Pass the Baton Blog Hop

My friend, fellow author, Silver James, invited me to participate in the Pass the Baton Blog Hop. Silver is a gifted author who writes in the paranormal and contemporary romance genres, among others. Silver was just recently contracted by Harlequin Desire…how awesome is that??? You can learn more about Silver here: http://silverjames.com/

And, guess what???? Silver just became a grandmother for the first time. Her beautiful grandson, Liam, was born March 23…congrats to Silver and her daughter, Clary. (Who is also my cover artist. Hope childbirth doesn’t interfere with the progress of my latest cover… Just kidding! 😉 Sort of.)

I was asked to answer questions about my latest Work in Process. (I actually had a bit of a crisis related to this MS. Many of you have heard my story of woe, but I’m telling it again. My flash drive became corrupted, and I lost several documents, including this one with all of the work I’d done on it since I picked it back up a few weeks ago, after putting it aside about four years ago. I have a team of geeks trying to recover the lost docs, but we’re not sure this will be one they can recover…fingers crossed!)

Anyway, enough whining and back to the post. The questions I was asked to answer are…

What am I working on?

A suspense/thriller novel titled Without Mercy. Here is a rough blurb:

A normal work day for bank employee and single mom, Chyna Beckett, turns into tragedy when the bank is robbed and her boss is murdered in front of her. But the horror doesn’t end there. Chyna discovers that, what appeared to be a random robbery is actually much more. The criminals targeted that specific bank for one reason—because of Chyna.

 
She is soon launched into a nightmare where mercenaries hold her and her daughter hostage in their normal lives. Each time Chyna makes a wrong move, someone dies. As Chyna fights to protect her daughter, pieces of the puzzle start to click into place. She learns the takeover is connected to her daughters’ father, Aidan. But how is that possible? Aidan died in the jungle before Emma was born.

As the lives of the people Chyna loves are jeopardized, she realizes she must take action. But she has no idea where to turn–and time is running out. But then, a startling truth is revealed, and Chyna realizes that the only person who can help her and her child might be a ghost from the past.

How does my work differ from others of its genre?
Because it’s mine, my voice, my creation. It’s also different in that, while it has a pretty strong romantic storyline, that doesn’t come into play until the book is more than half over. That makes the lines between straight suspense and romantic suspense a little blurred, but I had to relay the story as it came to me. So, it is what it is, whatever that might be.

Why do I write what I do?
Because I have to. Whenever a story starts to pull at me, I have no choice but to write it. I think that paranormal and suspense stories pull at me most often, because those are the kind that interest me. I try to write what I would love to read. (I think that’s a pretty standard response from most authors)

 
How does your writing process work?
Ha! It doesn’t! Uhm, okay, seriously, I suppose it starts with an idea. I’m not one of those character-driven writers who has characters come visit them, then they create a story for that character. Once an idea comes to me, I consider who would be the most interesting people to put in that situation, who would be the worst person for something like this to happen to. Then, I get to know that character, I outline the story, I make a list of scene notes, I write really, really crappy drafts of those scenes, then I go back through and fix them. I make as many passes through the story as I need to in order to be satisfied. During one of those passes, my critique partners help me out. I would keep revising over and over, so at some point, I have to just decide the story is complete and let it go. (And never, EVER, read it again!)

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Two lovely ladies were kind enough to allow me to pass the baton to them, and their blogs will be up next Monday, March 31st. Here is a little about them…

Marilyn Baron is so prolific, it makes me ill…not really, I’m happy for her, but completely jealous of how quickly she churns out books. And, they’re really good ones too! I’m currently reading Sixth Sense, which is a page turner. But, I have several other of her books in my TBR pile, because she writes about topics I find fascinating. I was fortunate enough to meet Marilyn in person last July at the RWA conference in Atlanta. She’s terrific!

Mini bio: Marilyn Baron, a public relations consultant in Atlanta, writes humorous women’s fiction, romantic thrillers/suspense, historicals and paranormal for The Wild Rose Press and has won writing awards in Single Title, Suspense Romance and Paranormal/Fantasy Romance.

Check out Marilyn’s novel by clicking on the title: Under the Moon Gate

Marilyn’s Baton Post next week will be featured on The Beach Read Authors blog: http://beachreadauthors.blogspot.com/

Marilyn’s Web site: http://www.marilynbaron.com/

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My other baton author is Monique DeVere. Although I have never met Monique face to face (she’s in the U.K. for cripe’s sake!), I love, love, love her. She is a fantastic writer and such a wonderful friend. She is always there to lend a helping hand—she volunteered to help me moderate our author promo loop, Authors Helping Authors, (along with the lovely R.T. Wolfe), and she critiqued/edited my short story, End of Lonely Street in a mere 24 hour period, and she did an awesome job. Oh, yeah, and she’s a fantastic writer! She writes stories with strong passion and emotion, along with a twist of humor. My favorite of her stories so far is Zach’s Rebound Girl. LOVE it!!!

Mini bio: Monique DeVere is an author of smexy romantic comedy and Christian supernatural fiction. She is also a screenwriter and is currently working on her latest script. Monique resides in the UK.

Check out Monique’s novel by clicking on the title: Zach’s Rebound Girl

Website: http://moniquedevere.blogspot.co.uk/

Purchase link: