Sunday Smatterings

Hello and happy Sunday, everyone! I was just staring out my front door and there are some yellowing leaves on the redbud. I know it's only the beginning of August, and it's currently 90 degrees out, but I sense Autumn is about to make herself known. 

It's been a stellar week here -- we finished the first draft of THE LAST SECOND. This new Brit in the FBI novel is a doozy, and I know you're going to love it. We've been cooking up all sorts of surprises, and Nicholas and Mike are in serious trouble in this one. They are sort of trouble magnets, aren't they? Makes for a lot of fun dreaming up plots, that's for sure. 

This is the 21st time I've typed ### wearing my finishing armor, AKA my battered Harvard T-shirt. I am going to have to attack it with needle and thread before book 22 ends, as it's getting a wee bit worn around the edges. Why this particular shirt? I was wearing it the first time I ever finished a novel, at my parents house, over Christmas break, many moons ago. Ever since, I don it when I think the end is in sight. It keeps my spirits bolstered, keeps me pushing toward the end. It's a weird trick, I know, but like a baseball player who won't shave their beard or change their socks when they're winning, I've learned the importance of respecting a streak.

I spent some time watching the awesome blood moon eclipse, too. Sadly, I had to watch online, but it was glorious. More on that to come, as it might feature in the new book....

Since I have to get back to revising, let's get on to the links!

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Here's what happened on the Internets this week: 

Bruna Papandrea’s Made Up Stories & Endeavor Content Developing Karin Slaughter’s Novel ‘Pieces Of Her’ For TV; Lesli Linka Glatter To Direct. Brilliant news! Karin's books are always brilliant and inventive. She never flinches, and I respect that about her so much. Seeing this come to life on the screen will be incredible.

How to Make This the Summer of Missing Out. I fully endorse JOMO! I regularly take social media sabbaticals, this takes it a step further. It's time to be more present, peeps.

5 Super Relatable Ways Authors Are Just Like You. You might know one or two of these folks. 😉

9 Things People Accidentally Do That Make Their Mondays Unproductive. Easy fixes that will absolutely boost your productivity! This isn't just for Mondays -- it's for every day.

Shakespeare as told through 'Game of Thrones' GIFs is unsurprisingly hilarious. This is incredible! I swear, the creativity out there never ceases to amaze me.

A taste of the nation’s most popular restaurants. I have three of these under my belt—how about you?

Cartoonist Colleen Doran on Productivity, Procrastination, and Setting Boundaries for Focus. If you don’t have the Freedom app, you don’t know what you’re missing. And by that I mean -- what could you be creating? 

Want Enormous Success? Immediately Stop Doing What Everyone Else Is Doing. When they zig, you zag. This is especially good advice for new writers. Don't write to the market. Don't write what's popular. Write what you're passionate about, what you can't stop thinking about. Make a new trend. 

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And closer to home:

Deal alert! ALL THE PRETTY GIRLS, the first book in my Taylor Jackson series, is on sale for $1.99! 

Some secrets should stay buried.

When a local girl falls prey to a sadistic serial killer, Nashville Homicide Lieutenant Taylor Jackson and her lover, FBI profiler Dr. John Baldwin, find themselves in a joint investigation pursuing a vicious murderer. The Southern Strangler is slaughtering his way through the Southeast, leaving a gruesome memento at each crime scene -- the prior victim's severed hand.

Ambitious TV reporter Whitney Connolly is certain the Southern Strangler is her ticket out of Nashville; she's got a scoop that could break the case. She has no idea how close this story really is -- or what it will cost her.

As the killer spirals out of control, everyone involved must face a horrible truth -- that the purest evil is born of private lies.

The reviews are coming in...

I can't believe TEAR ME APART is almost here!!!!!! I'm so honored to be getting some awesome trade reviews. We've finalized the tour, as well, you can take a gander here. I hope I get to visit with some of you out on the road!

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That's all for now! Send someone you haven't talked to in a while a letter, dance around your living room, buy yourself a good luck T-shirt, and I'll see you next week!

peace and hugs,
J.T.

Sunday Smatterings

Happy Sunday, everyone! I busted out of the writing cave for a weekend getaway to celebrate my darling husband's birthday. As I am *this* close to finishing a draft of the new book, it was wonderful to take off for a couple of days, take in a baseball game (Go Dodgers!), have a stellar meal and a nice bottle of wine, and for once, not be staring at my screen. With all the date changes and deadline shifting that's gone on the past 18 months, I've been running with my hair on fire. But there was no way I was going to miss spending a couple of quiet days with my sweetie. Happy birthday, Randy! 🎂 🎁 🎉

The thrillerkittens have been giving me fits, too. Jordan had a scratch or bite that got infected and wouldn't heal, and after a few tries, we had to put her in a onesie so she'd leave it alone. If you are ever blue, or having a bad day, a cat in a onesie will solve all your ills. She's like a little beat poet in her turtleneck; I want to put black glasses on her and hand her a cigarette. (I'm laughing as I write this and she knew it, so now the beat poet is purring in my lap.) Jameson, not to be outdone, has been doing everything she can to draw attention away from her sister. Trust me when I say Feliway Multicat is a good thing.

I'm actually enjoying these last couple of writing weeks as the deadline looms. All the craziness aside, the research for this book has been really fun, and now that the words are on the page, I'm not nearly as stressed. Keep sending me good juju; we're only a couple of weeks out!

So with that, I will leave you to the links! On to the latest and greatest book world buzz!

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Here's what happened on the Internets this week: 

‘A Discovery Of Witches’: Sundance Now & Shudder To Stream Sky’s Drama Series. AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!! And American release! I can't wait! 🧛‍♂️ 

Sugar, Spice, and Ruthlessness: What Unconventional YA Heroines Are Made Of. “Giving anger its rightful place in girls' lives is long overdue. Screw likable. I want my heroines determined, relentless, even vicious.” This is a fabulous piece. It's not the female rage we've been hearing so much of...its female complexity, which is so much fun. I've always tried to write complex, exceptional women. Do they get angry, spout off? Sure. They wouldn't be real otherwise. This is how you make a your female characters intense without toppling over into caricature.

Turns out you can't hack everything. "Because real living isn’t about a shortcut. You have to experience things and get through them, and enjoy the process and the added hands on learning that you’ll pick up along the way." A superb article on why we shouldn't be taking so many shortcuts. I'm in!

Obsession, Identity, and the New Thriller - A New Wave of Thrillers Redefines Women's Roles and Desires. Another fascinating, insightful piece. I love that we're having these conversations again.

The 7 Things Everyone Needs to Get Rid Of to Be Instantly Happier. This is not your average decluttering list and we would be wise to heed its wisdom. 

A Mad Woman on Fire: On Sylvia Plath and Female Rage. I do love seeing Plath get credit for her work instead of her demise. Nicely done, Megan Abbott. Also, don't be offset by the female rage moniker, that's not really what this is. It's complexity again, just with a darker bent.

John Williams' early life: How a NoHo kid and UCLA Bruin became the movie music man. I am a huge John Williams fan. I write to so many of his original scores it's wild. I loved reading how he started, and his incredible work ethic.

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And closer to home:

I'm so excited that my new release date means I get to go to Bouchercon! This is one of my favorite conferences and I'm thrilled to be going again. And my panel is going to be a blast. What a lineup! A.C. Frieden made this fantastic graphic for our panel at Bouchercon 2018. Put it on your calendars!

Those of you who have been keeping an eye on the Events page may have seen some additions this week. I'm so excited to share I'll be heading to Murder By The Book in Houston August 30. And I'm excited to launch TEAR ME APART with my fellow Nashvillians at Parnassus Books August 29. Please let me know if you'll be stopping by!

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That's all for now! Summer is almost over. Go buy some pencils, luxuriate in the heat, do something today just for you–a book, a sweet treat, a bath–something to help you decompress, and I'll see you next week!

peace and hugs,
J.T.

STORIES OF THE NIGHT and New Offerings From Two Tales Press

In a month filled with new release news, here's some more. As promised, the audio of STORIES OF THE NIGHT is on sale! It is a fantastically read collection, and it was an utter joy to collaborate with Courtney Parker and Basil Sands.

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STORIES OF THE NIGHT
(Print, Digital, Audio)

In case you missed it, in addition to audio, so many of you have asked for a print option for my short stories, I listened. This hefty collection features 2 shorts (Gray Lady, Lady Gray and Catwood) and 2 novellas (The Endarkening and The Omen Days), and a sneak peek of LIE TO ME. So however you like to read, there’s a format especially for you.

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NO ONE KNOWS - UK, Australia, Commonwealth version, German translation
(Print and Digital)

This is my first foray into publishing an actual novel, and I’ve been very excited by the response, especially in Germany. Having a book translated isn’t cheap, but if it continues to move copies, I may look at a few more translations in countries in which I sell well traditionally, especially French and Dutch. 

The book has a slightly different ending than its US counterpart, as well, so added bonus for you!

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DEAD ENDS: Stories from the Gothic South
(Print, Digital, Audio)

And it wouldn't be a post about short stories if I didn't mention the first anthology published by Two Tales! Featuring 13 southern gothic tales all centering around a single house, it’s a winner of a collection, with superb stories from a lot of my awesome writer friends. And it’s also now available in a fabulous audiobook edition, read by Courtney Parker. 

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There’s more to come from Two Tales this fall, including a major secret project I am chomping at the bit to announce. Soon, lovelies, soon….

Thank you for supporting my work, as always, and the work of these talent artists. It means the world to me! 

Sunday Smatterings

A voluminous Sunday hello! Yes, I'm in a very good mood. Much is happening in JT land–most of which can't be discussed just yet–but soon, chickens, soon. Most importantly, there are words. So many words. All week, they've chased me about the house until I capture them and commit them to the page. THE LAST SECOND is growing by the day, stampeding toward the mid-August deadline. Wish me luck it all keeps up!

Since it's July, it's time for assessing goals. I've done a brief check through my 2018 plans and so far, I'm right on track. I did make a major adjustment to my book reading plans. I'd hoped for 80, as I've done in years past, but since I've already read 58 and am in the middle of 59 and 60, I felt safe revising my estimate up to 100. If I can write two books and read 100, I call it a successful year. Adding in audiobooks did exactly what I hoped: Upped my totals. I can listen to a book while walking, doing chores, and also read a book at night and over breakfast. Wow, am I immersed in story! The best way to be–reading has always been an escape for me.

Interested in what I've been reading, and what's to come soon? Come on by Goodreads and take a gander. Yes, I do have 945 books on my TBR. Yes, I own 90% of them. Yes, I have a LOT of bookshelves and a couple of devices to handle them all. Am I a happy girl? YES!

I've just realized we're only 5 weeks from the launch of TEAR ME APART, so some brief housekeeping: Tour will be less concentrated this year since the book's release date changed. We're updating the Events page as we get confirmed dates. For you Nashvillians, I do hope you'll join me August 29th at Parnassus for the official launch. More to come!

Without further adieu, let's take a look at the latest and greatest book world buzz!

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Here's what happened on the Internets this week: 

25 Breakthrough Books of 2018 (So Far.) I have SO MANY of these on my TBR...Children of Blood & Bone, The Kiss Quotient, The Hazel Wood... Someone send me Hermione's time turner, would you?

The State of the Thriller: A Roundtable - International Thriller Writer Nominees Weigh In On The Genre. Some great stuff in here... and many congratulations to the winners of the Thriller awards this past weekend. I was so sorry to miss Thrillerfest this year. Never again!

'Colette' Trailer: Keira Knightley Fights for Literary Ownership in Feminist Period Drama. Well, this movie about French Nobel Prize-nominated author Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette looks incredible! I adore Kiera Knightley, but I also love seeing the women behind the men. 

Cry, Heart, But Never Break: A Remarkable Illustrated Meditation On Loss And Life. A lovely treatise on our greatest fear. I want to recommend this to anyone suffering right now.

What I Learned from Spending My 20s Working in the White House. "I spent so much of my twenties fearing I was falling behind. Yes, I ended up at the White House, but even at the epicenter of power, I was not remotely close to chasing my own dream of writing. Except that I was, I just didn’t realize that the writing I did in the morning and in the margins of my job would be what landed me right in the middle of my biggest dream."

The Ultimate List of Books to Read While Traveling. LOVE posts that give a good book to read in a foreign setting. Anytime I travel, I immerse myself in books about the area. I especially love reading Regency-era London books, then trying to imagine the city without all the steel and noise. 

What Is a Southern Writer, Anyway? Another thought-provoking piece by Margaret Renkl!

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And closer to home:

A DEEPER DARKNESS, the first book in my Samantha Owens series, has a new ebook cover, and I absolutely LOVE it. This is the first time the cover really evokes the story perfectly. If you don't know the story behind my Samantha Owens series, you might enjoy reading this post about how it came to be. 

Download the eBook

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DARK AND TWISTED READS, a new book compilation, is three novels in a single book that also came out this week. It features ALL THE PRETTY GIRLS, by yours truly, A PERFECT EVIL by Alex Kava, and BONE COLD by Erica Spindler. This is a perfect grouping of books. If you’ve read me, but not Erica or Alex, you’re in for a major treat!

Get your copy

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STORIES OF THE NIGHT is now available on audio! 

*A writer finds a cave keeping a dark secret for nearly a century.

*A ghost in a Scottish castle seeks blood on a wedding day.

*A student abroad loses herself in a dreamy art dealer and his dark painting.

*An undercover cop searches for the lover who’s haunted him for years.

These four stories reveal what happens when we allow ourselves to step toward the darkness—only to discover we are alone, with no escape.

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And did you see Goodreads has another TEAR ME APART giveaway? 25 people will get Advance Reader Copies. Good luck!

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That's all for now! Follow your favorite author on social media, cut some hydrangea for your counter, and give a favorite book a re-read. See you next week!

peace and hugs,
J.T.

A DEEPER DARKNESS has a new look!

A DEEPER DARKNESS has a new ebook cover, and I absolutely LOVE it. I think this is the first time the cover really evokes the story perfectly. Since many of you are new to me, and don't know the story behind my Samantha Owens series, I thought I'd share her inception with you.

WARNING: If you haven't read the Taylor series, there's a major spoiler ahead, so you may want to avoid this one. 

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Adapted from original post in 2012

Several months ago, my team and I made a decision to let Taylor take a long vacation, and focus on a new lead character, Dr. Samantha Owens. Sam is Taylor's best friend, and Nashville's head medical examiner. She features prominently in all the books, but she hasn't had her own tale, not yet.

Suffice it to say, starting a new series was scary for me. After seven (eight, including FIELD OF GRAVES, which wasn't yet published) books with the same lead character, I was in a groove. I knew how every character 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 challenge 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. (It's on the A DEEPER DARKNESS playlist.) 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. Yes, she's overwhelmed with OCD that manifests in excess hand-washing. Yes, she won't autopsy drownings. Yes, she runs away from her pain, starting a new life. But there are seeds of hope scattered throughout her story. Seeds of possibility.

Ironically, without realizing it, I was unwittingly writing my own story. My husband and I struggled with infertility for a decade. Multiple pregnancies resulted in multiple miscarriages. IUIs and IVF didn’t solve the issue. 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 DARKNESS in galley form that I realized I’d used the book as therapy. All of Sam’s losses mirror 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 bits of myself on the page. And that’s possibly the most terrifying thing of all.

Download the eBook

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Whew! So now you know where my girl comes from. To celebrate our new look, I'm giving away one ebook. Enter on the Rafflecopter!

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