FEATURED AUTHOR: NIKKI STERN

 


ABOUT THE BOOK

Susan Foster wants to retire. Her boss wants her dead.


After decades as Victor Kemp’s off-the books killer, Suzanne finally quits. Not until five years later does Kemp discover how thoroughly she’s deceived him. Determined to punish her, he tracks her to Wales to watch her die. Instead, he walks into a trap.


Believing themselves safe at last, Suzanne and her family relocate to London, where she hopes to find the peace that has eluded her for so long. Her son is engaged to a nobleman’s daughter; her husband has a good job with British Intelligence. Yet she still struggles with restless dreams and the premonition that her nemesis has survived.


He has: Kemp, though severely injured, is rebuilding his empire and plotting revenge. He’s prepared to risk everything to end the former assassin. He may not be the only one.


Suzanne has no choice: to protect those she loves, she will be forced to kill again. Assassins, it seems, can never retire.

BOOK DETAILS:

Title: The Former Assassin


Author: Nikki Stern

Genre: suspense thriller

Publisher:  Ruthenia Press (January 8, 2018)

Print length: 304 pages

INTERVIEW WITH NIKKI STERN

Q: Nikki, where’s home for you?

A: I’ve lived just outside Princeton, New Jersey for the last twenty-five years. It’s been good to me but I can’t predict where I’ll end up.


Q: What’s the most valuable thing you’ve learned?
A: Not to rush.

Q: What’s the most daring thing you’ve ever done?
A: I dared myself to get up and out of the house after my husband was killed. Then I dared myself to get active and advocate for less mobile survivors.

Q: What’s one thing you wish your younger writer self knew?
A: That I’d still have moments of anxiety so that I might have started meditation earlier in life. Maybe I’d be better at it.

Q: What makes you bored? 

A: Preachy movies, talky books. I love snappy dialogue as much as action; I just don’t want to be lectured.


Q: What choices in life would you like to have a redo on?
A: I would like to have lived abroad more than three weeks one summer. I mean, I’d have liked to spend a year or two years away from the states.

Q: What makes you nervous?
A: The anger and hate leaking out into the world. I have to remind myself that plenty of people are still propelled by generosity, not animosity.

Q: What makes you happy?
A: My relationship with my sister, my friends, my dog, my extended family.

Q: What makes you scared?
A: Willful ignorance.

Q: What makes you excited?
A: A breakthrough moment when writing (or rewriting) when I can suddenly see how it goes together and where it’s headed (“it” being whatever I’m writing.


Q: Who are you?
A: At the end of the day, a work in-progress. Guess what? That keeps me going when my body and even my spirit flag.

Q: If you could only save one thing from your house, what would it be?
A: Easy: my dog.

Q: What brings you sheer delight?
A: 
I like laughter: anytime, anywhere. Wait, I have to add a caveat. It has to be laughter that sounds joyous, that comes from people who are being amazed or delighted or applauded or entertained or loved. Malicious laughter—and I can hear that as well—turns me blood cold.

Q: What’s your favorite line from a book?
A: 
“Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt.” ~ Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut.

Q: Are you like any of your characters?
A: I have some things in common with Suzanne. We’ve both known loss. We’ve both been rendered temporarily helpless by ill-advised choices and worse, choices denied to us. We’ve experienced the redemptive power of love, the frustration of trying to move beyond our history, the unbidden rage that lies just beneath the surface, and the ever-present awareness of our own mortality.
And we both know what it feels like to get off a good shot.

Q: What’s the best compliment you’ve ever received about your writing?
A: One fan wrote that my writing is truthful, accessible, entertaining, quietly instructive and always thought-provoking. Another said “always original.” Those comments mean a lot.

Q: What are you working on now?
A: I’m working on a mystery about a small-town sheriff with a serial killer hunting in her rural county and a childhood trauma in her past that haunts her in ways even she doesn’t fully understand. We’ll see if it becomes a series.

Excerpt | The Former Assassin by Nikki Stern

BOOK TRAILER


ABOUT THE AUTHOR 


Nikki is the author of two works of non-fiction: Hope in Small Doses, a 2015 Eric Hoffer finalist for books that provoke, inspire and redirect thought, and Because I Say So. She’s also contributed essays to three anthologies and had several short stories published. She is co-author on the Cafe Noir interactive murder mystery series, published by Samuel French. Nikki is working on a mystery series starring an unorthodox crime fighter named Samantha Tate. When she's not writing about strong, complex women, Nikki is working with several non-profits, taking Pilates classes, and attending to the needs of her dog, Molly.



Connect with Nikki:
Website  |  Blog  |  Facebook  |  Twitter  |  Goodreads

Buy the book:
Amazon  |  Barnes & Noble  |  iTunes  |  Kobo  |  Audible

FEAURED AUTHOR: KATHERINE PRAIRIE

ABOUT THE BOOK

Deep in a Columbia River valley rocked by violence and tightly controlled by a U.S.-Canada military force, geologist Alex Graham joins the search for a suspected toxic spill as the victim count rises. But the lethal contamination is no accident.

INTERVIEW WITH KATHERINE PRAIRIE

What's your favorite thing about the writing process?
When I start a novel, I create a basic outline of my main plot and then I let my imagination take over. I never really know where my characters will take me or exactly what subplots might develop, so it’s like I start a new adventure every day.

Do you have a writing routine?
I like to get started early in the morning, and I usually pick-up where I left off without reviewing the previous day’s work. Sometimes I’ll write for the entire day, but most of the time I write for 3-4 hours, and then spend the rest of the day editing or working on promotional stuff. And I almost always have a cat in my lap!

What do you think is hardest aspect of writing a book?
Laying out a timeline that works. In my mind, I picture how the story works, but when I actually start writing, I’ll find that I need more/less time for something than I thought. It took me several weeks to sort out the timeline for a section of Thirst because of its fast pace, and I had to rewrite several scenes to make everything fit together just right. 

What’s more important – characters or plot?
I think plot is more important overall because it acts as the backbone of my story, and once it’s in place, my characters are free to create rich, interesting scenes.  

What’s the oldest thing you own and still use?
An enameled cast iron Le Creuset pot that I bought 35 years ago. It’s the perfect risotto pot, and although its interior is scratched and discolored, it’s still going strong.   

What do you love about where you live?
Vancouver, British Columbia gives me the ocean at my doorstep with the smell of salt air and the cry of seagulls, but it’s also only a few hours from the mountains. It’s an energetic, lively city with interesting neighborhoods, restaurants, art galleries and museums, so there’s never a shortage of things to do.

What's your favorite treat for movie night?
Without popcorn, a movie just isn’t the same. 

What is your superpower?
I’m a cat whisperer. I love cats, and they seem to know it, so I become quick friends even with strays.


Where is your favorite place to visit?
That’s a tough question to answer, because I have so many favorites! I’ll happily hop a plane to visit big cities like New York or London for the arts and culture, but I also love Alberta’s Dinosaur Provincial Park for its dinosaur bone beds and Vancouver Island’s Pacific Rim National park for its pounding surf. Of all of them, New York is the one that I’ve been to the most often, and I even called it home for a few months. 

Do you give your characters any of your bad traits?
Mostly I draw from other people I’ve met for my characters, but a few of my own bad traits show up from time-to-time. Alex Graham and I share a tendency to be a little too impulsive, and Thirst’s Dr. Eric Keenan works too much, which is something I’m always trying to keep in check.  

Have you ever killed off a character fictionally, as revenge for something someone did in real life?
Believe me, I’ve thought about it, but so far these scenes haven’t made their way into my thrillers. However, I have taken out my revenge by making things harder for my characters. Corporal Nathan Taylor is one such character–I really put the poor man through the ringer in Thirst!

What’s in your refrigerator right now?
Cherries, blueberries, and fresh peaches from the Canadian Okanagan Valley. Lots of veggies and all the ingredients for anything Greek: feta cheese, pine nuts, yogurt and black olives. And of course, there’s always a bottle of white wine!

What is the most daring thing you've done?
My very first time in a kayak, I paddled the icy waters of Antarctica. There were leopard seals nearby and they have been known to attack kayaks so I was a little freaked out, but the experience was exhilarating!

What would your main character say about you?
Alex Graham would say that I’m a damn good geologist but I spend too much time in the office and I should join her out in the field searching for gold, silver and the like.

What’s the hardest thing you’ve ever had to write?
My author biography because I’m not very good at talking about myself. I’m fine in an interview like this one, but if you give me a blank canvas and ask me to come up with a thousand words about myself I more or less freeze.


Who is your favorite fictional character?
Daniel Silva’s Gabriel Allon. This artist who is a Mossad agent is an incredibly rich character, and I find him very compelling.


What’s one thing that very few people know about you?
I was only sixteen when I won a public speaking contest that rewarded me with a week in New York at the United Nations with other North American high school students. It doesn’t come up much because it happened so very long ago, but it was a pivotal moment in my life. 

What’s your favorite song?
"Hotel California" by the Eagles, both because of the great music and also because I just love the line “You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.” It comes to mind anytime I’ve faced with a frustrating, logic-defying situation. I had one this week, when I tried to cancel an airline ticket. I could hit the cancel button as often as I liked, but it never did anything but retrieve the ticket details!


What is your favorite movie?
Dr. Zhivago. I especially love the icy, winter scenes, and Omar Sharif and Julie Christie make the story come alive. 


What are you working on now?
The second Alex Graham suspense thriller which will take our intrepid geologist to Brazil and beyond. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Katherine Prairie, a geologist and IT specialist, stepped away from the international petroleum industry to follow her passion for writing. An avid traveler with an insatiable curiosity, you never know where you’ll find her next! But most days, she’s in Vancouver, Canada quietly plotting murder and mayhem under the watchful eye of a cat. THIRST, a thriller featuring geologist Alex Graham, is her first novel.

Connect with Katherine:
Website  |  Facebook  |  Twitter  |  Goodreads

Buy the book:
Amazon  |  Barnes & Noble

CHARACTER INTERVIEW: SHERIFF PROMISE MARY FLYNN

ABOUT THE BOOK

Years after the Willis Asylum closed, the secrets of its past lingered in its decaying halls as a reminder to the good people of Auburn Notch—when Evil closes a door, he also opens a window. Sheriff Promise Flynn was new to the town, and she was about to find out some windows should never be opened. 

Promise Flynn is an overly impulsive Metro Detective whose disregard for procedure finally resulted in her being shot and left for dead during an investigation. To repair her bruised ego and splintered confidence she abandons the callous dark alleys of Chicago to patrol the quiet, birch-lined streets of Auburn Notch—a favorite vacation spot of her youth. For two years everything was idyllic, until the body of a young girl found in the abandoned asylum outside of town awakens the insecurities she thought her new life would insulate her from. As the new Sheriff she begins her investigation ignoring the similarities between the young woman’s death and her own case, oblivious to being unexpectedly recognized and penciled in at the top of a clever murderer’s To-Do list. Her internal struggle intensifies when a discredited crime reporter from the past suspiciously arrives in town to resurrect his threadbare reputation, along with an FBI agent chasing down a lead in a cold case. Both men quickly become entangled in Flynn's investigation and her attempts to finally put her past to rest. Flynn reluctantly accepts the murder of the young girl might be the work of the two men responsible for her hasty departure from Chicago, but Agent MacGregor insists the evidence points to a man he’s been chasing. As the rising current of her past threatens to pull her under, Flynn finds herself unprepared for option three.

ABOUT SHERIFF PROMISE MARY FLYNN

Promise Mary Flynn was a decorated Metro Detective, one of the youngest to achieve the rank. She was overly impulsive, charging right into danger without regard to procedure at times.  She ruffled a lot of feathers on her way up the ranks, but she didn’t care. Her penchant for disregarding procedure when it suited the situation finally resulted in her being shot and left for dead during an investigation. It had a devastating affect. Her was ironclad outer shell was shattered, along with her confidence. To repair her bruised ego and splintered confidence, she abandons the callous dark alleys of Chicago to patrol the quiet, birch-lined streets of Auburn Notch where she spent summers with her family. What follows is anything but therapeutic.

INTERVIEW WITH SHERIFF PROMISE MARY FLYNN

Sheriff, how did you first meet your writer?
Michael also spent a good deal of his youth in New Hampshire. He was very familiar with Auburn Notch, so when it came time to develop a new mystery series he decided to use our town as the setting. I was delighted to be included, though I could do without the murder and mayhem that goes along with his stories. Just don’t tell him I said that.

Want to dish about him?
He’s a very polite and modest kind of guy. I wouldn’t want to embarrass him. I can tell you he’s incredibly creative when it comes to new ways to remove people from this world. He doesn’t just use the old bang-bang-shootem-up methods, he’s always looking for new ways to surprise a reader and raise a few eyebrows. If you want to know what I mean, in this first book I would have never guessed you could kill someone that way.

Did you have a hard time convincing your author to write any particular scenes for you?
I’m a little irritated that the only men I meet are either deranged or a bit slimy around the edges. Michael and I have had a small discussion about this, and he has assured me in the next book I’ll be meeting a “rather dashing fellow,” as he put it. I’m looking forward to it, but I’m sure there will also be a few strings attached.

Tell the truth. What do you think of your fellow characters?
For the most part I get along with most of them. Sure councilwoman Johnson and I have words every once in a while, but at the end of the day we’re friends. My deputy, Hank, and I had a rough start, but we worked it out just in time. Agent MacGregor is as good as any fed could be. The only problem is he just shows up at the worst times, and trouble is not far behind. I’ll let you size up Bob Clayton for yourself, just don’t do it at night alone.

Do have any secret aspirations that your author doesn’t know about?
As my confidence is returning, I sometimes think I’d like to go back to a big city. Not Chicago, but maybe Boston.



What's the worst thing that's happened in your life?
The worst thing that happened is a result of the stupidest thing I’ve done, but it turned out to be the best thing I’ve done. I was a Metro detective in Chicago when I ignored procedure and followed up on an anonymous tip without backup. It lead me right into a trap, where I was shot and left for dead. If it weren’t for Williams, my partner, I would have died that day. I won’t admit this in public, but it was an irritating reporter that had been shadowing us during a case involving a serial killer that alerted Williams to my stupidity. The one good thing that came out of that whole ordeal is I came to Auburn Notch to recuperate and never looked back . . . at least not until the incident at the asylum. I wouldn’t have put the two together if it wasn’t for that black candle they left burning in the window.

Tell us about your best friend Dr. Laura Dearing.
She is the precinct’s clinical psychologist in Chicago and my close friend for many years. It was Laura’s suggestion for me to return to the quiet, pleasant ambiance and familiarity of Auburn Notch to recuperate. We met there years ago during one of our family summer vacations. We were so surprised when we both ended up in the same precinct in Chicago. It didn’t take long to rekindle the friendship we enjoyed so many years ago.

What are you most afraid of?
The bitter scent of ash, and lets just leave it at that. 



What’s the best trait your author has given you?
My ability to size up a person within minutes of meeting them is the greatest strength he’s given me. It’s come in handy more than once. 
What’s the worst?The most irritating trait, and I’m embarrassed to say it, are what he refers to as my “runway looks.” I’d be much happier with a pleasant expression and authoritative glance.

What do you like best about your deputy, Hank Harris? Least?
Hank and I started out on a friendly note when I first arrived in town. He knew I was a detective from Chicago, but he didn’t know what brought me to Auburn Notch. There was a mutual respect for the badge between us. Everything changed when the mayor offered me the sheriff’s position. Hank became gruff, deliberately irritating, and went running to the town council about every little decision I made. I began to wonder if I could trust him. I found out he did a little digging into my past, which fueled his fire even more. He also felt he should have been made sheriff instead of me. I’ve worked with a lot of cops. Hank is a good one, but still a little wet behind the ears. This became very evident, even to him, when we found the body of that young woman in the abandoned asylum. Our relationship changed dramatically after that. I’m so happy it did, otherwise I might not be here today.

What’s your author’s worst habit?
He has an uncanny knack for digging up the worst humanity has to offer and giving them directions to Auburn Notch. Sure, he dresses them up a bit, makes them appear somewhat normal, but it isn’t long before I start to unravel their true character. And people in town wonder why I’m so suspicious of every stranger that strolls into town.

What aspect of your author’s writing style do you like best?
Michael has an artist touch when it comes to describing the setting of a chapter. I really believe it gives the reader a deeper understanding of the surroundings. He doesn’t just explain where the scene is taking place; he places the reader in the room experiencing all the sights and sounds the characters experience. At times it’s quite creepy.

If your story were a movie, who would play you?
This is the one reason I would be happy about my looks and say I would be thrilled to see Charlize Theron play my character in a movie. Putting her stunning looks aside, she has just the right edginess to her attitude and the toughness to carry the badge.

Describe Auburn Notch.
Auburn Notch is a quiet New Hampshire town nestled beneath the shadows of the White Mountains. I spent many summers here as a young child with my parents, so returning after so many years felt like going home. The people are friendly, the air is clean and brisk, and the fresh scent of pine lingers over the town like a delicate lace throw. It’s the complete opposite of the gritty streets of Chicago I left behind. It’s the last place you would expect to find crime, but unfortunately it rears its ugly head from time to time even in this tranquil setting.

What makes you stand out from any other characters in your genre?
That’s a tough question. I don’t know whether I would want to stand out from others in my genre. What I would really like is to be accepted as an equal to some of the great characters that have come before me. Having accomplished that would be a great achievement.

Will you encourage your author to write a sequel?
I’m very excite to say I just found out a second book has been submitted to Sunbury Press for publication toward the end of this year. It details a very strange occurrence in town, and will introduce readers to Alice Norbury. Alice is the town matriarch, and she becomes embroiled in an eco-terrorist plot after the mysterious death of her husband. I’ll tell you this one is not a story to miss. They say it’s not nice to fool Mother Nature; but when you do, look out. Her fury has never been so threatening. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Michael is a classically trained artist turned mystery writer. By combining his creative talents with a passion for mysteries he conceived his first series—The Ernie Bisquets Mysteries. It introduced Ernie Bisquets, a retired London pickpocket who decided he was going to assist the London police with their most difficult cases—whether they want his help or not. Michael has completed 3 books in the series, and has plans for at least five additional books. Book 4 is in the works now.
   
Michael travels a bit, especially to Great Britain, but also has a fondness for New England. He spent many winters in the shadow of the White Mountains, skiing and enjoying the beautiful countryside. Those fond memories are the backdrop now for the new Auburn Notch Mysteries being published by Sunbury Press. The main character is Sheriff Promise Flynn—an ex-metro detective who left a dark past and her big-city detective shield behind and moved to a small New England town.
   
When he’s not painting or writing, Michael is an avid antique collector, filling his current home—an 1894 Queen Ann Victorian he, his wife, and son are restoring—with an assortment of antiques from around the world. Michael also enjoys cooking, working in the garden, and playing in the yard with their two rescues, Beau and Pup.

Connect with Michael:
Website  |   Blog  |   Facebook  |   Twitter  |   Goodreads  

Buy the book:
Amazon  |  Barnes &Noble  |   Sunbury Press  

a Rafflecopter giveaway