Announcing the DARKEST HOUR Cover and Release, Book Four Sanctuary Point series

Darkest Hour: (Murder Mystery w/Romance, late-1940s)

—a widow is framed by powerful people/the medical examiners knows she didn’t pull the trigger

—Sweet romance, warm intimacy, sophisticated themes presented tastefully

A petite widow, secretary and sole support of her son and grandparents, is framed for the murder of her boss. Wealthy village residents conspire with the DA to indicte her and stop further investigation. The medical examiner thinks the shooter was a tall individual and when his report is shoved aside, starts snooping trying to clear her and in the process falls in love with her.

Lucinda Walsh lost her husband and parents at sea. When she discovers the body of her boss, his A-List society finacee, backed up by her powerful family and a corrupt DA, acuses Lucinda of murder.  She struggles on shielding her five-year-old son, her feisty grandfather and arthritic grandmother from the ugliness of her situation. She mistrusts the dapper ME, thinking he’s a ladies’ man, but soon realizes he may be the only one in her corner.

Hank Jansen, the county ME who’s had his share of pain and loss, doesn’t know if this little widow was in on the murder, but he knows by the trajectory of the bullet she’s too short to have pulled the trigger. His professional opinion ignored, he begins his own investigation and at least one cop accuses him of an ethics violation. He certainly can’t deny he’s fallen head over heals for the accused, and also is crazy about her son. A huge problem is there’s a leak inside the investigation and the murderer is always one step ahead of them.

Endorsements:

Nike Chillemi has written yet another high-action, highly charged mystery. A riveting read .  ~~  Linda Yezak, author of the award winning GIVE THE LADY A RIDE

Purchase Link.

Amazon/Kindle. http://tiny.cc/oe0bsw

Other Covers in the Sanctuary Point series…

Purchase Links:

Amazon/Kindle. http://tiny.cc/i7nasw

Jordyn Redwood talks about POISON ~ oh, btw, that’s the title of her novel

With Jordyn Redwood you never know. POISON! She could be talking medically about an antidote, or about a how-to method. That makes me a tad nervous. Wouldn’t want to be hanging around with Jordyn if there’s any arsenic in the garage. Just kidding.

Seriously though, POISON is Jordyn’s soon to be released novel and it sounds exciting. Let’s find out what the stir is about…

Five years ago, Keelyn Blake’s armed, mentally ill stepfather took her family hostage in their house in rural Colorado. She and her half-sister Raven made it out alive, but others did not. Authorities blamed the father’s frequent hallucinations about a being named Lucent, but in the end, even the best of the FBI’s hostage negotiators failed to overcome the man’s delusions and end the standoff peacefully.

Now, Lucent is back, and he’s no hallucination. In fact, he is a very real person with dangerous motives. He has kidnapped Raven’s daughter, and–Keelyn worries–maybe has hurt Raven as well. Though she is estranged from her sister, Keelyn feels the immediate need to find Raven and save what family she has left. But when others who were involved in that fateful day start dying, some by mysterious circumstances, Keelyn wonders if she can emerge unscathed a second time.

Nike: POISON sounds like a thriller-diller. Medicine is your world, but this novel also has a heavy psychological bent. How did you weave the two aspects together, medicine and the psychological?

Jordyn:  I think medicine and the psychological do go hand in hand. For instance, are repressed memories a true medical condition and can brain washing occur? The brain is an organ and so psychological issues can be viewed as being medical in nature as well. I am fascinated by the brain and how it functions. How memories are created. POISON delves into some of these psychological/medical issues.

Nike: You write a medical blog. Tell us a bit about that.

Jordyn: When I began to think about entering the blogosphere my first thought was– what can I contribute? There were plenty of people blogging really well about writing and faith. What I found myself naturally doing was answering writer’s medical questions and thus– my blog was born and continues to be its mission– to help authors write medically accurate fiction.

Jordyn Redwood is a pediatric ER nurse by day, suspense novelist by night. She hosts Redwood’s Medical Edge, a blog devoted to helping contemporary and historical authors write medically accurate fiction. Her debut novel, Proof, garnered a starred review from Library Journal and has been endorsed by the likes of Dr. Richard Mabry, Lynette Eason, and Mike Dellosso to name a few. The second book in the Bloodline Trilogy, Poison, releases Feb, 2013. You can connect with Jordyn via her website at www.jordynredwood.net.

Purchase Links:

Amazon/Kindle.  http://tiny.cc/6tkrrw

Barnes and Noble/Nook.  http://tiny.cc/61krrw

Gun Toting Mommas ~~ Happy Mother’s Day

When readers think Christian Fiction, they usually don’t think of a “mother character” in terms of a woman with children at home who is carrying a gun. Yet, more than one Christian author has penned mother characters who are packing heat.

Kathy Herman’s THE REAL ENEMY, first in the Sophie Trace Trilogy, comes to mind with its heroine Police Chief Brill Jessup. This police chief got her nickname Brill due to her 18-year career filled with brilliant detective work before accepting the position of police chief in a small town. She most assuredly carries a weapon and knows how to use it.

http://goo.gl/qAaQa

Issie Putnam, the heroine in Fay Lamb’s BECAUSE OF ME is a mom on a mission to keep her son’s insane rapist father from learning about the precious boy she loves. Issie doesn’t like guns, so she carries and .22 caliber pistol and she shoots it with deadly accuracy at its farthest range. Issie and Cole are the only ones who know about the safe room Issie built in the attic of their farmhouse, and Cole knows exactly what he is to do if he ever needs to seek refuge there. No one will hurt Cole, including the man Issie loves. If Michael Hayes can’t see past the ugly truth of Cole’s beginnings and learn to love her son, well, he can’t love her. Even if Michael is the only safe refuge Issie’s heart has ever known. At Amazon. http://goo.gl/6ab3i

Christine’s Lindsay’s heroine Abby Fraser has brought her young son to India intending to begin life with her British Army lieutenant husband now that WWII is over. She’s faced with one disappointment after another, threats, and danger to herself and her son during periods of upheaval in the colonial sub-continent. The wives of British officers have been advised they must learn to be proficient with firearms. Abby, who learned to shoot in the states, shocks them all by repeatedly hitting the bull’s-eye on her first try. SHADOWED IN SILK recently won the 2011 Grace Award in the Action-Adventure/Western/Epic Fiction category.

http://goo.gl/49Vy6

Author Wendy L. Young’s creation, Laura Harmon, is a gun-toting Momma with four kids and a fifth on the way. Licensed to carry a concealed weapon, she knows her rights and knows how to use them. She grew up with a much-older brother who was a Marine and Police Officer and has been married to another officer for over 25 years. Until recently, she never had a cause to use a weapon but things are changing in Campbell Creek and she aims to protect herself and her family. Soon she will have her gun trained and know that she is ready to use it, whatever the cost. This third novel in the series is coming in Summer 2012.  Laura and her husband Will are the main characters in The Campbell Creek Mysteries:  COME THE SHADOWS http://goo.gl/cE0Ax and RED SKY WARNING http://goo.gl/OlJG3 .

*****

I’d like to wish a Happy Mother’s Day to gun toting mommas wherever they may be: in law enforcement, on the battlefield, driving bank armoured cars, and so much more.

“Pantsters” Can Keep Notes — It’s Allowed ~~ John 3:16 Blog Hop

This blog article, “Pantsters” Can Keep Notes–It’s Allowed is part of the John 3:16 Marketing Network Blog Hop from May 7 to May 14. I am giving away a “pdf” copy of both of my novels BURNING HEARTS and GOODBYE to the two best comments left below this article. Don’t forget to leave your email address if you want to win a copy of my novels. I will have an independent party chose the winners..

“Pantsters” Can Keep Notes — It’s Allowed

I’m a pantster…well mostly I’m a pantster. I do keep a running time-line. In my computer files I call it a “plotline.” This is not an outline. As a punster, I’d rather jump off the roof than write an outline. However, after I write a scene or a chapter, I add it to my time-line.

My time-line is quite detailed. It not only tells me what happened in that particular scene or chapter, I’ll also add small details I might want to refer to later. This keeps me from having to read the entire chapter if I want to recall a certain point. For example, my heroine might confide to a subordinate character that she flunked out of college. I’d add that detail to my time-line as a point of reference for when I write a later scene with those two characters.

I write romantic thrillers and I like to keep my reader from figuring out who the killer is until the very end when I reveal the identity. That means leaving plausible clues for a wide variety of red herrings. Each of these clues has to be added to my time-line so that I don’t write something in a later chapter that contracts my “planted clues.” I wish I could give you an example from the second book in my Sanctuary Point series, GOODBYE NOEL, but that would give away too much, and then I’d have to kill you.

As a pantster, I’m always asking the main characters and/or myself, what comes next? What would they logically do next? In this situation what would happen? As a pantster, an outline is certainly verboten! But I’ve found a clever way to get around that. I write a series of bulletins of possible, plausible next scenarios.

• Have to have a funeral for the murder victim, killer attends services
• Heroine thinks hero has lied, drives away even though a storm is approaching
• Hero has to apply for a job if he intends to keep his apartment

I also like to ask, what would my character never in a million years ever be caught doing? I often brainstorm, sky’s-the-limit and, make a list of five things my heroine/hero would not do. Some of the items on the list get pretty wild. Then I pick the most plausible one for my story and put him/her in that situation. Of course, I might have to tweak  it to make it fit my storyline.

Can a sheltered young seamstress, disillusioned by the horrors of WWII, escape an arsonist/murderer who has killed her employer and mentor, while trying to decide if she can trust the dashing war hero who’s ridden into town on his Harley—who some say is the murderer?

http://goo.gl/EB9s5

The year is 1947. The bodies keep piling up. Will a young pediatric nurse determined to make it on her own be able to care for an infant whose mother was murdered and escape the killer who has struck again? Can she trust the stalwart village detective with her life and her heart as he works to catch this killer before somebody else dies. Amazon (Including Kindle).

http://goo.gl/ao22W

Here’s a complete list of blog hop participants with links to their blogs. Happy blog hopping…

Blog Hop Participants:

1. Lorilyn Roberts (John 3:16 Blog) – http://john316mn.blogspot.com/
2. Lynn Dove – Word Salt (Host blog) – http://wordsalt.wordpress.com/
3. Laura J. Davis – http://interviewsandreviews.blogspot.com/
4. Paulette Harper – http://www.pauletteharperjohnson.blogspot.com/
5. Carol A. Brown – http://connectwithcarolbrown.blogspot.com/
6. April Gardner – http://www.aprilwgardner.com/
7. Sue Russell – http://www.suerussellsblog.blogspot.com/
8. Thomas Blubaugh – http://tomblubaugh.net/
9. Susan F. Craft – http://historicalfictionalightintime.blogspot.com/
10. Heather Bixler – http://heatherbixler.com/
11. Joy Hannabass – http://splashesofjoy.wordpress.com/
12. Deborah Bateman – http://www.DeborahHBateman.com
13. Kimberley Payne – http://www.fitforfaith.blogspot.com/
14. Rose McCauley – http://www.rosemccauley.blogspot.com
15. Lisa Lickel – http://livingourfaithoutloud.blogspot.com/
16. Alice J. Wisler – http://www.alicewisler.blogspot.com/
17. Amanda Stephan – http://www.thepriceoftrust.com/
18. Saundra Dalton – http://gracetolivefree.blogspot.com/
19. Tracy Krauss – http://www.tracykraussexpressionexpress.com/
20. Ashley Wintters – http://ashleyschristianbookreviews.blogspot.com/
21. Deborah McCarragher – http://www.godmissionpossible.blogspot.com/
22. Lorilyn Roberts – http://lorilynroberts.blogspot.com/
23. Anita Estes – http://anita-thoughtsonchristianity.blogspot.com/
24. Martin Roth – http://www.military-orders.com
25. Kenneth Winters – http://www.lostcrownofcolonnade.com/
26. Eddie Snipes – http://www.eddiesnipes.com/
27. Diane Tatum – http://tatumlight-tatumsthoughts4today.blogspot.com/
28. Janalyn Voigt – http://janalynvoigt.com/
29. Alberta Sequeira – http://www.albertasequeira.wordpress.com/
30. Tammy Hill – http://tammyhillbooks.blogspot.com/p/blog-hop.html
31. Marcia Laycock – http://www.writer-lee.blogspot.com/
32. Nike Chillemi – http://nikechillemi.wordpress.com/
33. Elaine Marie Cooper – http://wp.me/PVo1a-1vM
34. Sidney W. Frost – http://christianbookmobile.blogspot.ca/2012/05/welcome-to-john-316-giveaway-blog-hop.html
35. Jairus B. King – http://ministerjking.blogspot.com
36. Bill Burt – http://kotbooks.blogspot.com/
37. Kathy Eberly – http://authorkathyeberly.blogspot.com/
38. Bob Saffrin – http://bobsaffrin.com/
39. Julie Saffrin – http://juliesaffrin.com/2012/05/08/heres-how-to-possibly-win-a-kindle-and-autographed-copy-of-blessback/
40. Theresa Franklin – http://theresa-lifesjourney.blogspot.com/
41. Ray Lincoln – http://blog.raywlincoln.com/
42. Lilly Maytree – http://www.lillymaytree.blogspot.com/
43. Yvonne Pat Wright – http://www.spicetoeternity.co.uk/1/post/2012/05/come-blog-hopping-with-john-316-marketing-network-members-for-gifts-and-prizes.html
44. Pauline Creeden – http://fatfreefaith.blogspot.com/
45. Katherine Harms – http://livingontilt.wordpress.com
46. Brenda Wood – http://heartfeltdevotionals.wordpress.com/
47. Deborah Malone – http://deborahsbutterflyjourney.blogspot.com/
48. Melissa Main – http://www.mainwriters.com/
49. Kevin Main – http://mainchristianbooks.com/
50. Sandy Humphrey – http://www.kidscandoit.com/blog/
51. Felice Gerwitz – http://www.writingandpublishingblog.com/
52. Hallee Bridgeman – http://www.bridgemanfamily.com/hallee
53. Lisa Mills – http://www.authorlisamills.com/blog/

Must Read Blogs For The Crime Fiction Writers ~ Researching

Mark Young’s Hook ‘em and Book ‘em blog is one of my personal favorites. It’s a blog that’s always interesting and topical.

Hook ‘em and Book ‘em. http://hookembookem.blogspot.com/

 

 

 

I took a Romance Writers of America (RWA) course on the History of Forensics given by Doug Lyle and it was fantastic…just as his The Writer’s Forensic Blog is.

 

The Writer’s Forensic Blog.  http://writersforensicsblog.wordpress.com/

 

 

 

On Lee Lofland’s blog The Graveyard Shift, a writer can learn to cook with cops and also find out about a myriad of things law enforcement officers face every day.

The Graveyard Shift. http://www.leelofland.com/wordpress/home/

 

On the Law and Fiction blog, Leslie Budewitz, author of Books, Crooks and Counselors, will tell you whats going on with the Supreme Court, at the state court level…or you might just get a Saturday writing quote.

Law and Fiction.  http://www.lawandfiction.com/blog/

 
A blog I find myself going back to repeatedly is PoliceOne.com. You can find so much info here from breaking police news to article on the police wife and a policeman’s life. http://www.policeone.com/police-blogs/

If you need to know what’s going on with the Supreme Court of the United States, you can’t beat the SCOTUS blog sponsored by Bloomberg Law. http://www.scotusblog.com/