A Peek Inside the Sam Series... Love at First Sight

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Release week is nearly upon us, so it's time to share some of my thoughts about writing the Samantha Owens series, and about the newest book EDGE OF BLACK. This is the first installment.

But first - here's a special Sneak Peek inside the book. Just click on the BROWSE button below to read the first chapter! And then, you know, feel free to meander further down to that pretty little three letter word..... ; )

Sneak Peek!
 

Starting a new series is scary. But it’s an exhilarating kind of scary, like riding a roller coaster in the dark. You know you’re going to be thrown about, you just can’t see what turn is coming next.

Dr. Samantha Owens played a role in my Nashville-based Taylor Jackson series. As Taylor’s best friend, she was the cast of characters’ lodestone, the moral compass of the books. Sam could always see the shades of gray Taylor missed. So when it was time to take her out for a spin in her own book, I figured it would be easy. She was already a real person in my mind, fully formed.

Best laid plans. When I started to write her, she became an enigma. Her voice wasn’t the same when she was the one calling the shots. It took weeks for her to start speaking to me in a language I could understand. The language of loss.

At the beginning of the first book in the series, A DEEPER DARKNESS, she’s broken, practically disabled by the deaths of her family, and barely has the will to live. By the end of the book she’s crossed a threshold into a new world, one that includes the love of a man named Xander, a former Army Ranger who has had his share of trauma and heartache and is slowing trying to mend himself in the Maryland woods.

Love at first sight. People scoff, but it happens. It happened to me, (twenty years and counting) and it happens to Sam. Something about Xander draws her in, literally starts her heart beating again. Even though he’s a murder suspect, she’s intrigued. Careless, even.

And Alexander Whitfield is such a classic hero: so self-contained he’s simmering, really. Simmering for her.

They belonged together, that was clear to me from the moment Xander entered the scene. I had to do a bit of editorial scrambling when I realized it, too, because I wasn’t planning to hook Sam up with a man so soon.
But what could be better for a series than two broken souls joining to make a whole?

With that intensity comes a multitude of opportunities, the first of which you’ll see in EDGE OF BLACK. Sam and Xander have a bright future together, if they can learn to work together instead of striking off alone. And I think they’ll find a way to make it work.

EDGE OF BLACK is on sale November 13, 2012, and is available for Pre-Order Now

Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Indiebound

How Much Can You Squeeze Into A Week?

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Some smatterings today, my friends, in place of the usual links. 

    I hope everyone met Arwen on Facebook Tuesday. Arwen is my new right hand, and she's been helping me manage my crazy life since August. She is a doll, and we have entirely too much in common, which means our work calls nearly always digress into long, detailed discussions of movies and books and television shows and everything else under the sun. Which means I couldn't be working with a better person, and I am so, so grateful to have her. So everyone leave a comment for Arwen today, say hi, tell her who you are, so she can get to know you!
    For my name day, October 13, my mother and father always buy me a little gift. This is what I got this year, and I love it - it couldn't be a better match for my lair. It came from The Lamp Store, and the owners, Marty and Laura, are HUGE readers, and now reading my Taylor series, for which I am very grateful. Isn't it gorgeous??? (And check out Skeletor - he's solar activated and dances! Thanks, Mom!)
    Deadline writing is hard. Some days are brilliant, and the words fly from your fingers, and the word counts rack up. Then you sit down the next day with all that story brewing and nothing comes out. And you don't have the luxury of nothing coming out. So you beat yourself up and eat some chocolate and read your RSS feeds looking for a kernel of inspiration and stand on the front step and stare at the sun, and go back upstairs and try again, and it's like air leaking from a balloon overnight to get the damn words down, but a few come and they suck so you give up and save everything and shut down for the day and at ten, when you're going to bed, exhausted, the flood-gates decide to open. At least, that's what it's like for me. Good days and bad. Creativity is weird.  
    I had to trade my beloved iPad in for a new one. The pressure point where I keep my thumb cracked, and splintered, and though I taped it down, it continued to grow, until I had a long strip of packing tape along the edge. Of course my Apple Care had just expired. And I really didn't want to spend $600 on a new iPad (the 3 & 4 are thicker and heavier and hotter than the 2, which is perfect, in my opinion) nor am I interested in the Mini, which I can't imagine being a big enough screen to write on, so I went to the Apple store and walked out with a new iPad 2 for $250. Seems like a bargain, considering I'd have paid $300 in Apple Care by now, and it's a brand new unit, not a refurb. I should get a few years out of it at least, and my thumb isn't being cut by the shattered glass. Win, win.
    Plus, I had a very cool conversation with my Genius at the Genius Bar, Nick, who was covered in seriously gorgeous tattoos and proposed to his fiancée at Harry Potter world in Flrida (too cool, dude). He was very fun and we ended up talking Potter and Plato's Cave and quantum physics. So all in all, an hour well spent.  
    But then I had to change my case for the iPad so I won't have my thumb in a sensitive pressure spot, and you know, it takes hours to comb the reviews to see what would be best. Finally deicded on a Snugg case, so we'll see how that works. That, and we're finally getting the kitchen finished up, and we're trying to get a couple of barstools, and black wood and gray seats in a 26" counter stool aren't easy to find. We may have a solution, so stay tuned. 
    On a very sad note: Jessica Ridgeway. Sometimes a case grabs you in the gut and doesn't let go, and this is one of them. Everything about it freaked me out. And the profiles were off. Way off. Except that they knew for sure it was someone close to the neighborhood that would be setting off alarm bells. I was right assuming he was too small to take down a grown woman so he went after a child, and that he belonged in the neighborhood and had a reason to be there and not be noticed, but a kid? A 17-year-old kid? Blew me away, and I lost several prime writing hours to the coverage, because I was just flabbergasted. 17. Such a shame, and so many prayers to her family and friends. And thank goodness he's off the street, and bravo to his mom for turning him in. I bet she wrestles with that decision for a very long time, but it was the right thing to do. And you know, the right things are always the hardest.

OK. Thanks for tuning in. I hope the rest of your Sunday is blessed. Go read a book. As my sister from another mother loves to say, It's Good For You! 

Welcome to the Main Stage - The Divine Allison Brennan!

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Allison Brennan, 1 hour after we met the first time. Yes, it's immortalized!I can't tell you how happy I am to host my friend and fellow scribe Allison Brennan at the Tao today. Allison is the writer, and woman, I want to be when I grow up. She's embarrassed me a bit below, but you'll get a real sense of what kind of woman she is - a good friend, a consummate professional, and an inspiration to all of us who haved watched her mighty ascent.

Be sure to leave a note for Allison in the comments, because I'm giving away her books today - 5 lucky winners will go home with a Brennan novel of their choice (everything but STALKED, which goes on sale October 30, you've gotta buy that one.) 

So without further ado... I give you the one and only Allison Brennan!

How I Met J.T. Ellison 

Whenever I blog on someone’s personal blog space, I feel like they’ve invited me into their home. Because this is J.T.’s home, I’m sipping a balanced cabernet, paired with the perfect cheese. She and Randy are so thoughtful, really the perfect hosts.

Because you’re all J.T.’s friends, I thought I’d share the story of how I met J.T. It was on paper, of course. Most of my closest writing buddies I never met in person until years after we started emailing. I can’t remember who hooked us up on-line, or if J.T. simply emailed me out of the blue; I don’t remember why I agreed to read her debut novel – I do remember feeling both flattered and sorely out of my element.

This was 2006. My first book had just come out in January, followed by two more. Because the back-to-back trilogy for a debut author was a new thing (only established authors seemed to be publishing back-to-back books prior to 2006) and because my first book hit the New York Times extended list, there was a bit of buzz. People started asking me to read their manuscripts for blurbs. I thought, “Me? Why me? I’m nobody.” Why would anyone even look twice at a book with my endorsement?

J.T. was one of the first to ask, and I almost said no. I mean, I was not worthy to blurb her book. But, I’m a book addict. I’m hardly going to say no to reading a thriller, especially for free, especially in advance of everyone else on the planet (except her husband, her agent, her editor … ) So I asked her to send it to me. She did, printed and bound. I wish I still had that copy.

I distinctly remember starting All the Pretty Girls while sitting at the Sacramento Airport waiting for a plane. I think I was flying to the RT conference in Daytona Beach. It might have been the RWA conference in Atlanta. Whatever it was, I started chapter one in the airport bar (drinking a beer, not wine) and would have missed my plane if my husband hadn’t called me to ask a question.

I finished All the Pretty Girls on that flight, and was so thrilled to write a blurb for J.T. If you’ve all read this book, you know why I was so excited. It’s a damn good book. (Hmm—maybe that’s what I should have said in my quote? “Read this book. It’s damn good.” LOL.)

Still, I couldn’t help but think, why me? It took me about three years to get over being surprised every time someone asked me to blurb a book. Now, I have more books than I can read, and I don’t get to blurb everything I want. I’m the type of person who has to read books I endorse – because of J.T.

My quote didn’t make it on the cover of J.T.’s first book (replaced by Lee Child, I’m certainly not complaining!) But it did make it on her second book, and I was thrilled. Shortly after 14 came out, a reader emailed me and said that she’d bought J.T.’s book because I’d recommended it, and she loved it.

Wow. That gave me all kinds of thrills – and fears. I’m so glad they loved J.T. as much as I did … and I was relieved that I’d read the book. I had no idea people would buy a book because I’d recommended it, and that humbled and scared me. It’s why I read every book I blurb – if a reader doesn’t like it, I want to be able to say that I honestly enjoyed it. More, I stand by every endorsement. I want my readers to know that when I say, “This is a great crime thriller,” that I really believe that.

When I thought about this, I realized that I, too, had bought new authors based on endorsements. I read books primarily for two reasons: 1) it’s an author I know and love or 2) a friend or my mom recommended it to me. But there have been a couple books I bought because of the endorsements … MONKEEWRENCH by P.J. Tracy for one, which had a whole bunch of blurbs from authors I love, and THE INFORMATIONIST by Taylor Stevens because Tess Gerritsen’s blurb made me pick it up. I wouldn’t have bought either solely on the blurbs, but the blurbs definitely made me check them out. I loved both books.

 Have you ever bought a book because of an author endorsement?

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New York Times and USA Today bestseller Allison Brennan is the author of eighteen novels and several short stories. A former consultant in the California State Legislature, she lives in Northern California with her husband Dan and their five children.

Allison is currently writing the Lucy Kincaid series about an FBI recruit. The third book, IF I SHOULD DIE, is on sale now. SILENCED will be out on April 24, 2012, followed by STALKED on 10.30.12 and STOLEN in spring 2013. Also look for THRILLER 3: LOVE IS MURDER, an anthology of romantic suspense edited by Sandra Brown.

Allison can be reached through her website. Read her books. They're damn good!

Best Links of the Week

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Every author will tell you, this business has ups, and downs. In this great essay on Writer Unboxed, Robin LeFevers covers The Seven Stages of Publishing Grief. If you want insight into the writer's mind, what's happening behind the scenes, read it. 

Steven Pressfield has an interesting look behind the scenes on why it takes so long to publish a novel - with handy step by step processes! 

Kristine Kathryn Rusch has the second and third parts of her series: Why Writers Disappear 

Southern Festival of Books was very fun this year. I did a panel with the indomitable Sandra Brannan, which was raucous and the most fun I've ever had on a panel. Here's a deeper look at the festival, and why it draws in so many people. 20,000 Turn Out for the Southern Festival of Books  

My writer friend River Jordan sent me this great essay from Josh Ritter's blog on the joy (and myth) of the writer's desk Lots of truth. Sometimes it is the fantasy of being a writer that gets in the way of the writing.

From the TERRIBLE MIND of Chuck Wendig, a totally cool interview with one of my favorite writers, Margaret Atwood. All I have to say is, "Up yer kilt!"

On Hilary Mantel's Booker Win for "Bring Up the Bodies" in The New Yorker - I loved the way Mantel is talked about here. She's making history, and read through to the very end, because her revelation is intense.

On the squishy feel good side, some serious truth about how the universe works: Everything You Want Is Waiting for You 

And on this week's Tao of JT: Not ANOTHER NaNoWriMo Blog...

Best Links of the Week

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Dear Writer Friends: Something to think about - are readers fickle? Will they forget you if you don't social network?  Something very interesting that generated a lot of thought on my end after my awesome readers weighed in: 98% feel writing the book is more important than social networking. 98%! More on this soon, too.... 

Are You Comfortable with Yourself?  I really love this. Happiness comes from within....

1984, the Thriller This is an incredibly interesting view of this seminal dystopian novel

Christine Rose Elle tackles The Task at Hand: Motivation in 30 Seconds or Less Something we all could use a little help on sometimes

I can't wait to read THE CASUAL VACANCY, and I love this piece on JK Rowling - she's really in control of her destiny, and I have great respect for her. J. K. Rowling - By the Book - NYTimes.com 

New Sylvia Day eBook Sells 286k Copies In First Week | Publishers Lunch It is totally awesome to watch an author break out like this. 

And on the Tao this week: The Art of The Steal - What happens when you're perfect idea is done by another?