Best Links of the Week

New segment for the blog - a gathering of the most interesting stories and essays of the week.

Fast writing refresher course, I love her method! "How I Went From Writing 2k to 10k Words a Day"  

The Business Rusch: Writers & Business Kristine Rusch is right, for a writing CAREER, you have to know the business too 

Letter from the Pulitzer Fiction Jury: What Really Happened This Year : The New Yorker 

Letter from the Pulitzer Fiction Jury, Part II: How To Define Greatness? 

Conference season and the pitch (super advice for newbies pitching agents) 

The Role of Corporate Sponsorship and Language in Dystopian Fiction: The New Yorker  (a fascinating thought)

Why Blog?

 

I took a hiatus from my group blog for several reasons – the biggest of which was the fact that after six years of weekly blogging, I felt like I’d said all there was to say. I took a nice long break from blogging entirely, occasionally putting up entries on this personal blog—news, announcements and such—and enjoyed not having the rigorous discipline of spending a full day a week on a touching, informative or funny essay.

And then I started to miss it, while going through a rather major writing crisis of sorts. I got into a slump.  The scary kind.

Not the “I can’t write, words won’t come to me” slump, but a true existential crisis, “Why am I doing this?” slump.

The kind of slumps that end artistic careers.

So I shared my fears with my closest friends, who encouraged me to look to my process and suggested books and sent me all sorts of happy making things in the mail. I dove headlong into THE ARTIST’S WAY. I did all the exercises required of me. I figured out why I wanted to be a writer. Then I had a nice little breakthrough, and wrote three books in ten months.

And wouldn’t you know it, the career slump ended.

But I came out the other side not entirely sure of who I was as a writer anymore. The constant self-examination and doubt left a residual grime on my mind. Social networking exacerbated this feeling of displacement. The voice in the back of my head tried to help me fit in, but nothing worked. I tried on several hats. Tried to imitate the people I admired. None of it worked. I lost confidence in myself, again.

And then I went to California and ran into a buddy from my old group blog. We caught up for a moment, then he said, “I miss your voice on the blog.” I replied in kind. “I miss you guys, too.” And he said, “No, not like that. I miss your voice, man.”

I actually felt tears in my eyes. I know the moment my “voice” left me. I was discussing a particularly difficult blog entry and the person I was talking to said, “No one wants to be lectured to.”

Ouch. And I don’t mean pull off the band-aid ouch, I mean cut your arm open to the bone and require fifty stitches without anesthesia ouch. That kind of surreal pain that’s so horrid that afterward you can’t even remember exactly what it felt like, just that it hurt a whole damn lot.

And so I realized high school never ends, and I packed it up. Shut it down. Quit my blog. Went off to my corner and pouted.

Now, said person isn’t a writer, or even in the industry. But theirs is a voice I listen to, whether I should or not, and when I suddenly looked back on the past six years of blogging and wondered – Did people think I was lecturing them? (I hope you can hear the distaste I feel when I type that....) That single sentence clouded everything I did. Everything.

And so my world fell apart.

And that wasn’t right.

You have to be very careful what you say when you criticize an artist. It can actually permanently derail them. Whether it’s true or not doesn’t matter. It’s the idea that we’re doing something wrong that’s so frightful.

When my friend said he missed my voice, a little bit of me jumped up and said, yeah, I miss it too. I was never trying to lecture anyone. That was a thoughtless thing to say. I was working through my own problems, my issues with writing, good and bad, observations about the writing world, all that jazz. I felt like I’d gained some knowledge about the industry, and I was trying to share. The discipline of this navel-gazing kept my writing on track, fiction and non-fiction alike.

So I’m going to attempt to find that voice again. I’ll stay away from the group blog, because the structure and timing and politics don’t work for me anymore, but I’ll start talking about writing and process and such again. I’m going to shoot for a brief weekly or bi-weekly writing blog, on Fridays, like I used to.

You can help me out by leaving a comment here or there, or asking a question. Nature abhors a vacuum, remember.

Oh my. That was a bit lecture-y, wasn’t it?

When Life Imitates Art

I’m in Anaheim this week for RWA. I am blessed to have been nominated for a Rita® in Romantic Suspense, which is overwhelmingly exciting, but also bittersweet on a certain level, because the book that’s nominated, WHERE ALL THE DEAD LIE, is the last in my Taylor Jackson series for a while. Several months ago, my team and I made a decision to let Taylor take a long vacation, and focus on a new character, Dr. Samantha Owens.

Suffice it to say, starting a new series was scary for me. After seven books with the same lead character, I was in a groove. I knew how everyone would react. It was simply a matter of creating a dynamic plot and a cool villain to confront them with.

But Sam had been knocking on the doors and windows of my Muse’s hamlet, begging to strut her stuff on the page. When at long last I relented, and decided to spin off her character, changes needed to happen.

To do the new series justice, it needed to be different. To start – a new setting. I settled on Washington, D.C., my former home of many years. And Sam needed to be unmarried, and unencumbered by children. I debated long and hard. Divorce? Custody arrangements? Multiple scenarios, but they all kept her tied to Nashville. There was only one choice.

Her husband and children had to die.

I fought against this reality for weeks. I couldn’t do that to her. And there are rules in writing. You can’t kill animals, and you can’t kill children. Except you can. And I did. The question became not if they died, but how. Car accident? Been done. Plane crash? Been done.

And then it hit me. The flood.

Nashville was stricken with a flood of biblical proportion in 2010. As it happens, A DEEPER DARKNESS released on the second anniversary of that fateful weekend, that moment in time where we lost so much. Synchronicity at its finest. I was able to both honor those hurt and killed in the real flood and give Samantha a chance to recover with everyone else. Recover we did. It hasn’t been easy, but we’re back on our feet.

Another challenges was finding the right tone, the right mood, to express Samantha’s loss without suffocating the reader in her grief. I needed to get in her head, and live there, trying to understand how hard it must be to lose a husband, and to lose her twins. How, and if, that sadness could be overcome.

I used a lot of music to guide me, mostly the mournful, melancholy cover of “Hurt” by Johnny Cash. The song makes me weep, and the video tears a hole in my heart. Imagining the loss of my own husband, how frightened and alone I would feel, helped me mine Sam’s grief.

With grief comes hope. With hope comes possibility. They say what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger, and for a young, dynamic, intelligent widow, simply surviving her loss makes her invincible. Samantha stares into the abyss, acknowledges its presence, and somehow, some way, pulls herself back from the brink. And is rewarded for her strength.

Ironically, without realizing it, I was writing the story of my past few years. My husband and I have struggled with infertility for half a decade. Multiple pregnancies resulted in multiple miscarriages. IUIs and IVF didn’t work. Over and over, I lost my own children.

I thought I was fine. Normal. Nominal. That I’d dealt with my own grief, my own loss. But it wasn’t until I read A DEEPER DARKNESSin galley form that I realized I’d used the book as therapy. All of Sam’s losses mirrors my own. Her strength, her hope, her will to continue on gave me the strength to do the same.

A DEEPER DARKNESS isn’t a sad book. Samantha Owens is all of us: our hopes and fears, our determination and our weakness. For the first time in my writing career, I’ve put myself on the page. And that’s possibly the most terrifying thing of all.

On Go Bags of the Apocalypse

We spent our 4th of July in a different way than usual. There was no party, no drinking on the deck or relaxing by the pool. Not even any golf. Instead, we took the day to assemble our emergency Go Bags.

Many of you know my parents were five miles from the pre-evacuation areas for the Waldo Canyon fire. Last week, when things were looking dire, I got on the phone to my dad and suggested he pull together all his documents and stuff BEFORE the pre-evac calls came, just so he wouldn't be rushing around trying to gather stuff whilst worrying about the fire sneaking past the lines and sweeping through our little valley. This happens. Often enough that it's time to be prepared. Just in case.

I did some incredibly fun (and scary) research for EDGE OF BLACK on survivalists, AKA preppers. People who have themselves ready if a disaster happens. There's even a television show that popped up this spring about their somewhat extreme lifestyle. People laughed and made fun, but I'm here to tell you - whether it's an electromagnetic pulse that shuts down the power grids, a meteor that hits the earth, nuclear war, or just a tornado, flood, hurricane or fire - some forethought into what you'd do in that situation goes a long way toward making your life easier.

Since we got caught unprepared for the 2010 Nashville flood, we've been seeking to remedy the situation we found ourselves in - no communication, no power and no water for three days will capture your attention quite quickly. We've been slowly accruing the materials we'd need if this ever happens again. Everything's been stashed in a big plastic box in the dining room. The problem is, while we're set if we have an extended power outage, should a tornado sweep through Nashville, as they are wont to do, I'm hardly going to have the time to go to said plastic box and pick out what I need.

Enter the Go Bags of the Apocolypse. (Yes, that's our smart ass way of defusing the fear and tension that goes into the thought that you might need this kind of stuff someday.)

Our Go Bags, or Bug Out Bags, are simply a backpack, filled with everything you can possibly think of - first aid, water filtration, batteries, flashlights, medicine, lighters, radios - anything and everything you'd need to survive a week out of doors in the event of a natural disaster. The out of doors part is important - you never know what might happen to displace you in an emergency.

Our Go Bags also have some really important stuff - family papers and the like. Here's a superb spot to check out for ideas of what you might need. So the next time we have tornado warnings, all I have to do is grab the Go Bags, throw them in the car and head to Randy's office (a gigantic brick building with excellent support - much safer than our little house with no basement.) I don't have to worry if things get messed up, because I have copies of everything with me.

Look at the folks in Colorado who were evacuated and lost their homes in last week's fires, and the folks in the D.C. area who got hit by that freak inland hurricane. Some smart preparations now can save you from days, weeks without power, shelter, personal possessions, everything.

I know this all sounds alarmist. But these kinds of preparations are vital for people who live in areas that have funky weather. Take the end of the world as we know it (TEOTWAWKI) scenarios out of the picture entirely if it makes you feel better. Just think about how much this would help your family in the event of disaster.

In the course of my research for EDGE, the site I liked the most was SurvivalCache.com. Joel and the crew are rational, competent people who have put together a valuable resource for the average Joe's in the world who don't have military training in survival. They have some incredible lists of important things to think about for your emergency preparedness plan, like this 3 day emergency basic primer: 7 Types of Gear Needed for Your Bug Out Bag. And this guide from Last One Alive is excellent and practical.

Whether it's something precious that you simply can't live without or something vital that you can't live without, I urge you to take a look around at these sites and think about your disaster plan. It will let you sleep easier at night. Trust me.

July Newsletter

July 2012, Volume XIV

Hello friends,

Is it hot enough for you? Nashville has been sweltering the past week, and you know it’s only going to get worse. So sit back, relax, and dig into a good book! I have a few to recommend to you this month — Jeff Abbott’s second Sam Capra, THE LAST MINUTE, Alex Kava’s latest Maggie O’Dell, FIREPROOF, and Catherine Coulter’s new Savich and Sherlock FBI thriller, BACKFIRE. That should load up your ereaders and bookbags for a few weeks!

Speaking of Catherine, we were just hanging out last week, talking about how similarly we write, and how much fun it would be to brainstorm on a project. So brainstorm we did. She’s truly wonderful; if you haven't read her yet, get thee to the bookstore! And I’ll let you know what happens...

A couple of housekeeping notes — the newsletter is going to be coming out monthly now, and there is a new monthly contest on my site! Prizes will rotate on the first of the month, and this time, it’s a signed copy of LOVE IS MURDER. You can enter here. June's winner is Debbie Lord - Debbie, your signed copy of A DEEPER DARKNESS is on its way.

EDGE OF BLACK releases December 1

Samantha Owens is back, and boy does she have her hands full now. Here’s a little sneak peek about the book for you:

The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides

Dr. Samantha Owens is starting over: new city, new job, new man, new life. She's trying to put some distance between herself and the devastating loss of her husband and children-but old hurts leave scars.

Before she's even unpacked her office at Georgetown University's forensic pathology department, she's called to consult on a case that's rocked the capital and the country. An unknown pathogen released into the Washington Metro has caused nationwide panic. Three people died-just three.

A miracle and a puzzle...

Amid the media frenzy and Homeland Security alarm bells, Sam painstakingly dissects the lives of those three victims and makes an unsettling conclusion. This is no textbook terrorist causing mayhem with broad strokes, but an artist wielding a much finer, more pointed instrument of destruction. An assassin, whose motive is deeply personal and far from understandable.

Xander Whitfield, a former Army Ranger and Sam's new boyfriend, knows about seeing the world in shades of gray. About feeling compelled to do the wrong thing for the right reasons. Only his disturbing kinship with a killer can lead Sam to the truth...and once more into the line of fire.

How does that sound? Intrigued yet? If you are, you can pre-order your copy now at your favorite retailer.

Amazon Barnes & Noble IndieBound
News

Great news to report on a couple of fronts. I’ve just agreed to three more Samantha Owens novels. I know many of you are wondering about Taylor and Baldwin, and I promise I will be getting back to their story eventually. They have more adventures ahead. In the meantime, if you need a Taylor fix, you can read SLICES OF NIGHT, a novella I did with Erica Spindler and Alex Kava that features a Taylor short, Blood Sugar Baby.

And more good news — SLICES OF NIGHT just sold Polish rights, so it’s beginning an international journey. Very fun times for us.

I’ve also got a story in the LOVE IS MURDER Anthology called THE NUMBER OF MAN. It’s an incredible array of authors, another surefire winner.

And I’ve just become a Writerspace author, which means lots of cool stuff. We’re having a beach party on July 15, with a massive group chat, so come by and say hello! I’ll be there around 8:00 central time to chat with you. There are prizes galore from your favorite authors, so be sure to check it out.

Tours

Summer is conference season. I’m sad that I won’t be at Thrillerfest this year, but thrilled to be attending RWA nationals in Anaheim. With WHERE ALL THE DEAD LIE up for a Rita^® in Romantic Suspense, I know it’s going to be an amazing week. And we might even grab a couple of baseball games while we’re there. I’m also teaching at SEAK on Cape Cod in August, and doing all my usual vacation stuff, so it’s going to be insanity. Good insanity.

July’s Recipe

Here’s a winner from one of my faves, La Cucina Italiana, for the perfect fresh and easy summer shrimp.

Shrimp, prosciutto and scallion skewers (spiedini di gamberi)

Ingredients:

• 2/3 cup dry white wine


• 1/2 teaspoon curry powder


• 16 large shrimp, peeled and deveined


• 8 scallions


• Fine sea salt


• Freshly ground black pepper


• 8 thin slices prosciutto


• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil plus more for grill

Directions:
Prepare a charcoal grill for direct-heat cooking over medium-hot charcoal (medium-high heat for gas).

In a medium bowl, whisk together wine and curry powder; add shrimp and let stand at room temperature for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, cut scallions in half, lengthwise, to make 16 pieces; season with salt and pepper. Cut prosciutto in half, lengthwise, to make 16 pieces; fold prosciutto pieces lengthwise, if necessary, to form a width of 1-inch.

Remove shrimp from marinade; discard marinade. Lightly season shrimp with salt and pepper. Wrap 1 prosciutto slice around the center of each shrimp. Folding scallions accordion-style into thirds, thread shrimp and scallions onto 8 skewers. Drizzle skewers with oil.

Grill skewers on lightly oiled grill rack, turning once halfway through, until shrimp are cooked through, about 5 minutes.

Social Butterfly

Facebook has a new trick up its sleeve—it wants me to pay to have my posts seen in your timeline feeds. So to get around that, if you want to see my updates there, please come to the reader page, hover your mouse over the Liked button, and check the box that says Show in my Newsfeed. Then, as an added bonus, leave a comment on the wall. Those few steps will assure that you see my updates. As always, you can stop by Tao of JT, Twitter (@thrillerchick) or Facebook to say hi.

Thank you so much for all your support! You mean to the world to me. See you on the road! And Happy 4th of July!

xoxo,