My Heroine's Mistakes That I've Made Too

Kristen here. When crafting my heroine for Watch Your Back, I initially thought she and I did not have much in common. Avery Reynolds is a self-made private investigator, while I’m a former English teacher and stay-at-home mom. She holds a grudge against God and won’t let Him or anyone else get close because of scars from her past. Though my Christian walk is far from perfect, I’m grateful that I came to know Jesus Christ as my Savior at a young age.

As I pressed further into Avery’s story, though, I discovered an unexpected kinship: her mistakes aren’t that different from some of my own. Perhaps you can relate to these as well.

Mistake #1: Making Assumptions instead of Seeking to Understand

At the shared Airbnb for their mutual friends’ wedding party, Avery stumbles upon Coast Guard veteran Ethan Bridger having a PTSD episode in the middle of the night. She assumes he has a sleepwalking problem and brushes him off by saying, “You should go have that checked out—and warn your friends about it.” Her thoughtless words sting and fuel Ethan’s own fears that no woman could ever understand what he’s going through.

When is the last time you made a false assumption? Yesterday? Five minutes ago?

Case in point. Recently, my wonderful husband didn’t take out the trash, and I quickly judged that he had forgotten. Turns out, he didn’t take out the trash because our toddler had already woken prematurely once that evening, and he wanted to make as little noise as possible.

Instead of jumping to conclusions, we must first seek to understand the other person’s perspective and put ourselves in his shoes.

Doing so requires a mindset shift. Philippians 2:4 tells us, “Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others” (NKJV). Seeking to truly understand another person means putting that individual first and cultivating an attitude of humility: thinking of our interests less and his interests more.

Mistake #2: Believing Failure Defines Her

Failure dogs Avery’s every step. So far, she has failed to bring the mob boss responsible for her foster brother’s death to justice. She has failed to protect her colleague. She has failed to keep her goddaughter safe, and she has failed to arrange a prisoner swap for the mob boss’s impossible ransom demand.

If we’re honest, you and I are no strangers to failure and the self-doubt it brings. As a writer, I struggle with imposter syndrome. As a mom, I take too personally when my toddler refuses to eat dinner or suddenly regresses with a skill.

The truth is, we can’t control much in this life. What we can control is our response to what happens. Scripture advises us to “be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath” (James 1:19). If we can bite our tongues, we can also nip negative self-talk in the bud before it spirals out of control.

Parting Encouragement and a Giveaway

We all make mistakes, but they aren’t meant to define us. Our identity doesn’t come from our mistakes, or for that matter, from our accomplishments. It comes from Whose we are. According to Colossians 2:10, we are “complete in Him” (Christ) if we are children of God.

Today, I'm giving away one Kindle copy of Watch Your Back. To enter, simply leave a comment with your email address and answer to this question: Who is one of your favorite heroines, and which of her flaws helps you best relate to her?

AUGUST GIVEAWAY

 

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REVIEW: FIRE MOUNTAIN by Dana Mentink

Hi, Marji Laine here. 

I have been a fan of Dana Mentink since I first met her through Suspense Sisters almost a decade ago. Some of her books are on my all-time favorites list. So I was so excited to review Fire Mountain.

I was a sophomore in high school in 1980, the year that Mt. St. Helens erupted. The before version of the mountain was considered the Mt. Fuji of the US because of it's perfectly shaped top and almost perfect symmetry to its shape. I vividly recall the months of warnings over Mount St. Helens, the weeks of evacuation, and the days when we held our breaths until the lady finally blew her top. I remember looking at before and after images, seeing what was left of towns, lakes, forests, and the profile of the mountain itself. A third of its top had disappeared, leaving a gaping crater and 230 square miles of destruction.

Reading this story was like walking the ridges of Mount St. Helens in its final days. I can honestly say, I felt like I was experiencing the same apprehension and panic right along with Kit and Cullen.

Settings are my thing. In fact, I wrote a Suspense Sisters post about settings just last Friday, HERE. So this story falls right into line with one of my sweet spots. The mountain, the ridges, the roads, even the gullies and blackberry bushes, become so visible, so real. All by itself, this wavering Mount Ember gives a percussion to the suspense with periodic tremors, fissures, and other issues from underground activity.

This is the framework where Dana Mentink places her long-hauling female truck driver, Kit Garrido. And then adds a couple of people who seem to be evil incarnate bent on finding her in order to destroy someone or something.

This story begins with riveting intensity: Cold and ice-pick pain bored into Kit Garrido’s temples. Her limbs were leaden, her body a deadweight in the driver’s seat of her big rig. Grit coated her tongue and teeth. She tasted blood. Try as she might, she couldn’t reach out to unbuckle her seat belt. Panic bubbled up inside her.

See what I mean? Fire Mountain had my shoulders tensing before I finished the first paragraph. And Mentink is a master of pacing, giving the reader just enough time to breathe before the next unexpected happens. And between the baddies and the mountain, there are plenty of options for those unexpecteds!

If you’re familiar with my suspense ranking post from a couple of months back (You can see it HERE), you’ll understand when I set this as a 9 or 10 on the intensity spectrum. This ranking is purely a scale for how intense the suspense is. I don’t rank how well I like books. If I’m reviewing it at all, it has high merit!

And this one certainly fits that category. Every word—every sentence—seemed to have impressive intentionality - I might even call it precision - that blows my mind. The setting, as I mentioned, is a masterpiece. The characters have broken histories with building understanding of their redemption throughout the story. Memorable indeed. And the plot stays at an amped up level throughout the entire book. Kudos to Dana Mentink for yet another thrilling success!

Here's a little more about the book:

Fire rains from above as they fight to discover the truth and stay alive.

In the shadow of a threatening volcano, long-haul trucker Kit Garrido wakes up in her crashed big rig, unable to recall what happened or why she's suddenly in possession of someone's baby. Fiercely independent, she has to admit that perhaps this time she could use a little help.

As the threat of eruption grows, former cop Cullen Landry refuses to leave his cabin in the evacuation area, which is why he's the only one left who can help Kit escape the crumpled cab of her truck. He doesn't want to get tangled up in the mystery of the beautiful woman with an abandoned infant, but when he sees the bullet hole in the windshield and the bloody handprint on the interior, he realizes that he's in this thing, like it or not.

When two armed men with ill intent approach, the race is on to stay alive, discover the truth, and find the baby's missing mother--all while a deadly mountain rains fire from above.

This nail-biting clean romantic suspense will appeal to readers of Lynn H. Blackburn, Nancy Mehl, and Susan May Warren. Packed with thrilling twists and themes of natural disasters, an amnesia trope, and an abandoned baby.

Our own Suspense Sister, Mary Alford, says about this book: "A flawless suspense with characters that will have readers turning pages. I couldn't put it down."

I echo that – listening to the entire thing over the course of two thrilling days, only putting it down when I absolutely had to! Read this one. Suspense fans will LOVE it!

You can find it on Amazon and Audible HERE! 

WHAT'S HOT IN INSPIRATIONAL SUSPENSE?

 Wondering what's HOT in Inspirational Suspense? THE WATCHMEN - INTO THE STORM by Author Mary Alford, because the End was Just the Beginning!

Left behind. Hunted. Chosen. The battle for truth begins. . .

The world changed in an instant. The truth came too late.

After the global vanishings leave cities in chaos and hearts shattered, the world turns to one man—Daniel Pamphili, a charismatic new world leader. But behind the smiles and promises lies the darkest deception of all.

As nuclear fire rains down and safe houses burn, a scattered remnant rises from the ashes of Strike Force. Logan Maddox, a disillusioned cop on the run. Carly Wynn, a medic haunted by betrayal. Jax, a teen hacker whose own family sold him out.

Together, they must navigate a shattered world where belief is a death sentence, and betrayal hides behind friendly faces. Hunted by Pamphili’s regime and stalked by drone warfare, these unlikely heroes race to regroup before the Antichrist tightens his grip.

The tribulation has begun. The seals are breaking. And The Watchmen are sounding the alarm.

This Courage Under Fire Book 11 is available on Amazon, HERE!  

I hope you LOVE it! ~Marji Laine

THIS WEEK ON THE SUSPENSE SISTERS

We have exciting things planned for you this week on the Suspense Sisters!

On Tuesday, Suspense Sister Marji Laine will tell us what’s hot in inspirational suspense and mystery.

Wednesday, we’ll hear from author Marji Laine again. She’s reviewing Dana Mentink’s book, FIRE MOUNTAIN.

Fire rains from above as they fight to discover the truth and stay alive.

In the shadow of a threatening volcano, long-haul trucker Kit Garrido wakes up in her crashed big rig, unable to recall what happened or why she's suddenly in possession of someone's baby. Fiercely independent, she has to admit that perhaps this time she could use a little help.

As the threat of eruption grows, former cop Cullen Landry refuses to leave his cabin in the evacuation area, which is why he's the only one left who can help Kit escape the crumpled cab of her truck. He doesn't want to get tangled up in the mystery of the beautiful woman with an abandoned infant, but when he sees the bullet hole in the windshield and the bloody handprint on the interior, he realizes that he's in this thing, like it or not.

When two armed men with ill intent approach, the race is on to stay alive, discover the truth, and find the baby's missing mother--all while a deadly mountain rains fire from above.

ORDER IT HERE 

Friday, we’ll hear from Suspense Sister Kristen Hogrefe Parnell. She’s talking about the mistakes her heroine made in Kristin’s exciting novel, WATCH YOUR BACK. She also tells readers how she’s made the very same mistakes. You’ll really enjoy this thought-provoking column! Leave a comment for your chance to win a copy of WATCH YOUR BACK!

You can’t watch your own back.

Private Investigator Avery Reynolds leads the charge to expose Tampa's supposedly “extinct” mob. The crime boss responsible for her foster brother’s death is within her grasp—until she hits a wall in the form of Ethan Bridger, a Coast Guard veteran who unknowingly derails her sting operation. When the elusive “Big Eddie” comes out of hiding, he targets their mutual friends about to tie the knot.

ORDER IT HERE 

Don’t forget to enter our monthly contest!

THE SUSPENSE SISTERS

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It All Begins with the Place!

Marji Laine here. And I have to confess that I'm a sucker for a good setting. 

I can't tell you how many times my girls and I would be shopping or out and about, and I would point to something and say, "Wouldn't that be a great place to hide a body?!" 

Our conversations did scare their fair share of grocery clerks and waitstaff. But good mysteries, to me, start with creative settings. 

That brings me to my favorite fictional town of Heath’s Point, Texas. It has become so very real to me, housing two of my novels with at least one more on its way. So let me bring you to its roots. Well, in a way.

I went to college at East Texas A&M. At the time it was East Texas State University in lovely Commerce, Texas. The school had a bigger population than the town when I was there. That ratio has only grown with the support of the A&M system behind it.

But that place was this city gal’s first experience with a small town. I’ll never forget running to my big brother’s apartment (two doors down from the one I shared with his fiancé) on my first day of class.

Me: Some dirty old man just waved at me!
Bubba (yes, I call my brother Bubba, and my kids call him Uncle Bubba): What do you mean, he waved at you?
Me: Well, he was driving by in a rickety, old, white pickup. I’ve never seen him before.
Bubba (bursting into laughter): He was just waving. People are friendly like that here.

And they were. Total strangers would strike up conversations with me at church, at the local donut shop, even as I took out the trash. It was down right refreshing after living under strict rules in my big-city growing up years.

And it was contagious. I remember walking to classes and watching for people on the other side of the walkway to just look up at me, so I could smile and say, “Hi.” They probably thought I was a weirdo, since most of them were displaced from the big city, too. I heard all the complaints about the little town boredom when I moved into the dorms that fall, but it didn’t change my opinion.

I do not remember being bored at all. My brother's fiancé and I had a blast taking jaunts into the countryside. We’d grab a Sonic drink and get lost on the back roads. That was before the days of GPS, but we knew we’d come out on a highway at some point. One of my great thrills was to find a herd of goats near the road and baaah at them. They’d give the dirtiest looks; like I’d said something reprehensible. We organized our own version of laser tag (with water pistols and rubber bands) in places where we had unexpected access, part of the freedom in a small town. And I fell in love with my sweet hubby (a farm-boy) over fishing excursions and back road star watching.

Heath’s Point came straight out of my experiences in college. I think of the town itself as about twice the size of Commerce, maybe with a population nearing 25k. Still small enough that folks know one another and recognize newcomers, but big enough to need some full-time fire-fighters.

I could get into the nitty gritty of the place, what the buildings look like and details of the types of businesses there, but I won't flaunt my geeky side. Piecing together settings are so my thing. It’s like setting up a framework for the foundation of the story. Peopling it with unique characters – both good and bad – who have quirks and personalities that create memories. With the framework and the population, it’s easy to formulate the story. Most of the time, they just jump out at me.

Like the time I passed a clothing donation box next to the Piggly Wiggly. There was a pair of cowboy boots sticking out from the opening, and I could only see the soles. It didn’t take much imagination to wonder if there could be a body wearing those boots and hidden away in that donation box. Yes, I checked, and of course (thankfully) the boots were empty, but wouldn’t that be a great place for a murder mystery to begin?

I have two suspense stories set in Heath’s Point. Both of these have main characters who are shocked to learn they have targets on their backs. COUNTER POINT is book 1, and award-winning BREAKING POINT is book 2. They share characters, but the stories themselves are stand-alone.

My third is in the works, enduring its second edit at the moment. BOILING POINT’s main character is hair stylist and business owner, Donna Culver. She and her daughter Molly are returning side characters from COUNTER POINT. But there’s a new guy in town. It’s hard to say if he’s the nice kind or the not so nice kind, but suddenly Donna begins having “accidents” that don’t seem so very accidental. She’s lived in Heath’s Point all her life. Why would someone want to hurt her now?

I’d love to give you a copy of BOILING POINT, but it's still stewing. However, I do have an e-copy of COUNTER POINT for one commenter. Tell me the last little town you visited (or the first) and what made it special to you. Make sure you leave your email address. One of you will win my book.

Good luck, and I hope you LOVE it! ~Marji Laine