HUSH #Excerpt by KimberlyShursen @KimberlyShursen #AmReading #Suspense #Thriller

Dinkytown - 12:45 a.m.

Ann kicked off her sandals and closed the door to the third-floor apartment. Ben had been polite, hailed a cab, and not pushed to take her home. She liked him. There hadn’t been a lull in their two-hour conversation.

Many of the tenants in the older, all-brick building in Dinkytown were a part of the struggling arts group—most of them a few years younger than she and Jess. The location, however, was perfect. It was cheaper to ride a bus that dropped her off in front of Abbott Northwestern Hospital than own a car. Groceries, boutiques, and restaurants, as well as Lake Calhoun and Harriett, were all within walking distance.

She walked to the kitchen, her feet killing her. With two newborns in incubators and another baby boy on life support, she was exhausted. Keeping a scrupulous eye over every newborn in the nursery was taxing.

When they’d moved in together, combining Jess’s modern taste with Ann’s more conservative look made for an eclectic ambiance. Jess’s poster of Warhol’s “Marilyn” hung next to Ann’s framed picture of a tranquil cottage surrounded by English gardens. Books, memorabilia, and trinkets filled the bookcase they’d put together using two-by-fours and paver bricks. A bright red, curved sectional took up most of the cozy living room and a cream-colored shag rug sat underneath an oval-shaped glass coffee table.

In her bedroom, she wiggled out of her jeans and tossed them on top on the silent radiator. She pulled on drawstring, cotton “bum-around” pants, and a T-shirt.

After she nabbed a bottle of water out of the refrigerator, she plopped down on the couch. Adjusting two pillows underneath her head, she found the remote and pulled the colorful afghan her mother had crocheted over her. Flipping through the channels, she stopped when she found Pretty Woman.

The rattle of pans woke her. Ann slid an arm out from underneath the blanket. “What time is it?” she asked, yawning.

“I was trying to be quiet and not wake you,” Jess said from the kitchen. “Almost eight.”

“You going in early?” Ann rubbed her eyes.

“Have to. Everything’s on sale and not even close to being marked down.”

Ann heard an egg crack and then the sizzle when it hit the frying pan. As manager of the Gap, Jess worked most weekends.

“What time you get in?” Ann put her feet on the floor, waited a couple of seconds, and stood. She shielded her eyes as she stumbled to the window and pulled down the shade to block the rising sun.

“I don’t know—around three maybe,” Jess said. “Want some eggs?”

Ann plopped back down on the couch. “Too early.”

Jess sat down on the opposite end of the couch and put the plate of scrambled eggs and toast on her lap. “You have fun?”

“I did.”

“The guy you met is dreamy.” Jess stabbed a fork into the eggs.

“Seems like a nice guy.”

“And you didn’t want to go to a bar last night,” Jess teased. “Look what you would have missed.”

“He’s a lawyer.”

Jess’s oval-shaped, green eyes grew wide. “A lawyer? Wow. You hit the jackpot.” She stuffed the last of the toast in her mouth, stood, and carried the plate into the kitchen.

“We have so much in common—kind of freaky.” Ann pushed her arms up over her head and stretched. “Family law. Does custody cases. Says he represents kids more than parents.” She wrapped the soft, cotton afghan around her and sank down into the sofa.

“So…you bring the babies into the world, and he protects them.”

Lost in her own thoughts, she didn’t hear what Jess said. “I keep thinking I’ve met him before.”

“Maybe you have. Maybe he had a sister who had a baby, and he came to into the hospital or something.” Her footsteps went down the hall. “Gonna see him again?”

“He’s picking me up this afternoon,” Ann said. “Says he’s thinking of buying a house and wants to take me by it.”

“Still against meeting guys in bars?” Jess asked as she walked down the hall to the door.

“Totally.”

Soon after Ann Ferguson and Ben Grable marry, and Ben unseals his adoption papers, their perfect life together is torn apart, sending the couple to opposite sides of the courtroom.

Representing Ann, lawyer Michael J. McConaughey (Mac) feels this is the case that could have far-reaching, judicial effects -- the one he's been waiting for.

Opposing counsel knows this high profile case happens just once in a lifetime.

And when the silent protest known as HUSH sweeps the nation, making international news, the CEO of one of the top ten pharmaceutical companies in the world plots to derail the trial that could cost his company billions.

Critically acclaimed literary thriller HUSH not only questions one of the most controversial laws that has divided the nation for over four decades, but captures a story of the far-reaching ties of family that surpasses time and distance.

*** Hush does not have political or religious content. The story is built around the emotions and thoughts of two people who differ in their beliefs.

 EDITORIAL REVIEW: "Suspenseful and well-researched, this action-packed legal thriller will take readers on a journey through the trials and tribulations of one of the most controversial subjects in society today." - Katie French, author of "The Breeders," "The Believer's," and "Eyes Ever To The Sky."

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Genre – Thriller

Rating – PG-13

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Connect with Kimberly Shursen through Facebook and Twitter

Website http://www.kimberlyshursen.com/

#ReviewShare #Mystery #Romance - Dance for a Dead Princess by Deborah Hawkins @DeborahHawk3

Dance for a Dead Princess by Deborah Hawkins
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Nothing capture’s a reader’s gentle heart more than romance and all that goes with it, and this book delivers well on that front. Throw in healthy dose of whodunit action, and Dance for a Dead Princess is a recipe for success.

Follow the lives of Nicholas Carey, Taylor Collins and a wonderful cast of supporting characters as Carey tries to find out who killed one of his best friends, Princess Diana. He has already lost one love – his wife – and is determined to set Diana’s killer on the path to redemption. Along the way, he meets Collins, a Wall Street attorney extraordinaire who says she has important information about Diana’s killer.

Together, they entangle themselves in a love story that spans across several centuries but also hits close to home as they look for Diana’s killer and stumble upon ancient secrets of past rulers that should have stay buried. Dance for a Dead Princess is well-written, beautifully eloquent and unravels a quick-paced tale that draws the reader like a moth to a flame. It’s definitely a summer read to keep nearby, as you won’t want to put it down!

Disclosure - As a Quality Reads UK Book Club member, I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. I received no monetary compensation for my book review. This book review is based on my thoughts, opinion and understanding of the book. This book review does not reflect the opinion of other book club members.




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#ReviewShare #Thriller #Action - Dangerous Past by A.F. Ebbers

Dangerous Past by A.F. Ebbers
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I'm not always 100% sold when I see book cover that it not appealing or has flaws but this book really did surprise me. It was a good action-thriller that kept me entertained and guessing on what would happen next.

Mr. Ebbers, the author has a very interesting writing style, old school but grounded and realistic. This is a story about a pilot, his enemies and the innocent people who are dragged into an elaborate but memorable plot.

For me, it was the unexpected things that kept happening from the first till the last page. In some ways, it did feel as if Frank was jinxed. I also liked the complexity of the characters. The author consistently developed more than one character, their ups and downs, mistakes they made in the past, accusations, corruption and etc.. Overall, definitely a must read.

Disclosure - As a Quality Reads UK Book Club member, I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. I received no monetary compensation for my book review. This book review is based on my thoughts, opinion and understanding of the book. This book review does not reflect the opinion of other book club members.


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#ReviewShare #Mystery #Romance - Treasure Me (Liberty, #1) @ChristineNolfi

Treasure Me by Christine Nolfi
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I am the author's 100th book review on Amazon and that is certainly an achievement. This wonderful book leaves you wanting to hop on the next bus to Liberty, if only it were that easy. You have those laugh out loud moments when the characters are fun but you also have the those moments when the characters start to reflect and you connect with them on a stronger, emotional level.

What is particularly striking is the chemistry between the characters. Add to this humor and mystery, you have a definite page turner. Birdie Kaminsky's strengths are not easily seen by the reader and it is easy to dismiss her as a nobody. But as her thoughts come out in the open, Treasure Me teaches the reader an important lesson, don't judge too quickly.

If you like Gemma Halliday and Amanda Quick, you will definitely like Christine Nolfi. She's a charming cross between the two and the Liberty Series has a new fan.

Disclosure - As a Quality Reads UK Book Club member, I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. I received no monetary compensation for my book review. This book review is based on my thoughts, opinion and understanding of the book. This book review does not reflect the opinion of other book club members.

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@MargaretWestlie on Loving All Her Stories #AmWriting #Historical #Mystery

What writing are you most proud of?

I love all of my stories.  I don’t know if I can choose one to be more proud of than another.  I think if I were forced to choose it would have to be the Selkirk Stories series, which includes Anna’s Secret.  However, there is also the Haunted PEI series that are a lot of fun too.  In fact, Shades of Molly, the first novel in that series, came about right after the creative writing class I took as an undergrad.  If my husband’s computer had not been switched on that first day I would not be a writer today.  I was computer illiterate and couldn’t type very well.

What are you most proud of in your personal life?

I think I would have to say that I am most proud of my mind.  It is the basis of everything I think say and do.  It is very inquisitive and goes lickety-split.  I can’t possibly talk as fast as my mind works and very few people can follow where I go.  When I was nursing I was doing in-service education, and another nurse and I were meeting on the choice of topics to present.  However we got onto it I don’t remember exactly, but I got us from fire safety education and fire drills to outer space by free association.  Needless to say the other nurse could hardly believe that we’d taken that whirlwind tour of the cosmos all because of fire drills.

What books did you love growing up?

I loved the Anne of Green Gables stories and ultimately read every one several times.  I liked J. M. Barrie’s Little Minister, and Maggie Muggins.  There were others of this nature.  I also liked the Cherry Ames series (nurse) and the Nancy Drew series.  My father encouraged reading and education and he always read to me when I was tiny and read poetry to me when I was older.

Who is your favourite author?

I don’t know if I have a favourite author.  I like stories that have a happy ending with all problems resolved satisfactorily.  An author who provides this is one I will likely read again.  I am rather taken with the Mitford novels by Jan Karon just now and have read about half of those so far.  I don’t like stories that are dark and brooding.  I like interpersonal relationship stories.

What do you hope your obituary will say about you?

That I was joyful.  I don’t know what else to say.  Of course, I am many other things like warm and kind but those traits are kind of cliche to say out loud.   I’m gentle and mostly non-judgemental although if you look at judgement as discernment that opens up a whole other discussion.  I am discerning.  I’ve thought off and on that I should write my obituary just for the exercise of it.  It seems a little extreme but it could be very revealing.  The other side is that what I would write now and what I would write in ten years time could very well be something entirely different.

Location and life experiences can really influence writing, tell us where you grew up and where you now live?

I grew up in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and was educated in the Halifax school system.  I took my  nursing diploma at the Victoria General Hospital School of nursing, worked in ER there, then on to Dalhousie University in Halifax. After my nursing degree I lived in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia doing Public Health, then on Prince Edward Island doing several nursing jobs. I then lived in Calgary, Alberta, doing in-service education, then on to Waterville, Maine, as a nursing supervisor and night charge nurse.  I met my husband in Waterville and we lived there for a year until he took a job in Liberty, Missouri, and we moved to the Kansas City area.  I worked for awhile as a night charge nurse at the hospital and then retired in 1988.  I started studying music at the college where John was professor because I always wanted to study music.  My writing education began there.

How did you develop your writing?

I picked up the English courses I needed at the college where my husband was teaching to convert my nursing degree to an English major, then went to University of Missouri at Kansas City for a Masters’ degree in English with a professional writing emphasis.  Since then I have taken various workshops in poetry and now have over two hundred poems.  I have also been writing and writing, and reading about writing and practising writing.  You rarely see me without a pen in hand and my listening ears on.

Where do you get your inspiration from?

Inspiration comes to me through stories I hear.  My uncle, now deceased, was a great story teller.  The germ of Anna’s Secret came from the story of Anne Beaton’s Hollow.  The murder occurred in Lyndale  and the hollow is still called by that name.  My grandmother was another source of good stories.  She lived to be 106 and died in 1990, just before I started writing.  She was bright to the end and people came from far away to learn about their ancestors.  They’d ask her about a certain person and she’d think for a moment and then say:  “yes, he/she was so -and-so’s child but he/she always went by this nickname.”  A lot of stories went with both her and her son.

Do you find it hard to share your work?

No.  Once it’s written it is no longer really mine, and it is what it is.  It doesn’t matter what people think it says about me, I am who I am.  People may disagree with what I’ve said for their own reasons that have nothing to do with what I’ve said. Also, I am no longer shy about saying that I’m a writer because that’s what I am, published or not.  That insight came to me a few years ago when I was thinking about what makes a writer.

Is your family supportive? Do your friends support you?

Now they do.  I get more encouragement from others outside the family than I do from family members.  That’s what the family I belong to is like.  I think it’s partly because they don’t really understand what it takes to conceive of and construct a novel.  Everyone thinks it’s easy when it is all consuming and demanding when I am in the creating phase.

Anna Gillis, the midwife and neighbour in Mattie’s Story, has been found killed. The close-knit community is deeply shaken by this eruption of violence, and neighbours come together to help one another and to discover the perpetrator. But the answer lies Anna’s secret, long guarded by Old Annie, the last of the original Selkirk Settlers, and the protagonist of An Irregular Marriage. Join the community! Read Anna’s Secret and other novels by Margaret A. Westlie.

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Genre – Fiction, mystery, historical

Rating – G

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 Connect with Margaret Westlie on Facebook & Twitter

Website http://www.margaretwestlie.com

A.F. Ebbers on His Favourite Chapter to Write #AmReading #Suspense #Mystery

I really enjoyed writing the exciting scenes in the first chapter. As an airline pilot and a graduate of the aircraft accident investigation school at USC, the idea of a cabin explosion and decompression in flight always intrigued me and the options available to an airline crew when one occurred. My annual military training in a simulator required undergoing a rapid decompression inside our pressured simulator. I always remember the foggy atmosphere that erupted inside the simulated trainer when decompression occurred.

I recall reading about the terrible incident that happened on a Boeing 747 flight to Australia  a number of years ago at 23,000 feet when a cargo door blew out in flight and nine passengers were ejected from the fuselage out through the opening.  Depression explosives are rare but sometimes deadly when they occur.

The main problem is, outside of the possibility of severe airframe damage, is that at a high altitude, in a pressurized aircraft cabin the air rushes out the opening until the air inside the cabin equals the outside air pressure. At altitude, say at 30 or 40 thousand feet, the difference between the two can be great, causing the sucking rush of air, momentarily taking everything not tied down out the aircraft hole. The suction is brief and ceases to stop when the inside and outside air equalizes.

This happened a number of years ago to a Hawaii airline when metal fatigue ripped a portion of the upper top roof of the airliner.  That not only endangered the integrity of the airframe but caused a flight attendant to lose her life when she was ejected out through the opening.

The copilot on that flight later flew with a captain friend of mine on another airline and he learned the details of everything that went on inside the cabin after the decompression. He passed these details to me. So in my story, I was able to describe an accurate scene in my fiction story.

And I added a number of additional realistic problems to the story that I knew could happen when airframes suffer damage like that. I almost could feel myself in the captain’s left seat trying to overcome these problems to get the crew and passengers to a safe landing. During a desperate attempt to make it to a safe landing field, parts of the damaged airframe which sent vibrations throughout the aircraft, flew into one of the two jet engines and caused the engine to catch on fire. The landing gear and flaps became inoperative and the captain had to descend to thick fog that dropped to 200 feet above the ground with visibility less than a quarter mile. Plus he had to touch down without a landing gear at a high speed to keep the wings level.

Did he make it? Read the chapter and find out.

Airline Captain Frank Braden is being stalked by unknown assailants who must arrange his death to look like a suicide or an accident before a specific deadline. He receives an unsigned message warning him against attending a Senate hearing in Washington. If he agrees, he will receive a million dollars and his wife’s life.

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Genre – Mystery, Suspense, Thriller

Rating – G

More details about the author

Website afebbers.com

Belinda Vasquez Garcia On Writing as a Form of Personal Therapy @MagicProse #Suspense #Romance

Writing for me is always a journey of exploration. As I’m creating the story, I’m waiting with baited breath to see what happens next so writing adds excitement to my life. Laughter is good therapy, and I often laugh at the antics of my characters and some of the doozies that come out of their mouths. I sometimes cry as I’m writing an emotional scene. A good cry now and then is therapeutic and cleanses the emotions. Writing to me is fun and entertaining. I always learn something during my research.

I usually develop a love story in my books to give the novel a heartbeat, and because I am a closet romantic. I confess that I often fall in love with some of my characters, especially the male leads. It was particularly fun to create the love story of Mandy Balboa and the flawed Christopher Michaels in I Will Always Love You.

I often visit Manhattan to see family and love the city. Like everyone else around the country, I was devastated when the terrorists destroyed the World Trade Center. Writing I Will Always Love You a few months after the 9/11 attacks helped me to deal with the tragedy and my feelings. Everything was still fresh in my mind. However, I chose not to publish the book until recently.

I Will Always Love You centers on the love story between the characters. It takes place two weeks after September 11, 2001. Manhattan and the tragedy is merely the setting, a place for two lost souls to come together. The book was a way for me to cope with my feelings, and to honor the victims and Manhattan.

I come from a dysfunctional family. My father was a bigamist and abandoned my family when I was 11. My mother died when I was 16. I found that writing The Bigamist & The Womanizer, Memoirs of My Father provided therapy. As I get time, I am working on a memoir entitled A House of Sticks.

Words come from the heart. Writing about a certain matter helps me deal with a situation. People who visit a therapist talk about issues to help in understanding and dealing with life. Writing can, also, help get bugs out of a person’s system; perhaps not in one take, maybe not forever, but writing can be like a good cry. You feel better about it.

Reading can help accomplish the same thing. Even fiction can be a self-help book.

The last thing Miranda ever expected was to see her brother's ghost at the fallen Twin Towers.

It's bad enough survivor Christopher Michaels scares her with claims that if one dies violently, his ghost will haunt the place that holds his name. And to top it all, one of those thousands of ghosts follows Miranda to her hotel. The only certainty is the ghost grabbing her under the covers is not Jake.

Their parents' deaths separated Miranda from Jake when they were kids. Michaels insists Jake brought them together and it's no coincidence that of thousands mourning at Ground Zero, it's his best friend she bumps into. Some best friend. Michaels is more like a moocher. The cheapskate never has money, just a blood-stained wallet he broods over. Miranda has no choice but to hang out with the weird Michaels in order to unravel her brother's past.

As Miranda spends time with Michaels, she begins to wonder who he really is. Against her better judgment, Miranda becomes emotionally entangled with Michaels, a bitter alcoholic with a secret linked to her brother and that blood-stained wallet.

I Will Always Love You is part mystery, suspense and romance, a novel that will keep the reader turning the pages!

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Genre – Suspense, Mystery, Romance

Rating – PG

More details about the author

Connect with Belinda Vasquez Garcia on Facebook & Twitter

Website http://belindavasquezgarcia.com/

Kevin Sterling's Dog Doesn’t Want Him to Write (or So She Thinks) @KSterlingWriter #AmWriting #Mystery

If you’ve read my author bio somewhere on the Web, you know that I live on a mountain ranch in Colorado and have a rather spirited Golden Retriever named Shelby. She follows me everywhere and wouldn’t give me a moment of solitude if I didn’t periodically assert my rights to be an independent being and do things like going to bathroom by myself. But I also have a wife who enjoys kanoodling with me from time to time, and it isn’t very romantic if a Golden Retriever is simultaneously licking your face. Fortunately, the young lady has her own, comfy bed on the floor. That would be the dog, by the way, not my wife.

As a writer, I clearly spend a lot of time at my desk, and Shelby is always nearby. She spends most of her time in the media room adjacent to my study staring out the French doors, monitoring our property for the multitudes of deer who frequently chow down on our landscaping. If I hear Shelby whining or barking in there, I know exactly what’s going on, and I’ll jump from my desk to let her out so she can chase them away. When she returns, she usually opens the door to let herself in and trots into the study looking like she had just saved the world from a nuclear holocaust.

You would think, since pushing down the door lever is a piece of cake for her, she’d also let herself OUT, but she doesn’t quite have the knack of pulling the door open yet. It’s so much easier to push from the outside. Then I have to get up and close the door again.

But Shelby’s favorite little caper is to come into the study periodically throughout the day and stare at me with a very clear message in her eyes: “Dad, I don’t know what you’re doing in here, but it’s quite boring, and I need you to stop it. Let’s go outside and do something far more entertaining like barking at things that don’t exist.”

These visits happen more frequently as the day goes on since we’re getting closer and closer to “quitting time” (or at least dinner time if I plan to return to work afterwards). Usually, after I spin around in my chair and see her staring me down, I’ll call her over and spend a couple of minutes giving her vigorous petties. That will pacify her for some indefinite period of time, after which she comes back for an encore performance, clearly hoping I’ll listen to reason this time.

I’m not saying we don’t take occasional breaks during the day to play, take a hike, exercise, or go for a ride in the car. We do all that. But I still adhere to a regimented work day, which means no less than 8 hours (and often 10 or more) at my desk, and that’s a lot of sedentary time for a dog to endure. Sometimes she’ll goof around outside without me for a while, especially if chipmunks or other nefarious creatures are in need of chasing around. But in no time she’s back at the study, and I need to get up and close the door, hopefully before those dastardly chipmunks scurry inside.

Oh, if you’re wondering why I harbor such contempt for chipmunks, just check out my author blog at GoodReads.com and read about our cutting-edge chipmunk relocation program. Then you’ll understand.

So it’s safe to say that Shelby has no understanding of why I fiddle with a four-screen computer workstation all day (I trade stocks, too), and I’m sure she thinks we’d both be better off if I did something else for a living. But my former career was in structured finance, which often entailed 60 to 80-hour work weeks with barely enough time outside the office to eat and sleep. If I went back THAT life, she would hardly ever get to see me, and I doubt that’s what she has in mind.

Sometimes puppy dogs just don’t think things through.

"James Bond Meets Fifty Shades of Grey"

Immerse yourself in the world class novels that combine action, mystery & suspense with tantalizing and tastefully written erotica. You’ll find all your sensibilities roused at once with Kevin Sterling’s ultra-sexy, action-packed Jack Lazar Series.

In this fourth action-packed thriller, Jack travels to Denmark for a business venture, but what seems to be a textbook transaction turns into a nightmare after he gets involved with Katarina, a vivacious Danish girl who apparently lacks a moral compass, not to mention an off button. After naively believing their liaison was just a random encounter, Jack discovers she’s connected to his business deal, and there’s a dangerous political group with skin in the game, too.

Katarina makes a convincing case of being a victim, not part of the conspiracy, but can Jack really trust her?

The firestorm gets out of control as Jack digs deeper, unearths the convoluted plot behind it all, and discovers that innocent people are being heartlessly killed. He’s not only horrified by the reason why it’s happening, but how it’s being done, and there appears to be no way to stop it from occurring again.

Then the scheme’s real objective emerges, launching Jack into action with intelligence operatives to prevent it. But that’s not so easy with assassins on Jack’s tail, forcing him to struggle for survival while trying to prevent Katarina from getting caught in the crossfire.

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Genre – Action, Mystery, Suspense

Rating – R

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Connect with Kevin Sterling on Facebook & Twitter

Message of the Pendant by Thomas Thorpe #Mystery #Thriller #AmReading

Suddenly, a loud voice bellowed upstairs. “Bastard!”

Charles raced up to the third floor and found Arthur Hurst sitting at a desk, rummaging through drawers.  He clutched a piece of paper in one hand, shaking with rage as he looked up at Charles.

“Businessman, hah! This man, Black is a British agent! Here's the proof of his duplicity. Where is he? It's time to put an end to the vermin.”

Charles gasped in shock. The entire charade was unraveling! He tentatively leaned toward the desk and reached for the note. “What do you mean? What evidence?”

Hurst glanced down at one of the drawers. He reached inside and picked up a ledger. "Wait a moment. There's something else."

Charles' eyes darted toward the window, knowing Black lay outside, unconscious and defenseless. Quelling an urge to run, he pretended to be curious and slowly edged around behind the man, as if to look over his shoulder. What could he do? Desperately his gaze searched for an answer until he spied a letter opener. In one motion, he grabbed the dagger and plunged it into Arthur's back. The rotund body jerked upwards, dropping the notebook. He tried to turn around, but instead, slumped forward onto the desk.

For a moment, Charles stood shaking in disbelief at what he had just done to his sister's husband.

William Darmon and wife Elizabeth were powerful figures who in 1818 set society's pace from expansive grounds known as Mayfair Hall. When a family member is murdered, a mysterious pendant is found containing a long lost request by Napoleon Bonaparte for an American mission to burn down Parliament buildings. The couple sets out on an action filled pursuit of the killer. While interviewing Henry Clay in post-war Maryland about the failed mission, they uncover evidence of a conspiracy to free the Emperor from exile. The Darmons infiltrate the cadre, but a shipwreck off the coast of Scotland, a firestorm at the Darmon's Manor and a harrowing assault on the Island of St. Helena loom before the mystery can be unraveled.

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Genre – Mystery, Historical, Thriller

Rating – PG

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Connect with Thomas Thorpe on Facebook

Website www.darmonmysteries.com

Kellen Burden's #WriteTip on Why Choosing Your Setting is Important (#Thriller #AmWriting)

There is nothing more magical than snow falling on a city. All the dirt and dinge and noise and movement is cleaned, shined, muffled and stopped. Falling against the sparkling lights and piling in the gutters and driven by the wind. See a couple, holding hands in Central Park as the snow blankets the trees. See a single rider on a black horse in a clearing in Tennessee as the flakes stream down like an omen. Or maybe it’s hot. 120 degrees in the middle of the day in July in Arizona, the sun looming and terrible in the washed out sky as your hero stands sweating through his T-shirt, holding a beer that has gone flat and warm an hour ago.  Maybe it’s hot like Miami. Maybe like Arizona. Maybe Afghanistan.

Choosing a setting is obviously vital to the way that your story plays out and is perceived by the audience. Sleepless in Muncie, Indiana would have been a totally different movie. Different settings breed different characters. They hold different challenges and offer different benefits. Try having a running gun battle through New York City without police involvement. Good Luck working out the specifics of that. But on the flipside, try waving down a cab in Tempe, Arizona. Also not going to happen. When choosing a setting it’s important to have a basic working knowledge of the area you’re talking about, whether it’s through independent research (blogs about the area, reading books that take place there etc.) or from having visited the place. You can then fill the gaps by interviewing people who live there, (calling information booths, or local libraries is a good place to start). By doing those things, you can talk about a town or area without deeply offending its inhabitants or drawing your reader out of the world you’re creating.

With that being said, no research you could ever do would come anywhere close to having lived in a place. No one else can know what the train sounds like, screaming past your window at 4 in the morning. No guide book will tell you about what the Park smells like when the ducks come back in spring, or about the feeling of watching a flash flood swallow the street in front of your house. Interviews are alright, but they don’t measure up to seeing a city 24/7 for 365. They don’t measure up to falling asleep to its sounds, having them permeate your dreams and then waking with them again in the morning. Building that from scratch isn’t easy. Not impossible of course. Obviously, J.K. Rowling has never been to Hogwarts, and I’m fairly certain that J.R.R. Tolkien had never been to middle earth, but even Tolkien and Rowling had places that they built their fantasy worlds off of. A structure that they used to compile a place of their own. The point is, to be a believable, successful writer you have to be able to put your reader in your world. To make them feel with their whole bodies, the things that your character is experiencing. It’s a tall order when you yourself have not done these things.

Sebastian Parks is drowning in a flood of his own creation. Dishonorably discharged from the Army, he's wracked with night terrors and an anger that he can't abate. Unemployable and uninterested in anything resembling a normal job, Parks makes his living in fugitive apprehension, finding wanted felons on Facebook and thumping them into custody with his ex-military buddies John Harkin and Eric "Etch" Echevarria. When the body of a teenage Muslim boy is found in front of a downtown Denver nightclub Parks, Harkin and Etch are called on to do what they do best: Find bad men and make them pay. 

First-time author Kellen Burden serves up edgy humor, brutal action and characters you can't get enough of. Flash Bang will keep you turning pages until the end.

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Genre – Thriller, Mystery

Rating – R

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