

My imagination perhaps or a bird a flutter

Heart starts to race but just for a moment

It’s just the wind, no need for atonement

Chilling is the breeze spiking down my back

Certainly it’s the cold that’s nipping at my neck

An adjustment of collar will change my perspective

Separate fantasy from reality and remain objective

The story was written from fiction to amuse

But my mind is all tangled and wishes to abuse

My pace has quickened without my intention

Some strange force intent on intervention

Cobble stone paths of wispy leaves

And a rickety fence that leans and weaves

I hurry more quickly to avoid my capture

I desire no bite or immortal rapture

Deepening breath and heart a pounding

I will not succumb but change my surrounding

I wish not to be one of those that’s bitten

So I simply stop reading this book well written

For one of you, slightly smitten

This small addition is kindly written

For if I did not she would surely hover

For I failed to mention Enemy Lover

*I made hubby add the last four lines!

 (Coz it is all about moi!)  Muwhahahaahha. 

 So, what are you going to dress up as for Halloween? 

And what’s your fave Halloween candy?

Next Tuesday is election day.

You probably expect me to tell you to go out and vote. People fought and died for your right to vote. It is your duty and obligation to vote.

But I’m not.

One of my biggest pet peeves has been rubbed raw these last two weeks, and I apologize but you all are going to take the brunt of my rant. I have had to remove multiple posts on my facebook page from the “Just Go Vote” people. I’ve had to ignore numerous tweets about how important it is to vote. I’ve had it up to here with people yammering about the importance of voting. Why? Because they don’t talk about voting smart. They don’t talk about knowing what and who you are voting for or against. It’s as if the act of voting is what matters–that it is a right–when, in fact, it is a privilege.

Felons can’t vote. Citizens under 18 can’t vote. Non-citizens aren’t suppose to vote, either. Voting is a privilege–and yes, a right guaranteed by the Constitution. And I am honored and proud of all the men and women who have died defending my right to vote. I am humbled that we live in a country where we can vote–easily–without fear for our lives or retaliation.

But honestly, the next person who tells me to “just go vote” is going to get an earful.

Please do not vote unless you know what you’re voting for–or against.

My husband and I were discussing this today, because I was on a tear after hearing someone espouse the necessity of voting. Dan said it was like telling the surgeon to “just make the cut.” We know the patient needs surgery, just go cut into him.

We’d never want a surgeon cutting us open unless he was trained. And I don’t want people voting for candidates or initiatives unless they know what they are doing.

Elections mean something. Just last year, two Georgia elections were decided by just one vote. But it’s not just a single vote–what about elections decided by ten votes? Less than one hundred votes? In close congressional races with tens of thousands of votes cast, many elections are decided by less than point one percent (.1%).

I worked in the California State Legislature for 13 years. There are a lot of idiots elected. And a lot of good people. And a lot of good people who end up acting like idiots after they are elected. But every one I have voted for, I knew that I agreed with them more than I disagreed with them; I knew what to expect from them should they be elected. Every initiative I have voted for or against I’ve read most or all of the text so that I had a good idea what the initiative would do should it pass. Last election cycle there was a local issue that I completely missed in my sample ballot. When I couldn’t figure out what it would do from the summary available in the voting booth, I skipped it. I consider myself fairly well educated about government, but I refuse to vote on an issue if I can’t be confident in what my vote means. And while I generally vote party line, I refuse to cast a vote in a race unless I can agree with the candidate more than disagree. I’ll just skip the race.

Your vote matters. It means something–something so important that it was a factor in the American Revolution. Don’t throw your vote away. Don’t “just vote.” Don’t vote without thought. Your vote, not voting itself, is what matters. So go to the polls on election day and vote with knowledge and confidence, not because you think you just have to go vote.

P.S. While this is a political post in one sense, it’s not partisan, so please refrain from making partisan political statements because I will delete them–even if I agree with them. You can disagree with my premise, however!

What I’d like to discuss is something my friend and blogmate Louise Ure over at Murderati brought up a few weeks ago. If she disagrees with someone politically or on an issue important to her, she’ll stop reading their books or listening to their music. As a former legislative staffer, I of course have definite opinions about many things, but I don’t generally share them publicly. Some of my feelings about criminal justice and crime in general are evident in my books–I think necessary considering my focus of crime fiction–but I don’t get into most political arenas. In fact, in my first short story I wrote–”Killing Justice” in KILLER YEAR–I had a Democrat hero and a Democrat villain. In my second short story–”Capitol Obsession” in TWO OF THE DEADLIEST–I had a Republican hero and a Republican villain. Both stories had many of the truths I dealt with as a staffer that I found frustrating, but they were still fiction.

Unless someone is particularly offensive or in-your-face, I don’t like or dislike their work (books, music, movies) because of their political opinion or personal values (e.g. being an adulterer.)

What about you? Again, please don’t be partisan in your comments, but I’m genuinely curious. One commenter will win a copy of KILLER YEAR and one commenter will win a copy of TWO OF THE DEADLIEST.

Writing the second book in any series kicks my ass.

Doesn’t matter if I’m writing mystery or romance, or whether the book is a straight up continuation of the same characters or different lead characters set in an existing world. I know enough about the characters/worlds/plots to be dangerous, but not enough to have every potentiality nailed down. Give me too many choices and I’ll wanna try ‘em all.

I faced the “second book” syndrome twice in the past year. Lucky me, huh? I finished MERCY KILL, book 2 in the Mercy Gunderson series in March, and SADDLED AND SPURRED, book 2 in the Blacktop Cowboys series in June. Two totally different books. Two totally different experiences for me as a writer. But know the one thing that hasn’t changed? Bracing myself for reader reaction to the second book in a new series, which is almost…worse than bracing myself for reader reaction to the first book in a new series.

Why? Because inevitably, the first book in a new series will be compared to the previous series. Doesn’t matter if the previous series is dead by my hand or the publisher’s. Doesn’t matter if I’m trying to do something entirely fresh within the same genre, while trying to maintain my individual voice or my brand or meeting editorial expectations. Comparisons will be made. Some favorably. Some not.

And it’s always the NOT ones that stick in my craw, know what I mean?

I ain’t gonna lie. The Julie Collins mystery series was a tough sell in the publishing world. Julie is unapologetically brash. She drinks, she swears, she smokes, she has questionable taste in men, she has serious family issues — and I have to mix all those not always appealing character traits together and make her…not necessarily lovable, but believable, a woman to root for. And then I plop her dead center in the middle of life or death situations, in South Dakota, which I’ve heard ain’t exactly a hot spot to visit — as I try to entice readers into buying a medium-boiled contemporary mystery series with a kickass female character set in no-man’s land. For book 2, HALLOWED GROUND, I stalled early on in the writing process, I cried, I sweated bullets over my complex heroine, wondering if the critics who weren’t in love with Julie the first go around would feel more comfortable with her in a second outing. But what I didn’t change? Julie. I didn’t bow to reader’s criticisms and change anything about her. I let her be who she was. Who I envisioned her to be.

Guess what? That kernel of love started to bloom after book 2. Being with a small publishing house meant my sales didn’t set the world on fire, but the buzz, award nominations/wins and general interest was enough that I was contracted for a third book. It seemed readers who were on the fence with Julie for book one took a leap of faith and followed my bow-and-arrow toting bad girl on her next adventure. And her next. And her next.

During this time, due to the business end of publishing and circumstances beyond my control, I started another mystery. Same type of tough female character, still set in South Dakota (yep, glutton for punishment, that’s me) but with a couple of funky twists that intrigued me. Those last three words are the absolute gospel in my writing world — if what I’m writing doesn’t intrigue me, how can I expect it’ll intrigue readers? What I didn’t want to happen when I started the Mercy Gunderson series? Write books exactly like the Julie Collins books — just changing the heroine’s eye color, her hair color, the name of her love interest, the sex of her best friend, her preferred brand of booze and the type of weapon she carried. The character who silently but efficiently muscled her way onto my first page was a woman the polar opposite of Julie Collins. Mercy is as cool-headed as Julie is hotheaded. Their life histories are diverse, which makes their reactions in certain situations vastly dissimilar. After I finished the book (while I was still writing the last book in the Julie series, mind you) I was thrilled. I’d achieved my goal and luckily Simon and Schuster liked what they saw in Mercy Gunderson and offered me a two-book contract.

Fast-forward two years to 2010 when I hadn’t released a mystery at all in 2009, but had just come off winning the Shamus Award for SNOW BLIND. The very first fan review I read for NO MERCY, and yes, I read fan reviews, said the book sucked. Bad. They’d give me zero stars if they could. Mercy was hard and cold and no one would ever care about her stupid life, her stupid reactions, her stupid family, her stupid issues, plus the plot wasn’t plausible. The reader lamented that I’d fallen so far from the Julie Collins series that I’d lost fans forever. Then this fan postulated that maybe if no one bought the book in this new series, I could go back to writing Julie Collins. Nice try, but no. When I finished MERCY KILL, I realized I let Mercy be who she was. I didn’t soften her, change her, or force her into a comfortable little box along side the hard-to-categorize-Miz Collins. As long as my editor was happy, and I was happy. But the negative review got me to thinking, which is always dangerous, especially when I’m pissed off, and I realized something:

The reader’s comparison was based on ONE book from the Mercy series, but on FOUR books from the Julie series. Of course readers are going to know more about Julie and her world. I’ve had time to build her. I haven’t had time to build Mercy or her world.

So I sensed a pattern when the exact same thing happened with the Lorelei James books. With the Rough Rider series, I’m writing contemporary erotic westerns set in Wyoming. But again, I didn’t want the new series to be a carbon copy of my existing series, so I mixed it up, intending to alternate setting the stories in the rodeo world with life on a Wyoming ranch, not detailing the lives and loves of a specific family, but of a group of tight-knit friends who hail from one small Wyoming town. For the first book I had the main male characters already involved — albeit separately — in an intimate relationship with the female character. No first meeting. No first kiss. No first individual sex scene. Different, right? When book 1 in the Blacktop Cowboys series, CORRALLED, came out in August, with a different publisher, I was NINE books into the Rough Riders series. NINE. The inevitable comparisons started. Not as good as the Rough Riders series. The family “connectedness” was missing…well duh. It’s the first book in the series! There is no connectedness yet!

I’ll admit I’m not immune to this “favorite series” issue as a reader, but I’ll also admit it doesn’t matter what certain authors write, I’ll read it. Period. And if I don’t like book 2 or 3…then I’ll move on. And even if I don’t enjoy the jump in genres, I’ll give them a big thumbs up for trying something different and stepping out of their comfort zone.

So tell me, MSW readers, and be honest here, do you give a new fiction series from a favorite author a fair shake — meaning more than one book? All commenters will be eligible to win a gift card from the online bookstore of their choice!

The hang time between my book releases has seemed interminable this year, and there were days when I thought October 26, 2010 would never arrive.  The switch to a new publisher, a new series, a new family of characters, and all new settings and stories has taken forever, and while I toiled on three books for the past year, I really didn’t feel like an “author” (you know, someone who obsessively checks Amazon, lies in wait for reader mail, and feels compelled to stop in every bookstore to check shelves for placement) for the last several months.

But the day has arrived, and the calendar was kind, having release day coincide with my every-other-Tuesday blog day, so I’m going to use my space to talk about the only thing that matters to an author on release day…reviews numbers reader mail blog mentions reviews sales store placement  did I mention reviews…the book and the series and the freequel!

 The Book —  Edge of Sight

Edge of Sight is the story of former Army Ranger Zach Angelino, an Iraq vet scarred inside and out after three brutal tours of duty, who scoffs when his sister, Vivi, suggests they start a security and investigation firm with the “regrettable” (Zach’s word) name of The Guardian Angelinos. It’s not just the name he hates; it’s the concept.  After all, he’d already been unceremoniously rejected by the elite team of the Bullet Catchers, where his cousin Johnny Christiano (le sigh) worked.  Not only did that organization turn him down cold, the queen bitch who runs it, Lucy Sharpe, wouldn’t even let him pick up a weapon and show her what he could do on her firing range.

But everything changes the night Samantha Fairchild shows up on Vivi’s doorstep looking after witnessing a professional assassination, and Zach is there to greet her.  Sam is scared and on the run, out of favor with the local cops and out of options for getting protection and information.  She’d been looking for Vivi, a well-connected crime reporter, but she found Zach…the man who crushed her heart when he left for war after a three-week passionate affair, then never called, wrote, emailed or sent an effing postcard. 

They have no choice but to fight a magnetic attraction and join forces to crack a conspiracy that leads to Boston’s darkest corners of crime and corruption, all the while facing their own doubts and desires and fears…and a hired killer who will stop at nothing to eliminate his only witness. 

Do I love this book?  Yes, yes, yes, I love this book.  While it “feels” like my Bullet Catcher books, I think I was forced (and by forced, I mean held at gunpoint by a revision letter) to really dig as deep as I ever have for an emotional read.  This is definitely the most tortured hero I’ve ever written, and the most complex.  I hope this one resonates with readers, too!

The New Series — The Guardian Angelinos

When I said goodbye to my beloved Bullet Catchers, I knew I wanted to take certain elements with me to the new series:  hot and fearless men, shrewd and relentless women, colorful secondaries, tense action scenes, vivid settings, and suspense plots that are unique yet believable.  But there was one element missing in the Bullet Catchers that I wanted in the next series:  family connection.

So with this investigative and security team…everything is relative.  There’s a slew of cousins and siblings, add-ons and in-laws, and one unforgettable Great Uncle Nino.  Instead of the glitz and sophistication of Lucy’s lair, complete with private jets, a war room, and that infamous Blackberry with the home numbers of the most powerful people in the world, the Guardian Angelinos operate in borrowed Boston offices, on a shoe string budget.  They’re more likely to get to a client on the T or by skate board than in a limousine.   The anchors of the series, Vivi and Zach Angelino, are twins who were orphaned as children in Italy and sent to live with an American family in the suburbs of Boston.  And, always, behind the scenes, are the family dynamics that add color and conflict. I hope readers love this big Italian clan of renegade crime fighters as much as I do.

How many books?  I really don’t know yet.  Three are done (next up Shiver of Fear in April and Face of Danger in May).  While writing these three, there was one seriously smokin’ hot cousin who practically climbed out of the monitor, took me by the throat, and demanded his story…so I really hope I get a chance to write at least one more or even many more. 

The Freequel — Taken To The Edge

Edge of Sight is a reunion romance, even if round one was only nineteen lusty days (well, nights) long. After writing a book with numerous references to those few weeks, I found myself wishing I could experience them first hand.  What was Zach like before he was injured?  Just how hot were the sparks the night these two met?  (Answer: blistering.)  I couldn’t resist writing a short story to find out.  As a gift to readers, I have FREE prequel called Taken To The Edge on my web site — the short story of Sam and Zach’s first meeting, their passionate interlude, and their heartbreaking goodbye.  Enjoy!

Let’s give away some autographed books!!!  Not ARCs this time, but the real deal.  Leave a comment, tell me anything or nothing, share my excitement, calm my nerves, comment on the Freequel, whatever! Two commenters will be selected at random to win signed copies of Edge of Sight!!