Reading For Pleasure

Aaah, February...

February is the month of icky snow, icy cold, and the bloodthirsty desire to hunt down those blasted snow fairies.  No wait, this is supposed to be a positive view of February.

Positive...good things…don’t look at the six inches of new snow covering your blooming Daffodils, Sia…

Ah, yes, back on track. It’s the month of love, sweethearts, candy hearts, flowers, and romance in the air (providing you’re inside, where it’s warm and not outside freezing your tush off—which is probably why this is the month of love).

Anyway, I digress. So, find your favorite comfy seat, a nice snuggling blanket, grab something hot to warm you (not the hot guy on the side, ladies); I was thinking coffee, hot chocolate, or tea.

My assistants are searching high and low for list of reads that are sure to please—I sure enjoyed them! These were books I read for pleasure. I don't get a chance to do that as often as I like.

  

The Eden Prophesy  GrahamBrown  

The wisdom of faith. The power of science. The evil of man.

In the U.N. building in New York City, a U.S. Ambassador contracts an unknown virus after opening a threatening letter. In a slum near Paris, a rogue geneticist is found dead, tortured and defiled. His last message, a desperate plea for help, was sent to an old friend and fellow outcast, the ex-CIA agent and former mercenary named Hawker. His final legacy appears to be the fingerprints he left all over the letter to the Ambassador.

Consumed by thoughts of revenge but fighting to see the truth, Hawker teams up with NRI operative Danielle Laidlaw on a quest to find the killers and track down the secrets his dead friend may have lost or sold.

From the streets of Paris to an underground auction in the catacombs of Beirut to the merciless deserts of Iran, Hawker and Danielle find themselves hunting a murderous cult leader whose scientific arsenal could lead humanity to a new Eden—or unleash hell on the Earth itself.

The Turning Of Anne Merrick  — A tale of love and espionage. Christine Blevins

She spies for General Washington, betrays the Redcoats and battles for America's independence...

It's 1777, and a fledgling country wages an almost hopeless struggle against the might of the British Empire. Brought together by a fateful kiss, Anne Merrick and Jack Hampton are devoted to each other and to their Patriot cause. As part of Washington's daring network of spies, they are ready and willing to pay even the ultimate price for freedom.

From battlefields raging along the Hudson, to the desperate winter encampment at Valley Forge and through the dangerous intrigue of British-occupied Philadelphia, Anne and Jack brave the trials of separation, the ravages of war and an unyielding enemy growing ever more ruthless.

For love and for country, all is put at risk-and together the pair must call upon their every ounce of courage and cunning in order to survive.

CassaFire Alex Cavanaugh 

CassaStar was only the beginning… 

The Vindicarn War is a distant memory and Byron’s days of piloting Cosbolt fighters are over. He has kept the promise he made to his fallen mentor and friend - to probe space on an exploration vessel. Shuttle work is dull, but it’s a free and solitary existence. The senior officer is content with his life aboard the Rennather.

The detection of alien ruins sends the exploration ship to the distant planet of Tgren. If their scientists can decipher the language, they can unlock the secrets of this device. Is it a key to the Tgren's civilization or a weapon of unimaginable power? Tensions mount as their new allies are suspicious of the Cassan's technology and strange mental abilities. 

To complicate matters, the Tgrens are showing signs of mental powers themselves, the strongest of which belongs to a pilot named Athee, a woman whose skills rival Byron’s unique abilities. Forced to train her mind and further develop her flying aptitude, he finds his patience strained. Add a reluctant friendship with a young scientist, and he feels invaded on every level. All Byron wanted was his privacy…

Shadow Highlander: A Dark Sword Novel DonnaGrant 

HE CAN FEEL HER MAGIC

Sent on a dangerous mission into the shadowy world of the Druids, Galen must find a powerful ancient relic to defeat the enemies of Castle MacLeod. But what he discovers is far more powerful—and far more dangerous. A Druid lass whose beauty is as spellbinding as any magic…

CAN HE FREE HER SOUL

Reaghan is the most enchanting woman Galen has even met—and the most enigmatic. She alone is immune to his mind-reading gifts. He alone makes her feel safe and secure. But Reaghan holds a secret power deep inside her that could destroy them both. And if Galen hopes to hold this captivating woman in his arms every night, he must defeat the darkness that draws closer around her every day….

What am I reading right now? Kathleen and Michael Gear's Searing Wind—I've been reading their books since they first published them. I'll let you know my thoughts when I finish it.

Oh, and if you see that blasted Snow Fairy? Kick her winged self far north, would you? 

Thanks

WHAT KIND OF WRITER ARE YOU?

My guest is thriller author, Graham Brown. His debut thriller, BLACK RAIN, has the backdrop of Mayan myth. I can't wait to read it.


Graham cracks me up with his view of things. Take a look at his website and read his latest adventure, Hieroglyphic Canyon. I also like his thoughts on writing. I can so relate to his *style*. :-)


People often ask: “What kind of books do you write?” An important question, but I think a more important question for us writers is “What kind of writer are you?”

It’s important because you have to know yourself to know how to get your best work out. I been fortunate enough, even before I was published, to talk with and occasionally hang out with other writers. To my dismay they all seemed so damn organized. I actually made me sick. Word counts, page counts, designated times for writing. Ummm… yeah, I don’t do any of that stuff.

Which begs the question - Am I doing this thing wrong somehow?

I mean, I could do a word count but most likely it would resemble my senior paper from high school which had to be fifteen hundred words and in which I used every possible trick to lengthen every single sentence as much as humanly possible including repeating and repeating and repeating words and phrases. If Lucas had written Star Wars that way it would have started “A, long, long, long , long ,long , loooooong time ago in a galaxy far, far, extremely, very far away…” Nope – word count’s not going to work for me.

Then, I met a couple of writers that only work when they’re really feeling it. “Really Feeling It”? Are you kidding me? Nine times out of ten I don’t “really feel it” until I’ve been working for an hour or so. That first hour of work is like – “ugh, I think I’ve forgotten how to do this.” Followed by - “why do I suck so much.” Followed by – “wait, look, a sentence with some redeeming value – PROGRESS!”

So what kind of writer am I anyway? Well for me, getting going is tough- I don’t mean sitting in the seat – although that can be a problem too. I mean cranking out pages that I think are worthy of all the effort. It just doesn’t start quickly. But once I get going I don’t want to stop.

I guess that means I’m a sprint writer. No that’s not quite right, 100,000 plus words cannot be considered a sprint. A “binge” writer? No – that sounds like it’s involuntary somehow and that I have to throw it all away afterward – thankfully neither of which is generally the case. Okay so here it is – I’m a Freight Train writer. It takes a long time to get up any momentum but once I start going don’t park on the tracks in front of me.

When I’m really working, I end up staying up later and later every night. Which, of course, makes it harder and harder to get up in the morning, but I don’t care- I write until physically can’t go anymore.

With apologies to Gabriel Byrne, it reminds me of the talking Heads song – Life During Wartime. Sleep in the daytime, work in the night time, I might not ever get home…

Now, I’m not recommending this to anyone – in fact I think it’s probably the least healthy style of writing out there. What I am suggesting is find out what works for you – try different things and when you’ve found THE WAY you get your best work done, don’t worry if it’s different from what others are doing, because I guarantee everyone is doing something a little different. And in my opinion, knowing yourself is as important as knowing your characters.


Funny thing is, this was a hard realization to come to. Mostly because my first book, Black Rain, which came out in January of 2010, was a different process. I wrote it over a long period of years, prior to being represented. Prior to having any real deadlines. I wrote that one more like one of those “when I’m feeling it authors.”

My second book, Black Sun, which comes out this August, was a different story (no pun intended). Written on a dead-line, with important people like agents and editors waiting to see it, I tried to do the page count thing, and I did, in a way – at first I fell way behind in my page count, while I thought and considered and backtracked and rearranged, and then, when the train got going, I caught up and passed the page count And it went quickly, and it came out great and it was tighter on the first draft, than my prior book had been on the third or fourth. Guess we’re learning something.


And when it came time to do the revisions – I did them the same way – thinking and jotting down notes for hours and days, while not a keystroke was written. And then, I went into the work mode, pretty much twenty-four/seven for several weeks. I didn’t want to be interrupted by anything, not dinner, not walking the dog, or going out with my wife or our friends.


To quote another line from Life During Wartime – no time for dancing, or lovey dovey, I ain’t got time for that now…


So now I’m working on a third book, I’ve been filling up legal pads with scribbled character notes and dialogue fragments and arrows and abbreviations galore to the point where; if one of these suckers falls into the wrong hands it will probably get me committed as some kind of Uni-bomber like mad man. Doesn’t help that during this phase, shaving and personal hygiene go out the window and that I’m often seen talking to myself in public, working out dialogue, (which is almost always conflict so it seems like I‘m arguing with myself). Truth be told, it’s not a pretty sight, the other day at Starbucks people were scurrying away in all directions to get away from me. The character I was working on was plotting to destroy the world and I think I may have voiced some of his plans to the unsuspecting public. Might have to go to a different Starbucks next time.


But anyway , somehow this works and now the train is starting to move. The nights will soon get longer and the days will get later and the whole thing will pick up speed until hopefully it comes to a roaring finish and I can reflect on another line from Life During Wartime, in which we hear the singer tell us - “I’m burning notebooks, what good are note books, they won’t keep you alive…” No, but then again, they might bring a story to life.

• So tell me about your “weirdest” writing habit? If you dare.

# - # - #

• A Coveted Treasure,
• 
  
  A Perilous Mission,
• 
  
  And a Dark Secret That Kills

Covert government operative Danielle Laidlaw leads an expedition into the deepest reaches of the Amazon in search of a legendary Mayan city. Assisted by a renowned university professor and protected by a mercenary named Hawker, her team journeys into the tangled rain forest—unaware that they are replacements for a group that vanished weeks before, and that the treasure they are seeking is no mere artifact but a breakthrough discovery that could transform the world.

Shadowed by a ruthless billionaire, threatened by a violent indigenous tribe, and stalked by an unseen enemy that leaves battered corpses in its wake, the group desperately seeks the connection between the deadly reality of the Mayan legend, the nomadic tribe that haunts them, and the chilling secret buried beneath the ancient ruins.

Excerpt

~*~*~*~

Graham Brown was born in Chicago in 1969. He grew up in Illinois, Connecticut and Pennsylvania, traveling often with his family. Graham earned a degree in Aeronautical Science from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Arizona and went on to get a law degree from Arizona State College of Law in Tempe.

A former pilot, lawyer and executive at a small health care company, Graham could not escape the allure of the thriller. After writing in his spare time for years he decided to see what he could make of it. Black Rain is the first result, with other novels on the way.


Graham has spent the better part of the last 21 years in the deserts of Arizona and southern California. He currently lives in Tucson, with his wife, Tracey.