The 46th Issue

February!  How the days keep marching by. But the sun is arriving a little earlier and hanging around a bit later each day, so I’ll take that as an encouraging sign. Here in the Mitten State, we had temperatures in the sixties to start the month. What is up with that?

Time to catch up on writing, events, an interview with another author and music.  Let’s go!
 
Writing
 
Inspiration can strike anywhere, at any time. Often when I least expect it, an idea will hit me. I may jot down a note or open a new file on the computer and write the basics. With any luck, that will be sufficient and when I’m ready to incorporate that idea into a story, it will be patiently awaiting my return.

Or not.

Recently I had an idea that would work perfectly in the fourth Chene novel. I kicked this around in my head for a while and tried to move past it. Nope. Not happening.  So I opened a new file, intending to just type in a few words. I ended up writing five pages of a scene. It wasn’t about a homicide or an investigation. It will become a subplot.  Only after writing this was I able to set it aside. 

Of course, you know what happened next.

Another scene sprung to mind.  This was about the homicide and how Chene and his team get involved in the investigation. A quick sketch was added to the existing file and saved away.

For now.

It doesn’t matter that I’m currently working on two other projects unrelated to Chene. Sometimes my characters have a way of demanding my attention like a young child, as if I’m going to forget about them.
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I’m sure many authors get involved in multiple projects simultaneously. Perhaps it’s just the way our brains work.

​Events
 
One of my favorite activities is participating in festivals and events where I can set up my table and display my books.  It’s a great way to interact with readers.  Over the years I’ve had some people return to buy additional copies of one of the series.  That’s a magical connection. With the start of the year, I began researching new venues to visit.  Right now I’ve already got two scheduled for March and several others.

​I’m also participating in a virtual festival with Diana Penn at Pages Promotions.  Each night in February, two authors will read a short scene from one of their books. Later in the evening, autographed copies are given away.  Following the reading, there’s twenty minutes of mayhem as the group tries to solve a murder mystery.

I’m featured twice on the show.  On February 15th, I read a scene from “Chasing Favors”.  Then on the 21st, I’ll share a scene from “Your Turn to Die”.

Anyone can register to join the fun. The sessions are held on Zoom and recorded, then aired the next day on YouTube. You can also watch earlier recordings.  Here’s a link to the schedule. This is a great way to discover new authors and sample their stories. You might even win a prize too!
 
https://www.pagespromotions.com/2024-author-reading-schedule.html#/
 

​Spotlight
 
I always enjoy discovering new authors.  Sometimes it’s in person, where we’re both attending an event. Other times it can be through the powers of technology.  This month’s guest is Jennifer Raines. Jennifer is part of the Inkspell Publishing family.  She is also participating in the virtual event described above. Jennifer hails from Australia. 

Tell something about yourself and how you became an author.

Books have been my happy place for as long as I can remember. I love the way authors play with words and the images and emotions they evoke. I wanted to do that myself. As the daughter of a single parent, financial independence was an early lesson, and so after school, I got the kind of job that puts a roof over your head and food on the table. I created vignettes and short stories in my head, and occasionally wrote them down. As time passed, I wrote more. My writing doesn’t support me, but I can balance the competing needs better now. Romance was always going to be my genre, although I toyed with writing for children and non-fiction, but I’m a realist who’s a sucker for happily ever afters. Being published is a joy. It was also a joy to place second in the 2023 Romance Writers of New Zealand Koru Award for Best First Book for Taylor’s Law, my first published book.

Congratulations on the award.  That’s quite an achievement. Do you ever imagine one of your novels being made into a movie or television series? 

I’m the sort of person who thinks books and movies are two different beasts. They might start off telling the same story, but it’s always different. Books and movies tap into different parts of our brain. I read more than I watch. If I had to choose a book that might be suitable for a movie, I’d say Lela’s Choice because it’s set in Malta, a videographer’s delight. An alternative would be Planting Hope, which is about a healing garden, another option for a visual extravaganza.

Any favorite actors you’d cast in the lead roles?

I’m being naughty here, but the lead in Planting Hope is considered by some to be a dangerous character. He’d have some of the sexy, wild, dark good looks of a young Ola Rapace, the Swedish actor in series 1 of Wallander.
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What is your writing process? For instance, do you do an outline first? Do you write the chapters in sequence?

I do a rough plan, where I outline where my characters are going, although I can completely upend a scene, change the point of view character, even motivation and outcome as the book cooks.

Having said that, I write the setup scene first. I find the beginning of the book is the hardest part for me and results in numerous rewrites. My ideas are tumbling over each other and I need to sort them so I provide the right amount of information to the reader clearly at the right time.

I don’t write sequential chapters. I tend to write snatches of dialogue as a way of getting to know my characters. I’ll expand those conversations into scenes, and then I slot them in where they fit in the working manuscript. I’ll go back and layer them repeatedly with narrative to provide deeper insight into the character’s thinking or to paint a picture of where they are and any action that’s part of the conversation.

I’ve learned that when I get to about 30-40,000 words I need to set the manuscript aside for a minimum of six weeks. It’s nowhere near finished. Key scenes are missing, insight into the characters is missing, but the absence improves my perspective and understanding of my characters and enables me to write a better book.

Tell us a little bit about the characters in your latest book.

I like strong characters by which I mean characters who respect themselves and who respect others. Lela’s Choice was released in December 2023.

Lela Vella has been a dutiful daughter and aunt who’s preparing to break loose. Then her niece flees Australia for Malta. Lela follows, knowing she has one final responsibility to her dead sister—solve the riddle of her flight.

Hamish McGregor is an internationally recognized Australian child-protection lawyer specializing in the kidnapping of minors across borders. He’s battle- scarred—his pregnant wife was murdered by the husband of a client—and determined not to risk his heart again.



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Do the characters all come to you at the same time?

I work outwards from the lead characters. I start with them and think about who they are now, their pasts, their goals and dreams, and why they are the perfect match. Then I look for other characters who fit into their lives. These secondary characters can start as incidental actors then gain in significance as they tell me what they can do and how they can help the story move along. Some readers have told me it’s those minor characters that appeal to them most.

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What is your latest book about?

My latest book is Masquerade-Choosing Families Book1

Fool me once…

Money won’t bring LIAM QUINN’S father back, but it’ll save his mother’s home. A high-paying law partnership is in his sights. To win it, he needs to successfully land a project. Problem is the project requires absolute confidentiality, and he’s just discovered his estranged identical twin is appearing life size on a billboard across the city. The second catch is a return to environmental law. His earlier career imploded after his lover was revealed as a mining company spy.

Researcher and soon-to-be-published romance author KATE TURNER needs a disguise. Maybe more than one. Her famous playwright father despises ‘trashy’ novels. Her ex-boyfriend mocked her ‘dirty little secret’, then stalked her when she left him. Her identical twin coaxes her into appearing on a billboard to prove she can be notorious and anonymous at the same time. No one connects the billboard model to the dowdy researcher Kate has become, and no one knows about her author pseudonym and second disguise as Ms. Sexy Romance.

Kate and Liam’s lives collide when she’s hired as Liam’s research assistant. Liam’s boss laughs off the billboard. Having doubles is the perfect cover for confidential field work.
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A masquerade, a road trip, a steamy attraction, the sudden appearance of Liam’s old lover, and Ms. Sexy Romance’s unexpected arrival in the wrong place at the wrong time, and Liam and Kate discover the steps they took to protect their hearts might break them.
 

Here's an excerpt

Chapter One
 
Kate Turner plastered a confident smile on her face as George Clelland, founding partner of Clelland and Associates, led her towards his boardroom to meet his “four best people”. Suits—any gender—were her least favourite people. She told herself that was a prejudice she should be over by now. But she’d met too many who were wedded to the idea that charcoal-grey wool cut in severe lines guaranteed they were always right. Her misgivings were her business, and George’s steady patter of encouragement was a palliative to the tension roiling in her gut.

Halting inside the doorway, Kate scanned the room. The three suits present weighed her up and found her wanting. Her bland, off-the-rack clothes were a jarring contrast to their designer suits. To the lawyers, her drab outfit signalled she had no permanent place in their company; to her, being instantly forgettable represented success. Ms. Dowdy Researcher could hide in plain sight.

“Glad you could make it, Liam.” George turned back towards the door, his body blocking her view of the fourth suit. “Problems with the flight from Canberra?”

“A bit of traffic from the airport.”

An alarm sounded in Kate’s head. The Irish lilt was fainter, but the mellow baritone was ominously familiar. The newcomer moved to join the other three strangers. When her gaze met his, her stomach knotted while his polite smile faded.

George began introductions. Kate shook hands, as if she’d been programmed to meet and greet on command while her heart raced like a runaway bride, and her brain scrambled for purchase.

Please, God, no!

“Kate Turner meet Liam Quinn.” George made the final introduction. The man’s name provided the absolute confirmation Kate didn’t need. Inhaling deeply, she met his gaze.

“Hello, Ms. Turner.” He held her hand longer than necessary, the living embodiment of all her least favourite stereotypes. An austere, charcoal-suited, silk-tied, face-chiselled-from-marble legal eagle who regarded her with the irritation of someone who’d found a worm in his perfect apple. The man packed speculation and suspicion into a simple handshake. “Do I know you?”

Have you ID’d me? Memo to self: you will not—repeat not—hyperventilate. Kate concentrated on simple inhalation and exhalation. In two-three; out two-three. Nice and steady. “I don’t think so.”

“You look familiar.”

“I have that kind of face.” She’d let her guard down, allowed herself to believe the gods were finally on her side—that she could work, write and live again free of shadows.

“I don’t think so.” He was persistent. “Maybe I’ve seen a photo?

“Unlikely.” In two-three; out two-three-four-five. There was a Genosearch billboard on the route from the airport to Sydney’s central business district. The public story was that Kate’s identical twin, Anna, was the model featured in glorious colour on the billboard. Instead, Kate was the real billboard model, having abandoned her Ms. Dowdy Researcher disguise for the length of the photo shoot. “Call me Kate.”

Had Liam seen through the costume granting her anonymity from every other observer?

The possibility was a body blow. No one had made the link between Ms. Dowdy Researcher Kate and the woman on the billboard. She’d gambled that no one ever would.

She lifted a hand to make sure her fake glasses sat firmly on her nose. With her lack of makeup, very different hair colour, clothes and body language, it shouldn’t be possible for anyone to pick her likeness to the woman on the billboard.

Even after Liam Quinn released her hand, he studied her with a fierce intensity Kate struggled to ignore. The advertising company was doing a slow reveal. Kate’s face had been in jigsaw pieces but was now complete. Ultimately, two faces would appear on the billboard. In the last twenty-four hours, they’d added the outline of a male head and a pair of penetrating grey eyes.

Had Liam recognised his identical twin, Niall, in the eyes of the male model on the billboard?
​
Easily—probably—definitely—damn.

What’s the next project you’ll be working on?

I’m working on a series related to the Choosing Family Series. My publisher, Inkspell Publishing, and I are toying with the idea of calling it Extending Families. It is about friends and family members we encountered in the Choosing Family series and just want to know a bit more about.

Thanks for being in the spotlight.  Here are some links to learn more about Jennifer.
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https://jenniferrainesauthor.com/
AMAZON: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CRLN6XBH
KOBO: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/masquerade-220
BN: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/book/1144567121
APPLE: https://books.apple.com/us/book/masquerade/id6475606710
 

Music
        I’m a firm believer that music is essential to life. How boring things would be without it.  This month I’ve been listening to a lot of tunes by The Police.

          This English rock trio started in the late 1970s and performed together until 1986.  Together they sold more than 75 million records and collected 6 Grammy Awards. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

          Here’s my top five songs. (The last is a solo by Sting)
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Don’t Stand So Close to Me:  https://youtu.be/KNIZofPB8ZM?si=0HaCIwfj4rPxiN4j
Every Breath You Take: https://youtu.be/aSATTrwW0xs?si=d6xxV04kmV3i3ULm
Every Little Thing She Does: https://youtu.be/OMOGaugKpzs?si=AZ7C49zsqX6AW_bF
De Do Do Do: https://youtu.be/I584PnQ3xpI?si=o6GYCu7Rq8_wBEIu
Know Nothing ‘bout Me: https://youtu.be/mNPh2z3W_WY?si=nPC-u0urx2LOMJZA