THIS WEEK ON SUSPENSE SISTERS

We’re planning another great week on the Suspense Sisters. Check out our posts, our interviews, and our awesome giveaways!

THIS WEEK:

On Tuesday MaryEllis will tell us What’s Hot in Inspirational Suspense and Mystery. 

On Wednesday Nanch Mehl will talk about how exciting being a Published Author must be, right? She'll be giving away a Kindle copy of Dead End, Book 3 in her Kaley Quinn Profiler series.

When a body is discovered in a field in Iowa, the police uncover fourteen additional corpses ranging from 20 years old to recent. The remains point to a serial killer with an MO the authorities have seen before--Ed Oliphant, a man who has been in prison for over 20 years . . . and is Special Agent Kaely Quinn's father. After several failed interview attempts to discover if Ed has been training someone to be a copycat killer, the police turn to Kaely in St. Louis.
Kaely promised herself she would never step foot in her hometown or set eyes on her father again. She's always refused to confront her past, but if she wants to prevent any more deaths, she must come face-to-face with the man she's hated for years.
As more bodies are discovered, Kaely races against time and her own personal turmoil to uncover the killer. Will this most personal case yet cost Kaely her identity and perhaps even her life?

BUY IT HERE!

On Friday, Patricia Bradley will follow up with more on the writing life! She will give away a copy of her latest book, Standoff, Natchez Trace Parkway Rangers, Book 1

The Natchez Trace National Parkway stretches 444 miles from Nashville to Natchez, the oldest town on the Mississippi River. It's the perfect road for a relaxed pleasure drive. Unfortunately for park ranger Luke Fereday, lately it's being used to move drugs. Sent to Natchez to infiltrate the organization at the center of the drug ring, Luke arrives too late to a stakeout and discovers the body of his friend, park ranger John Danvers.

John's daughter Brooke is determined to investigate her father's murder, but things are more complicated than they first appear, and Brooke soon finds herself the target of a killer who will do anything to silence her. Luke will have his hands full keeping her safe. But who's going to keep him safe when he realizes he's falling--hard--for the daughter of the man he failed to save?

Award-winning author Patricia Bradley introduces you to a new series set in the sultry South that will have you wiping your brow and looking over your shoulder.

BUY IT HERE

THE SUSPENSE SISTERS

We Love Books!

The Writing Life

by Patricia Bradley

A month ago, my alarm went off at 6:03. Once I silenced it, I lay in bed and planned my day:

· Quiet time.
· Blog posts.
· Time to start the next book in the Natchez Trace Park Ranger series.

You see, life had interfered with my writing schedule for about six weeks. I now have less than three months to write a 90,000-word book...

What does a writer do when that happens? Pray. A lot. Then get to work.

An hour later, I opened Scrivener, clicked on Patricia’s Fiction template and named the new project--Crosshairs. At least I had a title, not one I came up with, but my publisher is great at titles, among many things. Then I stared for the next hour at the blinking cursor… How did I do this the last time?

It happens every time, and I know I’m not the only one who goes through this. And it’s not that I think I can’t do it again. Or is that a fairy tale that I’m telling myself? No. God has given me the seed of a story, and I’m confident He will give me the rest of it. I.can.write.this.next.book. I just have to remember how to do it.

When I first started writing, I made elaborate character charts, plot boards, outlined…the whole nine yards. How’s that for a cliché? But that’s another post.

I don’t outline now. Or make plot boards. And the character charts I make are more about conflicting values, motivation, and goals than what kind of car a character drives. I still log the basics—age, height, and eye and hair color, etc—because I’m apt to forget. 

Instead of plot boards and outlines, I get out my artist sketch pad, the one with the spiral wires at the top because I'm lefthanded and I don't like dealing with the spirals on the side. However, it's too early for plotting. I can't know the story until I know why my characters act the way they do. I have to figure out what makes them tick.

To do that, I have to know the lie the hero and heroine and villain believe about themselves. How do those lies affect them? What actions do they take because of the wound the lie causes? I brainstorm all of this on my sketch pad. Why a sketch pad? I don't like lines. A blank page frees my mind to go in any direction.

Once I have that, I discover these characters' core values and the motivation for their goals. That way I can sabotage those goals. Hehehe. Then I figure out why the hero and heroine should be together but aren't. Learning who my characters are is almost as much fun as putting them through the torture rack!

Once I kindofsorta know my characters—and I say kindofsorta because I really don’t totally know them until I start writing—I let all my research and noodling percolate. As scenes come to me, I jot them down. I play the what-if game. What if this happened? By knowing my characters, I now know how they will react.

I now have a little over 17,000 words written. Most of them are good words that I'll keep. And tomorrow when I open Scrivener I will begin with someone trying to kill my heroine...

I really need to write my steps down while I’m working on this new book. If you have any tips you want to share, leave a comment and I'll enter you in a drawing for a $10 Amazon gift card!

Oh! Before I go, I want to share the cover of Standoff, my first Natchez Trace 
Ranger book!