Featured Post

Saturday, February 28, 2015

Spotlight: Elizabeth Goddard and UNTRACEABLE





Elizabeth Goddard here.


Thank you so much for joining me on Suspense Sisters today! I’m not answering interview questions but simply blogging about my story, and sharing with you my heart and thoughts. You’ll get a peek inside and a look at the genesis of the story.  Also. . .


I'm giving away a copy of UNTRACEABLE, so when you've read the article, be sure to comment and leave your contact information to enter the drawing.



I’m excited to share more with you about my upcoming novel UNTRACEABLE. I say upcoming—it officially releases March 1, but many of you have already gotten your hands on the story through the Harlequin Readers Service or Book Club or via various contests around the web, or if you’re on my street team (Waving at my street team). 



UNTRACEABLE is book 2 in my MOUNTAIN COVE series--a mountain search and rescue series set in Alaska. If you haven’t already read book 1, BURIED, I strongly encourage you to start there. You can read UNTRACEABLE alone, sure, but it’s so much better if you meet the characters in BURIED. Besides, it starts out with an avalanche and I had so much fun writing that book. UNTRACEABLE was not a fun book to write. It was brutal, so brutal, but the payoff and the powerful emotional experience are so worth it.   




For my original proposal, I had written a book blurb for UNTRACEABLE to go with my synopsis and three chapters for BURIED, the first book, so I had to build the story from there. For the blurb I had in mind something from the synopsis of the CLIFFHANGER movie so I built the book from that idea. In my story, the weather played a big part in the conflict. The story takes place in the spring in southeast Alaska—so how bad could the weather be, you ask?




I always, always find something in real life that I can use to base my story research on and that real life story is about a man who fought blizzard after blizzard in that same region  where my story is set. I’ll include the link to that real life story at the end of this post. My mountain search and rescue expert, who lives in southeast Alaska and assisted me with BURIED, sent me the link to that story. He also played an important role in rescuing the individual stranded on the Juneau Icefield. 




See, that’s why I love writing stories set in Alaska. There is so much fodder to work with. Plenty of wild and dangerous and beautiful nature to add to the tension and conflict. So I have my man-vs-man conflict and I added on a ton of man-vs-nature conflict, and because I was going through a brutal time myself, spiritual conflict grew from that.





Think about it though. If you are being battered from all sides, and feeling weighed down by life itself, you have spiritual conflict going on. You might wonder where God is in all this? That’s exactly how my characters felt. And that’s how I felt personally and in real life as I wrote this story. All that comes out in the writing.




I held nothing back.




Hence we came up with the title, UNTRACEABLE. The rescuers needed rescued but how could anyone find them? How could even God find them? I hope I’ve piqued your interest now. You can purchase UNTRACEABLE anywhere Love Inspired Books are sold.



If you read the article please comment and share your thoughts. I love to hear from you. That lets me know I've connected. Plus, you'll be entered in the drawing for UNTRACEABLE.  Also, if you'd like to get book news from me, stop over at my website ElizabethGoddard.com and sign up for my newsletter.


http://www.amazon.com/Untraceable-Mountain-Cove-Elizabeth-Goddard/dp/0373446578/ref=tmm_mmp_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1425144554&sr=8-1
NO WAY OUT

On a daring mission, search-and-rescue specialist Heidi Warren and her team step onto an icy Alaskan mountaintop. . .and right into a trap. A stranded gang of thieves holds them at gunpoint, forcing them to serve as guides along the treacherous path. Menaced on all sides by dangerous weather, deadly terrain and murderous criminals, Heidi desperately needs someone to trust. But her rescue partner, Isaiah Callahan, is keeping secrets from her. Secrets that ended their chance at a relationship before it could even begin. Yet her survival depends on finding a way to trust Isaiah when a blizzard starts closing in and her options start running out.

Mountain Cove: In the Alaskan wilderness, love and danger collide.




You can buy UNTRACEABLE for you Kindle here.
 


Now, if you’d like to read a story from which I drew inspiration and knowledge for UNTRACEABLE, click here.




Many blessings!



Elizabeth Goddard is the bestselling, award-winning author of  twenty-three romance novels and counting. A 7th generation Texan, Elizabeth graduated with a B.S. degree in computer science and worked in high-level software sales for several years before retiring to home school her children and fulfill her dream of becoming an author. Currently, she makes her home in Minnesota where she helps her husband in ministry.


 










Saturday, February 21, 2015

INTERVIEW WITH MARGARET DALEY!





Margaret Daley is an award winning, multi-published author in the romance genre. One of her romantic suspense books, Hearts on the Line, won the American Christian Fiction Writers’ Book of the Year Contest. Recently she has won the Golden Quill Contest, FHL’s Inspirational Readers’ Choice Contest, Winter Rose Contest, Holt Medallion and the Barclay Gold Contest. She wrote for various secular publishers before the Lord led her to the Christian romance market. She currently writes inspirational romance and romantic suspense books for the Steeple Hill Love Inspired lines, romantic suspense for Abingdon Press and historical romance for Summerside Press. She has sold ninety-two books to date. 
 
INTERVIEW 

SS: Tell us a little about yourself.

I’ve written and sold over 90 books with about 5 books to go to reach the 100 mark. I love writing romantic suspense stories. I recently became a USA Today Bestseller, which was thrilling news.

SS: When did you realize you wanted to be an author?
 
I’ve always been a storyteller but the putting the stories down on paper came much later. A few years before I sold my first book in 1980, I decided to try putting one of the stories in my head down on paper. The rest is history.

SS: What are some of the challenges you face as a writer? Are there aspects of your life that are hard for family and friends to understand? What are they? 
 
I have a lot I want to write and not enough time to do it.

SS: What genre do you write and why? Are there other genres you’ve written or would like to try?

I write mostly romantic suspense but I also write contemporary romance. I’ve also written historical romance.

SS: How do you create characters? Are they based on people you know?

Truthfully I’m not sure where my characters come from. I’m sure I’ve used traits from people I’ve met.



SS: Tell us about your current release.

To Save Her Child’s blurb:

When a young boy goes missing from wilderness day camp, Alaskan search and rescue worker Josiah Witherspoon is on the case. The brooding ex-marine promises to find the child and return him to his worried mother. But he doesn't know that Ella Jackson has a secret past. One that could put them all in danger. When tensions mount, Ella needs to tell Josiah the truth—but she can't set aside her fears enough to trust him. Ella and Josiah are ready to risk their lives to save her son, but will they risk their hearts, as well?

Alaskan Search and Rescue: Risking their lives to save the day

SS: Where did you get the idea for this book?

Again I’m not sure where my ideas come from. They percolate in my brain and somehow come together in a story.

SS: Tell us about your main character.

Ella Jackson divorced and ran away from an abusive husband who went to prison. She’s gone into hiding and is always looking over her shoulder for her ex-husband, so when her son went missing, she thought he had found them.

SS: Is there a spiritual message in your book? If so, what is it?

Forgiveness and getting beyond the hurt

SS: What are you working on now?

The fourth book in the same series—Alaskan Search and Rescue. This revolves a drug smuggling ring.

SS: Favorite TV shows?

Blue Bloods, NCIS shows, Elementary and Forever

SS: Anything special you eat or drink while you’re writing?
 

I drink tea and water—nothing special

SS: How do you celebrate after completing a book?

I give myself a couple of days off before I start my next project.

SS: Where can readers find you on the Internet?

Website: http://www.margaretdaley.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/margaretdaleybooks
Twitter: @margaretdaley


Margaret is giving away a copy of her book, To Save Her Child. Leave a comment, along with your contact information, for a chance to win!

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

INTERVIEW WITH NIKE CHILLEMI!





Like so many writers, Nike Chillemi started writing at a very young age. She still has the Crayola, fully illustrated book she penned (colored might be more accurate) as a little girl about her then off-the-chart love of horses. Today, you might call her a crime fictionista. Her passion is crime fiction. She likes her bad guys really bad and her good guys smarter and better.
Nike is the founding board member of the Grace Awards and is its Chairman, a reader’s choice awards for excellence in Christian fiction. She writes book reviews for The Christian Pulse online magazine. She was an Inspy Awards 2010 judge in the Suspense/Thriller/Mystery category, a judge in the 2011, 2012, and 2013 Carol Awards in the suspense, mystery, and romantic suspense categories, and a judge in the Eric Hoffer Awards in 2012 and 2013.

Her four novel Sanctuary Point series, set in the mid-1940s has won awards and garnered critical acclaim. Her new contemporary whodunit, HARMFUL INTENT released in the spring of 2014 under the auspices of her own publishing company, Crime Fictionista Press became a best seller in Amazon’s private investigator category and has also garnered critical acclaim.

She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) and Christian Indie Novelists
(CHIN).  
 
INTERVIEW

SS: Tell us a little about yourself.

I grew up in a reading family. My dad was an English teacher and he directed the senior play in the local high school (his students even won state-wide dramatic prizes). He also wrote a play about his childhood during the depression that finaled in a nationwide competition. So, I guess I got the writing bug from him. He and my mom often read to me at night when I was small. Of course as a teen, I wrote awful poems full of angst that my family had to suffer through hearing read aloud. They survived.
 
SS: When did you realize you wanted to be an author?

After that teenage angst-writing period, I put my pen away and got into the business of life and earning a living. I've lived in upstate New York, Miami, and Brooklyn. It was over eight years ago that I became serious about writing fiction. I joined a writer's community-board at what was then Steeple Hill and learned a lot from the writers who posted there. I also took the free online writing course then offered by Harlequin. I slowly began to learn the craft. I recommend all newbie writers take any writing course they can get their hands on. American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) offers terrific writing courses for free to its members.

SS: What genre do you write and why? Are there other genres you’ve written or would like to try?

I love crime fiction. That's what I write and mostly read. I do read some action-adventure and occasionally something in women's fiction. I started out writing my four-novel Sanctuary Point historical murder mystery series. That series was set in the mid-1940s. I love that era and thoroughly enjoyed the research for those four novels. I didn't switch genres. I'm still writing crime fiction, but I did switch sub-genres. I'm now writing what will be an extensive contemporary detective-story series. HARMFUL INTENT is the first book in this series and I'm glad to say it's been well received.

SS: How do you create characters? Are they based on people you know?

My characters are entirely imaginary. I'm constantly getting ideas for characters and I'll quick, write them down. I've got quite a long list of potential characters. Some are great ideas I hope to incorporate into upcoming novels. Others, um…not so much. When someone royally torks-me-off, I'd like to write them into a novel and kill them, but I haven't done that yet.

SS: Tell us about your current release.

HARMFUL INTENT was a fun novel to write. It's a detective story with some grit. The villains are really bad. I like to think of it as grit with grace. The romance between the heroine and hero struggles to get off the ground and continues into book two. There are some sophisticated themes which are tastefully presented. And there's a wonderfully warm and sometimes humorous senior love story between two charming secondary characters.

SS: Where did you get the idea for this book?

It was a kind of writing challenge for a short story where you had to take a character and put him or her out of her/his element. I created a tough, competent, often sarcastic, female private investigator from Brooklyn (NYC) and plunked her down in Abilene, Texas. There the drop-dead-gorgeous deputy has her as the number one suspect in the murder of her cheating husband. I had such fun writing it that it totally got away from me. It soon became a short novella, then a long one, then a full-length novel.

SS: Tell us about your main character.

Veronica "Ronnie" Ingels is complicated. Her childhood had a great deal of pain and she's still sorting things out from back then. She has disturbing dreams that hint at despicable things, but she's not quite sure what these dreams mean. Despite her painful childhood, or maybe because of it, she's become a skilled law enforcement professional who doesn't take guff from anyone. The Texas local deputy, who all but accuses her of murder, isn't ready for her butting into his case, or the ride she's going to take him on. Then it occurs to him he's going to have to protect her from the real killer.

SS: Is there a spiritual message in your book? If so, what is it?

All of my novels, the historicals as well as HARMFUL INTENT, have a strong good vs. evil theme. That's what my novels are all about, a volatile class between darkness and the light. A hero or heroine is an ordinary, often quite flawed person, with all the problems facing regular citizens, yet they step up to the plate and take on evil.

SS: What are you working on now?

I'm working on DEADLY DESIGNS, book two in the Veronica "Ronnie" Ingles/Dawson Hughes series. A ditsy runway model and her seven-year-old daughter go missing. Abilene deputy Dawson Hughes is a former Army Ranger who sometimes works for a clandestine agency, many senators and congressmen swear doesn't even exist. There might be a terrorism angle to this disappearance. Until that's determined, Dawson suggests they hire Ronnie Ingels, private investigator, to find the missing mother and child. Naturally, he's going to help on the case.

SS: Tell us three things about yourself that would surprise your readers.

1) I'm moving to Jacksonville, Florida, a place I've visited twice this year. 2) I intend to bring a crime wave to north Florida. 3) I like to kayak, even in an ocean going kayak.

SS: Favorite TV shows?

I love the Nat Geo Alaskan frontier shows. I keep up with the news watching FOX, as well as other channels. I also watch cooking shows and some crime drama.

SS: Anything special you eat or drink while you’re writing?

I drink a lot of tea when I write. I like Irish tea, or English Breakfast tea. I take it with a splash of milk, no sugar. I drink copious amounts of it and then have to run to the commode.

SS: How do you celebrate after completing a book?

I can't think of anything special I've done. I probably take a good nap.

SS: Where can readers find you on the Internet?

Nike Chillemi ~ Crime Fictionista https://nikechillemi.wordpress.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nike.chillemi
Twitter: @NikeChillemi


Nike is giving away a Kindle copy of Harmful Intent! Just leave a comment, along with your contact information. We'll pick a winner on Monday!