HOUR OF THE RAT-The Flawed Protagonist

Hi, Kat Sheridan hosting today so Sia can have a well-deserved long holiday weekend off for the Fourth of July!

I have a confession to make. I drink bourbon (and coffee), occasionally to excess. I can out-swear a Marine drill sergeant. I get pig-headed about the dumbest things. Sometimes I make bad decisions, do stupid stuff, or trust the wrong person. I try to do my best, and just hope my successes balance my failures. In other words, I’m human.

Which means I’m also a lot like Ellie Cooper, the protagonist in Hour of the Rat, the latest novel by Lisa Brackmann. I first encountered Ellie in Ms. Brackmann’s debut novel, Rock Paper Tiger. In Hour of the Rat, Ellie once again drags me along on an adventure through sprawling, bewildering, beautiful and treacherous China as she tries to help an old war buddy locate his missing brother, while being chased, used, and abused by shadowy government agencies, and stumbles into a truly terrifying real-world plot line having to do with GMOs (genetically modified organisms—if you want to get the willies every time you eat, look them up).

I’m going to say right up front that I loved this book. The synopsis is at the end, so I won’t repeat it here. What I want to talk about today is Ellie Cooper, and the way too many people may view a protagonist like her.

Let me tell you about Ellie. She was a medic in Iraq, a soldier who got caught in a terrible Abu Ghraib-like situation, and got torn between duty and horror. Her husband left her for a younger model. She got blown up and lost a chunk of muscle in her leg. It causes her deep physical pain and always will. She’s tough as old leather, but feminine enough to be embarrassed about the scars on her leg. She has PTSD. Between the pain and the nightmares, she doesn't always sleep well. She can’t function in the morning without coffee, her beverage choice the rest of the day is often beer, and though she tries to endure the constant physical and emotional pain, she sometimes resorts to popping Percocet for relief. She has a wry, dry, self deprecating sense of humor that comes out sometimes at the worst possible moment. She loves her uber-Christian mother, who drives her crazy, and is trying to heal past rifts with her. She’s an expat living in China, she’s trying to be a good friend to folks who may not deserve it, she’s trying to get her act together, and she’s trying to find some meaning in a world that exploded and spun out of control on her.

I haven’t read the reviews on Hour of the Rat yet, but I read them for Rock Paper Tiger (because I like to see what other people think of a book I adored). I was seriously appalled by folks who took issue with Ellie’s drinking and swearing and flawed decisions. As if they expected her, as a soldier, to say “gosh darn” and return home after the war to bake cookies and join the PTA. This weekend Americans celebrate our freedom, and the men who fought and died for it. Now that women are actively being allowed in combat positions (as if they already weren't de facto in those positions), are we ready for our books to have protagonists like Ellie Cooper?

My question is this: If Ellie Cooper had been Elliot Cooper, a male protagonist, would readers feel the same? Would you, as a reader, be more tolerant of a male character who’d been a soldier, been hit by an IED, who suffered the hell of PTSD, who swore, who coped with too much beer and painkillers, ran into dangerous situations, and was ambivalent about his mother?

Is there a subconscious prejudice toward the realistic portrayal of flawed female protagonists?

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

Hour of the Rat by Lisa Brackmann

Iraq War vet Ellie McEnroe has a pretty good life in Beijing, representing the work of controversial dissident Chinese artist Zhang Jianli. Even though Zhang's mysterious disappearance of over a year ago has attracted the attention of the Chinese authorities. Even though her Born-Again mother has come for a visit and shows no signs of leaving.

But things really get complicated when Ellie's search for an Army buddy's missing brother entangles her in a conspiracy that may or may not involve a sinister biotech company, eco-terrorists, and art-obsessed Chinese billionaire, and lots of cats—a conspiracy that will take her on a wild chase through some of China's most beautiful and most surreal places.

BUY: AMAZON, B&N, INDIEBOUND

Guest host Kat Sheridan is an aspiring romance author, fond of bourbon and shiny things. Creator of BlurbCopy.com, writing blurbs/back cover copy for indie authors. Bon vivant and diva. Her debut Victorian gothic romance novel, Echoes in Stone, will be published in the fall of 2013.

CHATTING WITH AUTHOR OF CHAIN OF COMMAND--COLBY MARSHALL

       

My guest is suspense/thriller writer, Colby Marshall. Her debut novel is a captivating story of an assassin with an agenda, a government in crisis, a dangerous web of lies and corruption, and as with all good stories—a touch of romance. Being the curious sort, I had some questions for Colby.

How has your own romance colored how you write romance in your stories? Or does it?

I laughed out loud at this question, because my first thought was, “Does your blog have a rating?”  Let’s just say between us girls that some of the love scenes…hmm.  I’d better plead the fifth.  My mom might read this post! 

All joking aside, my husband is actually a brilliant sounding board for my romances, simply because I do write from both female and male points of view.  When it comes to the violence in the story, I've heard many times that I write like a guy. What five-foot-one girl who owns more glitter than your average craft store doesn't have a thing for car chases and knife fights, right?  But when it comes to writing romance from a man’s point of view, I’m sometimes a bit too…tasteful.  My husband reads my work as I write, and he always reminds me to keep my voice in the right place when writing a male POV.

Well, I don’t have the glitter but I’ll admit I love fights, car chases, and action flicks and books 

• You’re a dancer and choreographer. Do you design the dance composition of a piece, like the dance patterns and movements? I’m thinking of the routines they do with Dancing With The Stars?

Yep, that’s exactly what I do.  In fact, not too long ago I was one of the professional dancers for the Dancing Stars of Central Georgia, a charity event modeled after Dancing with the Stars that raised over $200k for the Central Georgia Alzheimer’s Association.  I was paired with a local celebrity, and I created a routine for us.  I trained him for eight weeks prior to the event, where we performed the samba to Lady Gaga’s “Telephone.”  I love flashy concepts and do a lot of choreography for theatres, so of course we dressed the parts as well, complete with glittery lightning bolts on our faces and crazily-teased hair.  What can I say?  The theatricality came out!

Wow! Sounds like a lot of work but fun, too!

I love to read a good thriller although writing one would be tough I think because all of the parts that have to come together to make the story flow and build tension.

• What excites you about this genre?

 

Those things that have to come together are both the most challenging thing about writing thrillers as well as the thing that excites me most about them.  When I’m reading a thriller, I try to solve the puzzles as I go, and if a read keeps me guessing until the end and delivers a resolution that I believe, that author has made a fan for life in me.  That’s why when I’m writing a thriller, I will give myself headaches to make it more layered and complex: I hope to give readers that experience of not knowing what’s coming, but also the ability to read back and totally see how it was coming the whole time.  

• How much do current events play into your writing? 

Current events (and past events) do often give me initial sparks of ideas.  CHAIN OF COMMAND first took root in my head when a few years ago, more women began to appear in campaigns for the White House.  The idea for the new thriller I’m currently working on started when I read about a recent high profile murder case.  My stories are never “based on a true” story type things, as they are entirely fictional, but I do tend to hear news items and think, “But what if that sort of a situation happened with a different twist?”

• What do you like about McKenzie McClendon, the heroine of Chain of Command? What about Noah? 

McKenzie is fearless.  She might not know she’s fearless, but she is.  When she gets an idea in her head, she will chase it down, wrestle it to the ground, and beat it into submission no matter what.  I think her tenacity makes her a fun character to write.  As for Noah, I just love that he is a complete badass.  There’s no way around that phrase to describe him for me.  He’s the type who, in movies, sets off the explosion and walks away without flinching.  They’re both independent, but that mutual boldness is exactly why they bring each other to their knees where no one else can.     

What’s not to love about a badass like Noah?

• Noah is a SEAL and proud of his training (and McKenzie has a rather negative view of SEALS)—what’s their common ground that allows them to work together? 

They definitely don’t have much common ground at all in the beginning.  They end up working together because each has an ulterior motive: Noah plans to use McKenzie to get out of a sticky situation, and McKenzie thinks she can use Noah for a career-making story.  Unfortunately for both of those well laid plans, as they hunt for the truth, the two of them find out the other is a real person and not just a tool to be utilized.

• Now that you’re a new mother how has this impacted on your writing time? 

Balancing a new baby and writing time is a feat.  Sometimes I do it quite literally: I balance the baby on my lap to feed her with one arm and pluck out keystrokes with the other.  The biggest impact on my writing time is that now it is not guaranteed.  When I get settled in to write, I know at any moment I could be interrupted.  A chunk of writing here and there as I can grab it has to work, where before I would make sure my writing environment was more controlled.  Basically, I have had to become one with the chaos.  Luckily, I’m good at multitasking.  (Birthday cake ice cream helps, too.)

• How has being published changed your life? In what ways? 

It’s an interesting change, for sure.  Mostly, I've noticed how things that would before have seemed so “out there” now feel like just part of a running machine.  Recently, I missed a phone call that a few months ago I’d have scheduled my entire day around.  I wasn't able to return the call that day because I was in between TV spots to promote the book, which felt crazy!  I've had people I've been friends with for years ask if they could possibly “get me to autograph” a book for a friend of theirs.  I always want to say, “Are you kidding?  I love signing books!”  I always tell them of course but laugh and say, “But I do hear if you can find a copy that isn't signed, it’s worth an absolute fortune.” 

• What’s coming next from Colby Marshall? 

I’m currently editing the next book in the McKenzie McClendon series, which is about a surgeon providing infants for the black market baby trade.  McKenzie needs an angle on this story to keep her job—and her home.  When her high school sweet heart tips her off that his wife may have been one of the victims, she launches a frantic search to find the killer and her ex’s son.  I’m also working on a new series about a forensic psychiatrist with graphemeàcolor synesthesia—a form of synesthesia in which an individual's perception of numbers and letters is associated with the experience of colors. One half of a vicious team of killers is caught, and she uses her unique gift to hunt down the mastermind still at large.

Hmm, how soon did you say I can read these? I'm looking forward to getting my hands on these!

Colby, thank you for taking  time, out of a very busy life, to answer my questions and sharing a bit about your other loves. 

• A publisher's ARC copy is up for grabs for a lucky commenter today.

BUY:  AMAZON, B&N, INDIEBOUND

The road to the Oval Office is paved in blood… 

The simultaneous assassinations of the President and Vice President catapults the Speaker of the House into the White House as the first female President of the United States. Evidence points to a former Navy SEAL as one of the assassins.

Relegated to writing sidebar stories instead of headlines, journalist McKenzie McClendon composes a scathing story about the Navy training killers, igniting the fury of the alleged assassin’s former partner.

Former Navy SEAL Noah Hutchins doesn’t believe his partner could have committed the heinous crime. They’d endured the horrors of Afghanistan together. His buddy was a hero, not a murderer. 

No one who knows the truth is safe… 

Thrown together in a search for the truth—and a career-making story—McKenzie and Noah must unravel a dangerous web of lies that includes a radical foreign faction, a violent ultra-feminist group, and corrupt politicians willing to kill to keep their secrets. And an assassin who is still on the loose. 

His next targets are already in his crosshairs…Excerpt

 

•  A publisher's ARC copy is up for grabs for a lucky commenter today.

THE FLOWER READER—Review

The Flower Reader 

Elizabeth Loupas 

ISBN: 0451235819 (ISBN13: 9780451235817)

Edition language: English

Five Stars

 

Rinette Leslie of Granmuir has the ancient gift of divining the future in flowers, but her gift cannot prepare her for the turmoil that comes when the dying queen regent entrusts her with a casket full of Scotland's darkest secrets. On the very day she means to deliver it to newly crowned Mary, Queen of Scots, Rinette's husband is brutally assassinated.

Devastated, Rinette demands justice before she will surrender the casket, but she is surrounded by ruthless men who will do anything to possess it. In the end, the flowers are all she can trust-and only the flowers will lead her safely home to Granmuir.

From the author of The Second Duchess comes a rich tale of heartbreak and triumph, dangerous political intrigue, and all set in the glitter of the royal court of Mary, Queen of Scots.

The Flower Reader is absolutely a riveting story that will grab you and not let you go. This story is, at heart, a political thriller set in the reign of Mary, Queen of Scots, and begins the day of her mother, Mary Guise, Queen Regent of Scotland, death.

The story is centered on the silver casket, which is given to Rinette Leslie to deliver to Mary Queen of Scots upon her arrival at Leith, Scotland. The casket has letters from Mary of Guise to her daughter but also ledgers of secrets on the lords of the land and quatrains (prophesies) by Nostradamus as to the throne of Scotland, France, and England and guide Queen Mary in her choices. (This is actually not far fetched as many notables and rulers of the day did consult with him as well as receive horoscopes from him).

Secret agents and professional assassins are dispatched to take the casket. The court of young (she is a teenager) Mary becomes a very dark and dangerous place and Rinette, a lady in waiting and the heroine, is the target because only she knows the whereabouts of the casket.

Elizabeth Loupas puts us in the court of the young queen and Rinette tells the events as she bravely fights to keep her family and manor safe and in her control. She bargains with Queen Mary—the casket for justice in the assassination of her husband. That is her focus throughout the story. Revenge for her murdered her husband.

The Flower reader is, by turns sweet and loving, harsh and dark, filled with danger and sometimes brutality. Through it all Rinette’s focus is on finding the safe path. Her bravery shines through the harshness and betrayal she has to face. She is someone this reader cheered for as both Rinette and I tried to discover who was behind it all. I cheered for her happy ending and all the more so because she deserved it, by god.

For me, this was an engrossing tale from start to finish; rich in historical detail but never let up in tension or excitement of the story.

Just excellent.

Five Things I learned Writing Moonlight Falls

It’s my pleasure to welcome Noir Thriller author, Vincent Zandri, back to Over Coffee. He’s one of my favorite people who aside from writing some fabulous thrillers, plays in a band.

He is a drummer in the Albany-based punk band The Blisterz. What can I say; I’ve always had a weakness for smart witty men who play music. :-)

Vin, like many authors today, has to juggle life as a single father of three, with working full time. As a photojournalist, he has traveled extensively to Russia, Italy, China, Africa, Turkey, Greece, England, France, and more.

In addition to an award-winning novelist, Zandri is also a freelance essayist and writes for various global publications. Vincent currently divides his time between New York and Europe.

I appreciate his drive and ambition to write despite the various changes in the publishing market. Changes we’ve all seen—whether we are readers or fellow writers. Instead of letting setbacks or rejections stop him he’s wisely taken the time to learn lessons along the way and apply them.


He agreed to share some of those lessons here. Your thoughts on his lessons are welcomed.



Many things were learned during the five on-again, off-again years while I was writing my new noir, thriller, Moonlight Falls, the least if which, is that initial publishing success can be fading. Back in 1999, when my first commercial thriller, As Catch Can, was first published in hardcover by Delacorte, I assumed that I had found a permanent literary home for the rest of my life, and that the next stop in my green career was the Pulitzer Prize. But when Delacorte merged with another publisher, many of its authors were quickly transferred elsewhere and from there, kindly shown the door. For me, it was back to square one.

But despite the trial and tribulations of a commercial publishing world that has been described as “perilous,” I was nonetheless able to adhere to a program of good, solid writing, day in and day out. That alone became my shield against a volatile publishing business. That alone was my guiding force in a short literary life that had seen great ups and that now, was realizing a very deep, seemingly bottomless pit.

Still I trudged on through a period of several years where I did not publish a single book, but instead concentrated on the writing of several manuscripts, not the least of which, became Moonlight Falls.



Here are five things I learned about myself and the world around me during that time.

• Nothing replaces rock solid writing, research and rewriting. Or, the three R’s, if you will. Even though I might have quit the business altogether and moved on to something less volatile than the writing and publishing life, I still adhered to a rigorous writing program day in and day out, even when there was no money coming in. I chose this path because in the back of my head, I always knew that the novel would one day be published. Not self-published, mind you, but published in the traditional format. Which leads me to…

• Never lose your faith in yourself and your ability, even in the face of domestic non-tranquility. Things around the house during my, lets call them “wilderness years,” were not very happy. I’d just married my second wife, Laura, whom I believed was my soul mate. We came together at a time when things were great. I was on top of the world as a writer and we were traveling the world. But then, when things got hard. I retreated back into my shell and nearly lost all confidence in my ability to write a great story. But curiously, and sadly, as Laura and I began to break up, I regained my confidence. Which leads me to…

• Don’t quit the day job. Or in my case, don’t give up the freelance writing and journalism because you’re suddenly under the impression you’re the next Norman Mailer. What you must constantly remind yourself is that even a world renowned writer like Mailer was broke half the time. When I published As Catch Can and the follow up, Godchild, I assumed I’d never have to write another stitch of journalism again; that I could place all my literary eggs into one basket. Turns out, had I kept my foot in the freelance writing door, I might have saved my marriage and my home by maintaining at least a semblance of income. Luckily, I was able to make a return to journalism but only after the domestic damage was done. Which leads me to…

• Learn to weather the storms and know when to move on with your life. Said another way, learn how to swallow your pride. It’s a tough thing losing everything you have worked so hard for in life, from your publisher to your wife to your home. But to have it all happen at once, well, that’s enough to break even the strongest man for good. But this is the life we live as writers and novelists. This is the life we have chosen. While in many ways I would stop at nothing to have my wife back, I know I am powerless to do anything about it other than write the best I can, and do so consistently and without prejudice; without concern for what the publishing market is currently bearing. Which leads me to…

• The publishing market is undergoing severe and rapid change. Traditional commercial publishers are dying. Don’t let them tell you otherwise. What’s replacing them are electronically based, independent houses that although utilizing the traditional publishing model of accepting a manuscript based upon its merits as a work of art, now publish the manuscripts in both electronic and POD format. Yes, the independent bookstores will hate you for it, and even turn up their noses at you. But 90% of all book buyers are making their purchases online. Many of them are doing so via Kindle, I-Phone, BlackBerry, and other electronic means.

It’s the new world publishing model of social media, virtual tours, book trailers, blog talk radio, mommy blogs, etc., and it is here to stay. More then likely, it will give over to an influx of self-published material over the next few years, while big agent firms and big publishers die off.

• Where do you buy most of your books? Online or Bookstores?

I have an autographed copy of Moonlight Falls for a commenter today. Be sure to leave me a way to contact you.

Back cover blurb:

In MOONLIGHT FALLS, novelist and photojournalist, Vincent Zandri, asks the question "If you knew your life could end at any moment, how far would you go to prove you murdered your lover? "

Albany, New York, is the setting of Zandri's paranoid thriller (in the Hitchcock tradition) about Richard "Dick" Moonlight, former APD detective turned private investigator/massage therapist in training that finds himself in deep trouble.

After surviving a botched suicide attempt, he now lives precariously on the fence between life and death due the remnant of a .22 caliber bullet lodged in his brain. With the little piece of lead pressing up against his cerebral cortex, he knows he can’t always trust himself to make the correct decisions. He also can’t trust his short-term memory.

When his sometimes lover, the beautiful Scarlet Montana, calls him up one night he knows he should resist, however, the temptation is too strong. Later that same night, when Scarlet’s body is discovered, Moonlight receives a call by her police chief husband, Jake, to oversee a special investigation into a murder Moonlight may well have committed.

The problem is ...

Moonlight doesn't remember what happened!

"Readers will be held captive by prose that pounds as steadily as an elevated pulse...Vincent Zandri nails readers’ attention."
~ Boston Herald

Read first chapter excerpt

Moonlight Falls Trailer

~*~*~*~*~

Moonlight Falls author, Vincent Zandri, is an award-winning novelist, essayist and freelance photojournalist. His novel As Catch Can (Delacorte) was touted in two pre-publication articles by Publishers Weekly and was called "Brilliant" upon its publication by The New York Post. The Boston Herald attributed it as “The most arresting first crime novel to break into print this season.” Other novels include Godchild (Bantam/Dell) and Permanence (NPI). Translated into several languages including Japanese and the Dutch, Zandri’s novels have also been sought out by numerous major movie producers, including Heyday Productions and DreamWorks.


Presently he is the author of the blogs, Dangerous Dispatches and Embedded in Africa for Russia Today TV (RT). He also writes for other global publications, including Culture 11, Globalia and Globalspec. Zandri’s nonfiction has appeared in New York Newsday, Hudson Valley Magazine, Game and Fish Magazine and others, while his essays and short fiction have been featured in many journals including Fugue, Maryland Review and Orange Coast Magazine.


He holds an M.F.A. in Writing from Vermont College and is a 2010 International Thriller Writer’s Awards panel judge. Zandri currently divides his time between New York and Europe. He is the drummer for the Albany-based punk band to Blisterz. His new thriller, The Remains, is to be published this Summer and Fall in electronic format and trade paperback by Stone House Ink.


You can find Vincent Zandri:

The Vincent Zandri Vox (blog) , Twitter , Facebook , MySpace