Lori’s Book Sense

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Welcome to this months edition of Lori’s Book Sense.
I hope you enjoy these great titles I’ve chosen for you this month.
15 Seconds by Andrew Gross ~ 15 seconds can tear your life apart . . .Henry Steadman didn’t know what was about to hit him when he pulled up to a red light. A successful Florida plastic surgeon, he is in town to deliver a keynote address at a conference when suddenly his life becomes an unrelenting chase to stay alive.

Stopped by the police for a minor traffic violation, the situation escalates and he is pulled from his vehicle, handcuffed and told he is under arrest. Several other police cars arrive and the questioning turns scary, but just as Henry is released and about to move on, a blue sedan pulls up and the officer is suddenly killed. As the car speeds away, there is only one suspect left behind–Henry. In that moment, his idyllic life becomes a free fall into hell as he becomes the target of a police manhunt, as well as being pursued by a cunning, unnamed perpetrator bent on some kind of vengeance.
When Henry turns to a close friend for help, and he, too, ends up dead, Henry realizes he’s being elaborately framed. But in a chilling twist, the stakes grow even darker, and he is unable to go to the police to clear his name, without bringing on dire and deadly consequences.
With breakneck pacing and nonstop action, 15 Seconds shows what can happen when even the best life is turned upside down in an instant. It is also the story of an innocent man, framed for murder, who has to save the person he loves the most, all while being drawn closer and closer to an inevitable face-to-face standoff with a man determined to destroy his life.
From Miami,
to Jacksonsonville, to Georgia, the race is on. 15 Seconds is the story of one
man’s unrelenting desire to mete out justice to those he feels destroyed his
daughter, without being able to see the real root of her problems and being
unable to lay the blame at the feet of those truly responsible.  It’s the story of another man’s desire to
prove his innocence, to find those that are framing him, and to find out why
they are doing so, and to do it all in time to stop a mad man from destroying
his entire world. Once you start 15 Seconds, there is no way you’ll be able to
put it down. You are sucked in from the very first page. The writing is intense,
the story fast-paced, and the action is non-stop. 15 Seconds is a
spine-chilling, edge-of-your-seat thrill ride that will keep you reading well
into the night. 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The Playdate by Louise Millar ~ In a quiet London suburb, a group of mothers relies on each other for friendship, favors, and gossip. But some of them shouldn’t be trusted, and others have dark secrets.
When Callie moved into her new neighborhood, she thought it would be easy to fit in. The other parents have been strangely hostile, though, and her frail daughter Rae is finding it impossible to make friends. Suzy, with her rich husband and her three energetic children, has been the only one to reach out, although their friendship has recently felt inexplicably strained. Now the police have suggested that someone dangerous may be living in their neighborhood, and the atmosphere feels even more toxic. Then there’s the matter of Callie’s ex-husband, and the shocking truth behind their divorce . . . a truth that she would do anything to hide.

The Playdate
will cause you to rethink each and every one of your friendships. How well do
you know the woman who’s been watching your child every day after school? Will
you be so quick to cast stones because of something you heard second hand from
someone else? This book will not only have you questioning every single one of
your friendships, but you will also make you stop and think about whom it is
that you can truly trust.  The answer may
very well surprise you.

It’s hard to
believe that The Playdate is the debut thriller for author Louise Millar.  The writing is taut, the action slow building,
the emotions intense, and the climax explosive, making it a must read for all. 

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Gun Games by Faye Kellerman ~ Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus are back in this gripping mystery involving a secret cabal of some of Los Angeles’ most wealthy—and vicious—teens

LAPD lieutenant detective Decker and his wife, Rina, have willingly welcomed fifteen-year-old Gabriel Whitman, the son of a troubled former friend, into their home. While the enigmatic teen seems to be adapting easily, Decker knows only too well the secrets adolescents keep—witnessed by the tragic suicide of another teen, Gregory Hesse, a student at Bell and Wakefield, one of the city’s most exclusive prep schools.

Gregory’s mother, Wendy, refuses to believe her son shot himself and convinces Decker to look deeper. What he finds disturbs him. The gun used in the tragedy was stolen—evidence that propels him to launch a full investigation with his trusted team, Sergeant Marge Dunn and Detective Scott Oliver. But the case becomes darkly complicated by the suicide of another Bell and Wakefield student—a death that leads them to uncover an especially nasty group of rich and privileged students with a predilection for guns and violence. Decker thought he understood kids, yet the closer he and his team get to the truth, the clearer it becomes that he knows very little about them, including his own charge, Gabe. The son of a gangster and an absent parent, the boy has had a life filled with too much free time, too many unexplained absences, and too little adult supervision.

Before it’s over, the case and all its terrifying ramifications will take Decker and his detectives down a dark alley of twisted allegiances and unholy alliances, culminating at a heart-stopping point of no return.

Gun Games is an intense story that
will lead you into the inner workings of the teenage minds; the minds of those
in love, and the minds of those who hurt without feeling, and the secrets that
they keep. For readers who have experienced forbidden teenage love you will
find yourself rooting for Gabe & Yasmine to find a way to be open with
their love, but you may also remember what it was like to lie and deceive those
that trusted you.  Ms. Kellerman has the
skilled ability to bring her readers right into the pages of her book so that
you feel as if you are experiencing everything right along with characters
themselves. Gun Games is an intense story that will grab you from page one, and
hold you right up to the mesmerizing conclusion.

Time Management for Writers

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by  Linda Rodriquez

In my former life, I ran a very
successful university women’s center. I was famous for my time management and
organizational skills—and not just on campus. I was fairly well-known in Kansas
City because of the many public programs I organized and led and the numerous
organizations with which I collaborated and partnered. People often remarked
that they couldn’t understand how I could keep track of so many events and
activities and accomplish so many things.

I was extremely organized,
and my family and I lived and died by my DayTimer. That was part of the answer,
but the other, hidden part was the number of nights I stayed up until 3:00
a.m., finishing some project before getting up again at 5:30 a.m. to put myself
together and attend an early breakfast event or meeting to start my workday of
10-12 hours. Eventually, when I developed several serious autoimmune disorders
I could no longer keep up that kind of schedule.
Now, I write for a living. Writing
is my job, as running the women’s center once was. But I seem to have lost all
those fabulous time management and organizational skills. Not only do we no
longer live and die by my DayTimer in this family, I’d be hard put to lay my
hands on it. After several years of serious and scary debility before doctors
diagnosed and found proper treatment for me, my house has never been the same,
smooth-running, well-organized place it once was. Some things I regularly did
to keep it humming along I can simply no longer physically accomplish.
My biggest problem in the time
management area is managing to balance the writing of books with all the online
and in-person promotion of books that is required of us today. If I overdo
building the “platform” my publisher would like to see, my writing time
suffers, but if I don’t do enough of the promotion, my sales suffer. I don’t
have an answer, but I’ve learned to make writing the first thing I do in my
work hours. Once I ensure that my current book-in-progress is going well, I can
schedule in promotion activities for the rest of my time. When I follow that
simple principle, I feel that my writing life is in balance. When I get
sidetracked and don’t, I begin to feel out of whack and overwhelmed.
What are your tips? How do you
manage your writing and promotion time? How do you organize your life to keep
that balance? Or don’t you?

Mimicking Life?

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by Bethany Maines

A few weeks ago I posted a photo on my FB page that said, “If you
were in my novel, I’d have killed you off by now.” I’d like to say that was a
joke, but the unfortunate part (for everyone else) of being a writer is that I
really do use a large chunks of life for my writing. I just don’t use the parts
people think I’m going to… or should.
Over the years I’ve had several people offer me “really
great” suggestions about what to include in a novel and I’ve taken absolutely
none of them. What I have taken, or pilfered, as the case may be, are people’s
stories, experience, and random bits of dialogue. Don’t tell me that pine
needle basket weaving is a skill you keep up in case of the zombie apocalypse
if you don’t want that included in a piece of Maines fiction. Don’t invent
clever catch phrases about basic life principles if you don’t want them written
down (I’m looking at you Dad aka Ray “Lugnut Rule” Maines).
But when it comes to using an actual person, I try not to do
that. For one thing, I know some pretty complex people and capturing them in
fiction sounds hard.  And for
another… I’m mean.  I really will
kill people off, or worse.  I made
one of my favorite characters the villain in my first novel what do you think
I’d do to someone that annoyed me in real life.  Next thing you know, snooty waitress, you’re going to be a
drug mule for an incompetent Norwegian drug lord and TSA will be all up in yer
bidness.
That’s not to say I’ve never done it, but it seems like
those “characters” never make the final cut; they get edited out before the
final draft.  I think it’s because
fictional revenge might be fun, but it doesn’t make a good story. It’s hard to
draft a solid plot around the impulse to bash an acquaintance in the head,
unless the plot is “writer kills client who looks like Toad from Wind in theWillows.”
But that got me to thinking, if I was going to put someone
in a novel, who should it be?  My
grandmother? My business partner? The annoying neighbor with the miniature
horse? Or the highly suspicious old dudes across the street who might be running a chop
shop?  Who would you put in a
novel?

SKATING ON THE EDGE – ARC Giveaway

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By: Joelle Charbonneau

Happy Tuesday!
If you’re like me, you’re amazed that the summer months have
flown by so quickly.  How can August
already be next week?  I mean…didn’t the
summer just begin.  Yes, I know that
summer technically ends in September, but really, the beginning of school marks
the end of the summer experience even if the calendar doesn’t technically
agree.  Face it–I’m not ready to see
back-to-school supplies in the stores and everything that implies.  The end of summer means the beginning of my
son’s first 5 day a week school adventure. 
It also means 2 different book deadlines for me (eek!) and lots of work
with my high school senior voice students as we get them ready for college
auditions.
Those are all good things, but I am not ready for any of
them to happen.  I am in a total state of
denial.
However, one thing that I am eagerly anticipating after
summer’s end is the release of the next Rebecca Robbins novel!  (I also need to finish writing the 4th
Rebecca Robbins book…but I’m not going to think about that.  Today, I am the queen of denial!)  Since I’ve always felt that Rebecca and
company are great beach reads, I am going to celebrate the fact we still have
several weeks of summer left by giving away an ARC of SKATING ON THE EDGE.  It is the third Rebecca book, features the
Toe Stop roller derby team, EstroGenocide, and thus far is my favorite in the
series.  (Although, I might say the same
when I’m done with Skating Under The Wire. 
Only time will tell.)
So….here’s the deal. 
If you would like to celebrate summer with a signed advance reader copy
of SKATING ON THE EDGE, leave a comment on this post.  Next Monday, I’ll draw a winner and ship off
the copy of Skating On The Edge to the winner so they can find a patch of sand,
rub on some suntan oil and enjoy the last days of summer with Rebecca and
friends.
(Oct. 2nd, Minotaur Books)
 
 Rebecca Robbins, owner of the Toe Stop roller-skating rink, is back, this time
joined by a tough and sassy roller derby team, and she has a new puzzling murder
to solve.

It’s Native American Summer Days in Indian Falls, and Rebecca
is roped into taking a turn in the Senior Center dunk tank. That is, until her
rhinestone-studded grandfather, Pop, needs help setting up his Elvis act.
Minutes from climbing into the tank, Rebecca has to find a replacement, and
roller derby girl Sherlene-n-Mean is delighted to fit the bill—until she’s
dunked, electrocuted, and killed. It’s obvious that this was no accident.
Someone rigged the tank, but who was the intended target? Sherlene-n-Mean or
Rebecca?

With a list of suspects in hand and Pop cheering her on, Rebecca
starts asking questions. Who disliked Sherlene-n-Mean enough to kill her? Could
a father really be capable of murdering his own daughter for money? Why has the
bowling alley owner suddenly decided to call a truce and offer Rebecca his
assistance? Who was Sherlene-n-Mean? Did her mysterious past catch up
with her and get her killed or was she a victim of circumstance? Aided by a trio
of self-appointed bodyguard derby girls and caught between Deputy Sean and her
sometimes-boyfriend Lionel, Rebecca digs for answers, dodges bullets, and races
to find a killer before the killer strikes again.

Time Flies When You’re Having fun

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By Evelyn David

I love Mark Twain. I was thinking of writing a blog on
procrastination and found his thoughts on the matter: Never put off until
tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow.

Of course, finding clever quotations is one of my favorite
forms of procrastination, so there you have it.

When we first began The Stiletto Gang (five years next
January!), I wrote a blog about playing Free Cell, http://tinyurl.com/freecellblog. It
was all about procrastination, guilt, and the writer’s spirit.

You’ll be glad to know I haven’t played Free Cell in at
least three years.

But have you ever played Lexulous? It’s a Scrabble-type game
and I justify playing it by saying it improves my vocabulary. The problem is I
now know a plethora of new words (and by the way I knew the word plethora
before playing Lexulous) – but I have no idea what they mean. Za? Wo? Xi?

Anyway, I was feeling guilty again (and we all, by all I mean family,
friends, and even complete strangers, agree that Guilt is Marian’s middle name).
Tempus Fugit, etc.

But then I had this conversation with a friend which
suddenly made my playing Lexulous not only perfectly acceptable, but in fact,
part of the creative process. She explained that when she confronted her husband about his playing Backgammon online (and I do think that is a classier game than Lexulous), he said that while he plays, it may look like he’s wasting time, but actually it frees his mind to wander and see things in new, creative ways. She assured me that since I was a “creator,” I too had permission to play Lexulous for hours at a time.
Okay, she didn’t actually suggest that I could play for hours at a time — but it did give me the permission I needed to indulge in a little wordplay. It’s probably how War and Peace got written.
I then got to thinking about the larger issue. Why did I need permission in order to procrastinate? Was I worried that people would think I was a goof off? (And the answer is yes, I was worried about that). But generally speaking I’m not frustrated by the pace of my life. I get the important things done. Sure I’d like to write a new mystery in four weeks, but to a certain extent, I can’t push my whodunnit muse until she’s ready to move. Yes, sometimes it helps to put something down on paper, anything, and then revise. Sometimes it’s just the spark you need to get things underway. But often, you need time, uninterrupted time, to let your mind explore new, exciting ways to create devilish murder and mayhem.
So if you see me tapping away at my computer, it may indeed be the next Brianna or Maggie or Mac mystery — or it could be me letting my mind wander.
What’s your favorite form of procrastination?
Marian, the Northern half of Evelyn David 

Zoned for Murder – Kindle (Exclusive at Amazon this month)
Trade Paperback


Brianna Sullivan Mysteries – e-book series
I Try Not to Drive Past Cemeteries- Kindle – Nook – Smashwords
The Dog Days of Summer in Lottawatah- Kindle – Nook – Smashwords
The Holiday Spirit(s) of Lottawatah- Kindle – Nook – Smashwords
Undying Love in Lottawatah- Kindle – Nook – Smashwords
A Haunting in Lottawatah – Kindle – Nook – Smashwords
Lottawatah Twister – Kindle – Nook – Smashwords
Missing in Lottawatah – Kindle – Nook – Smashwords
Good Grief in Lottawatah – Kindle – Nook – Smashwords

The Ghosts of Lottawatah – trade paperback collection of the Brianna e-books
Book 1 – I Try Not to Drive Past Cemeteries (includes the first four Brianna e-books)
Book 2 – A Haunting in Lottawatah (includes the 5th, 6th, and 7th Brianna e-books)

Sullivan Investigations Mystery
Murder Off the Books Kindle – Nook – Smashwords – Trade Paperback
Murder Takes the Cake Kindle – Nook – Smashwords – Trade Paperback
Riley Come Home (short story)- Kindle – Nook – Smashwords
Moonlighting at the Mall (short story) – Kindle – Nook – Smashwords

Romances
Love Lessons – Kindle – Nook – Smashwords

No Pause Button

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No Pause Button
By Laura Bradford

As most of you probably already know by now, Stiletto Gang Alum Susan McBride gave birth to the beautiful Miss Emily three weeks ago. Thanks to the internet, we were able to see her first picture and feel as if we were, in some way, part of this precious little girl’s debut into the world.

Likewise, over the past few months, we’ve been given a window into Maggie’s world and the very different stage she finds herself in where her daughter is concerned. For her, the first baby picture has morphed into the high school graduation photos and the unchartered waters of college orientation.

On a day to day basis, the Miss Emily years don’t seem to go all that fast. But then, somehow, you’re in Maggie’s stage in the blink of an eye. The very misty blink of an eye, I might add.

Honestly, I couldn’t have enjoyed my girls’ baby years more than I did. I didn’t tv-watch the days away. I didn’t waste our moments together texting. Instead, I played with them…held them…treasured them…read to them. I was with them twenty-four/seven and loved every moment of that time. Yet even with all that time, it went fast. Too fast.

Suddenly, I find myself looking around thinking, how did that happen? How did Dear Daughter #1 get from that moment on the baby scale when the screen read: 6 pounds, 12 ounces, to where she is now–a high school student getting ready to enter her senior year?  How did Dear Daughter #2 go from running around in her little yellow Pooh Bear dress to having braces and going off to sleepover parties?

I was there.

I watched the changes happening before my eyes.

Yet somehow I’m still not sure how I got from Point A to Point B so quickly.

~Laura

What I Learned at Orientation

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What I Learned at Orientation
I just spent a
few days at child #1’s college orientation, desperately trying to fit in with
the cool kids (the other parents) so that I wouldn’t have to eat alone in the
dining hall.  But this whole post begs a
question:  for those of you who went away
to college, did you have an orientation? 
Was it three days in July or two hours before class started in late
August?  Did your parents attend?  Did they even want to?
I joke with my daughter that yes, my parents did drive me to
Orientation and upon our arrival on campus, slowed the car down just enough so
that I could grab my belongings out of the trunk—encased in black plastic
garbage bags—and head into the dorm to figure out where my room was, who my
roommate was and if this was even the right school.  Yes, they waved lovingly as they drove off in
search of the local steak house where they would have the last meal they would
ever eat in a restaurant, at least until they got the four of us through
college.
Orientation today is different, part summer camp, part boot
camp.  I think it’s great for kids who
have chosen a college based only on one formal tour and perhaps a drive through
at a different time; there really is no way to get a feel for what it will be
like to go to college and live away from home unless you do an intense dry run
in which you stay in the dorms and are thrown together with a diverse group of
people who you may never have met in your regular life but with whom you will
now be living and learning, and hopefully playing a little bit.  (But just a little bit.  College does not come cheap these days.)  Husband and I chose not to stay in the dorms
as some other parents did, as we are close enough—and far enough away—to have
commuted back and forth to Orientation. 
Did we learn anything we didn’t already know?  Maybe not. 
But we made some good friends in the other parents, one of whom I will
be having dinner with in a few weeks, and we had a chance to be voyeurs and see
our kids in their new environment with their new classmates and friends.
Although it is presumably for the students, there is a
strong parent component running through the program and while husband and I
chose not to participate in a lot of it (parent lip-synching anyone? Can you
think of a quicker way for your child to die an immediate social death?) we did
stay for the important stuff, like residence life and the financial talk.  We only caught glimpses of child #1 as she
processed from one activity to the other and in those few moments, we
ascertained that she had 1) made friends and 2) seemed to be enjoying
herself.  As far as I was concerned,
Orientation was a success.
When I posted about this on Facebook, I got a variety of
responses ranging from “My parents wouldn’t leave my dorm room for hours on
move-in day!” to “Your parents dropped you off? 
Mine sent me on the bus” which is a testament to the diversity in styles
that existed in the old days when I and my friends went to school.  These days, it would seem, parents want to be
involved from morning until night if some of the talks we heard were any
indication.  Many of them centered around
tips for dealing with separation—not child from parents but parent from child!
Times have certainly changed; rather than parents longing for the day when they
will be empty nesters—and we still have five years to achieve that goal—they now
long for the time when their kids were still small and living at home.  I don’t know; I guess I fall somewhere in
between.  I remember college being as one
of the most rewarding and enriching times of my life; every wonderful thing
that has happened to me can be traced back to my time there.  It was a time when the world really opened up
to me and I started to figure out my place in it.  I hope the same is true for my confident,
smart, and successful daughter, who clearly doesn’t have as far to go as I did
at her age but will more than likely do great things.
And that’s something I already knew before I went to
Orientation.
Maggie Barbieri

The Writers Life…and Life

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Last week was both full of what would go under the heading of the writers life–and plenty under the heading of just life.

Right off the bat I have to tell you that I never ever write in my pajamas. I shower and dress first thing every morning, I’m going to be prepared for whatever happens that I didn’t plan on. One big thing I’ve learned over the years is that the plan for the day often goes awry.

I spent the first couple of days getting ready for our trip to Las Vegas and the Public Safety Writers Association’s annual conference. I’m the program chair so there are a things I need to make sure I’ve packed–as well as the right clothes and other necessities.

My publisher sent me the galley proof for my next Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery, Raging Water. Of course I took the time to go over it carefully and found plenty to be corrected. (No doubt those dang gremlins will get in there and add some other stuff.)

My daughter was supposed to come over Monday a.m. to dye my hair–you didn’t really think I was a natural redhead did you? (I have several in my family, but I’m not one of them.) I am holding off telling you the biggest news that comes  under the heading of Life.

At 5:30 a.m. I received a call from one of my grand daughters to let me know that her sister, Merenda, had given birth to the baby boy we’d all been expecting. Granddaughter who called, her daughter and her mom and dad were all at the hospital in Modesto–3 hours away from where we all live.

A little while later another call from my daughter to tell me the new mom wasn’t doing well, the doctors were having a problem controlling her bleeding. Daughter asked for prayers. I do the church’s email prayer list and put out a call for prayers for Merenda. I also put it on Facebook asking all prayer warriors on there to also pray. By the time the day was over nearly 50 people had  prayed or promised to do so.

We soon had good news, praise God, the doctors had found the problem and taken care of it. Merenda, the new mom, is doing much better.

Now that I”ve told you about all this, I’ll share a photo.

Daddy, baby, and big sis.
It’ll be awhile before I get to see this one in person. And by the way, he’s my 12th great-grandchild.
On Wednesday, we headed by car to Las Vegas, first to visit my sis then on to the PSWA conference which lasted until Sunday afternoon. Back to my sis’s, then home again on Monday. (A mixture of writing life and regular life.)
Oh, you want to know if I ever got my hair dyed? Hubby volunteered. That’s a whole other story, but my hair is dyed and it looks all right.
Sometimes my writing life and regular life are such a mixed up jumble, I’m never quite sure which is which. I would say, hopefully all will get back to normal, but normal around here is always full of surprises.
Marilyn