Tess Talks To: Lee Carruthers

Marilynn Larew was here in February to talk about The Spider Catchers, the first book in her Lee Caruthers thriller series, published by Artemis Hunter Press. Today, my main character, Tess, sits down with Marilynn's mc, Lee Carruthers. Let the girl talk begin...

About the book:

What do the violent takeover of Fez brothels and a new stream of terrorist funding have to do with the disappearance of Alicia Harmon from the Fez office of Femme Aid Maroc? When CIA analyst Lee Carruthers tries to find out, she is swept into a tangled web of dirty money and human trafficking, and people will kill to find out what Alicia knew. If only Lee knew. She’s working blind, and in this case, ignorance is death. Her search takes her through the slums of the Fez medina to the high-rises of the new city and finally to a terrorist camp in the Algerian desert.

About the character:

Lee Carruthers was born in the small town in Maine where her mother’s family originated. She's the third generation in the spy business. Her father was in Hong Kong in the last days of the Vietnamese war selling counterfeit piasters on the black market to finance CIA operations. Her grandmother ran a safe house and escape route in Paris for OSS during World War II. She has Bachelors and Masters degrees from Yale in Islamic civilization and went to work as an analyst for the Agency directly out of graduate school. She's currently based in Paris, where she chases the profits of gun runners, drug smugglers, slavers, and terrorists by computer, seizing their money and putting them out of business. Sometimes her boss, Sidney Worthington, sends her out to do things analysts don’t usually do, which gets her into trouble analysts don’t usually get into.

Tess Talks to Lee Carruthers

Lee, how did you first meet Marilynn?

I was sitting at my computer in Paris, hacking into a private Geneva bank in search of a couple of million dollars belonging to a big-time Merchant of Death, when Paul, who runs the café-bar-tabac on the ground floor of my building brought her up and introduced her. He said she was looking for a heroine for a spy book. She didn’t look like much – tall and skinny with muddy brown hair and thick glasses. I didn’t know what writers look like, but she looked like one. She said she was looking for a girl who knew her way around computers and could handle a Glock. It sounded like more fun than sitting around the office, so I told her I give it a try.

Want to dish about her?

She turned out not to know her way around a computer, and she couldn’t handle a Glock either, so she needed a lot of advice, but she learned fast, although I’m not sure I’d let her behind me with a loaded gun even now. Her plots tell me she hasn’t had much adventure in her life; in fact, I think she’s had a pretty boring time of it. I guess writers don’t do much but sit at their computers thinking of outrageous things for people like me to do.

Did you ever think that your life would end up being in a book?

No, I didn’t, and to tell you the truth, I’d rather be in a romance. In her thrillers I get too much exercise of the wrong kind. Would it be too much to ask for her to put me in a romantic thriller where I get the guy – the hunky one I thought was the villain until the last chapter – and ride off with him into the sunset? She says in a series I can’t keep getting the guy, because I’d have to kill him at the end of every book, and that would make me look like the Black Widow spider we have on the cover of Spider, but couldn’t I have a partner. . .?

Did you have a hard time convincing Marilynn to write any particular scenes for you?

Actually, I have trouble holding her back. She likes to write things for me to do that are not humanly possible. I mean, readers will put up with stuff that’s a little bit over the top, but I have my reputation at the Agency to think of. The guys I trained with know what I can do.

What do you like to do when you are not being actively read somewhere?

I like to ski in a little resort in Switzerland where only a few of the guests are Beautiful People. After sitting at a computer for weeks on end or trying to satisfy the wildest dreams of my author, I find streaking down the run with the wind in my face the best feeling in the world.

Do have any secret aspirations that your author doesn’t know about?

I’d really like to have a little shack in the Caymans, a private beach where I can wear something or nothing, a banana tree, an avocado tree, and space to raise some tomatoes, beans, and salad. I could live off fish and crabs I caught, with the occasional bought chicken for a change. I’d buy the chicken and my gin by doing Arabic translations, and I wouldn’t have to think about guns or drugs or slaves or terrorists for the rest of my life.

If you had a free day with no responsibilities and your only mission was to enjoy yourself, what would you do?

I love to walk around Paris, looking in shops, having a drink at a café, just doing nothing the way Europeans do so well. Americans always have to be doing something. If they’re not working, they’re not playing either; they’re exercising. Hard. The Puritans have a lot to answer for. Rooted in the American soul is the feeling that just having fun is sinful.

What impression do you make on people when they first meet you?

I’m quiet and a bit of a loner. I guess my job is responsible for that or I like my job because it lets me be quiet and a bit of loner. When they first meet me, people almost always think I’m shy or standoffish.

How about after they've known you for a while?

After they know me better, they know I have a mordant sense of humor and am always ready to party. In small groups. I hate crowds.



What's the worst thing that's happened in your life?

Going to my father’s funeral and discovering he was a bigamist was the worst thing that ever happened to me. I guess I should explain that. My father worked for the CIA, and he wasn’t home much. I always thought he was out there spying for his country. I adored him and brought myself up in his image. I went to work for the Agency just as he had. One day when I was still at Langley, I came across the notice of his death in the Washington Post. I couldn’t understand why I hadn’t been notified. Everybody at the Agency knew I was his daughter. I went to the funeral home to see what was going on, and down by the casket, I saw a pretty, plump woman taking condolences from people who knew I was his daughter.
Beside her was a dainty blonde girl with a heart-shaped face and delicate features about my age. Probably exactly my age. So I learned that my father wasn’t home often because he had another family. And he wasn’t a spy after all. He was just a desk man.

What did you learn from that?

Probably the wrong lessons. I learned that loving somebody will break your heart. And I learned not to trust men. This has not been useful in my relationships with members of the opposite sex. I also don’t much like blondes.

Understandable. Tell us about your best friend.

Somehow I missed out on having friends. I have acquaintances but no close friends. I didn’t belong to any of the little cliques the girls moved around in in school. Maybe I am shy. More likely, it’s because I had to go home from school and take care of Mother. My mother was a drunk, and I could never tell what condition she would be in when I got home. I didn’t even have a date until I was in college. How could I ask a guy to pick me up at home when he might see my mother passed out on the couch? I didn’t get inoculated against love in high school the way most girls do. I don’t think I even know what love is.

What are you most afraid of?

Confined spaces. I can’t even sit in the middle seat in an airliner. I have to have space around me. I have to walk free.

What’s the best trait your author has given you? What’s the worst?

Curiosity is the best trait she’s given me. It’s also the worst. It tends to get me into serious trouble, but I have to know the answer to a question, no matter what the risk.


What’s Marilynn’s worst habit?

She talks too much. She used to be a college professor and is primed to lecture for fifty minutes. Doing research is a second flaw. She used to be a historian, and she has to know everything about everything; the tiniest little detail has to be just right. Until I talked her out of it, she was determined that even the flight schedules in Morocco had to be accurate. She couldn’t work them into the plot that way, but they had to be accurate. She was using a real terrorist group, and, when she first started out, it was a small rag-tag bunch of men on the run from the Algerian Army. By the time she got around to the last draft, it had grown rich and powerful and was certainly not the kind of group one woman, however brave and determined, could deal with. It took a lot of talk to convince her that she was writing fiction and needed to make up a terrorist group that I could deal with.



How do you feel about your life right now? What, if anything, would you like to change?

If it’s not a spoiler, I’ll tell you that I left the Agency at the end of The Spider Catchers. My life is up in the air right now. I’m trying to decide if there’s life after the CIA. I know a guy in Boston who has a small IT company. He wants me to join him, but I’m tired of computers. I want somehow to have a life – a life I can depend on to be the same tomorrow as it is today. Right now she’s got me in Dubai in the middle of a turf war between contending gangs of arms dealers. Somehow I’ve got to convince her that I’m tired of dodging bullets.

What aspect of your Marilynn’s writing style do you like best?

She’s got a kind of smart-alecky, world-weary style that suits my personality. In the last performance evaluation I had before I left the Agency, the examiner wrote that I was impertinent, insubordinate, and impossible. I’m afraid she’s got me down pat.

You sound like my kind of woman! If your story were a movie, who would play you?

I’ve been out of the country for so long that I don’t know much about current American film stars. A friend suggested Scarlett Johansson, but I think that Daniela Ruah, who plays Kensi on NCISLA, comes closest. She’s a little young, maybe, but she can play older.

Describe an average day in your life.

There’s no describing an average day in the field, so I’ll tell you what life has been like in Paris. I get up in the morning, and Paul from downstairs brings me café au lait, bread, butter, and the morning’s L’Humanite, whose content is awful and whose credibility is worse. It’s fitting that it’s published by the French Communist Party. I find it at least as credible as Le Monde, and it somehow fits my mood. Then I go upstairs to the office in my bunny slippers to check the day’s email. If there’s nothing there that requires immediate attention, I turn to my Bad Boys and start hacking their money. Slipping into a Geneva bank’s files gives me the same kind of thrill that breaking into a flat to search it does. It’s always new – following the twisty trail of illegal money, and I get a similar thrill from confiscating the money or making it disappear into the stratosphere. I don’t have a very law-abiding mentality, do I? Sometimes when the trail is hot, the work goes on into the night. Sometimes when I can’t find anything, I stop beating my head against the wall and go across the river to look at the Egyptian collection at the Louvre. Sometimes I have a date in the evening, but more often not. How many times can you break a date because you have to “go out of town on business” before a guy gets tired and looks elsewhere? Sometimes I go downstairs to Paul’s and have a bifteck-frites and go upstairs and see what’s on my Kindle. It’s usually to bed early, sober, and alone.

Will you encourage Marilynn to write a sequel?

It would be hard to stop her. Right now she’s got me in Dubai trying to find out why George Branson is dead. So far, I’ve broken into a safe and discovered a baggie full of diamonds, used a forged Power of Attorney to get into a safety deposit box, and found another baggie of diamonds, raced from Istanbul to Varna, Bulgaria, in search of an arms dealer, and back to Dubai, where, at the moment, she has me in a midnight knife fight down on the dhow docks. Sometimes I wish she’d slow down. I’d give a lot for a good night’s sleep.

I don't blame you! Good luck with that! Why is it that authors always seem to enjoy getting us into trouble? Thanks for being here, Lee!

About the author:

Marilynn Larew was born in Omaha, Nebraska, and after a living in a number of places, including the Philippines and Japan, she finally settled in southern Pennsylvania, where she and her husband live in an 150 year old farmhouse. She has taught courses about the Vietnamese War and terrorism at the University of Maryland and traveled extensively in Europe and Asia. She likes to write about places she has been or places she would like to go. She has published non-fiction about local history, Vietnamese history, and terrorism. This is her first novel.

Connect with Marilynn:                                        Buy the book:
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Featured Author: Jack Getze

I'm happy to be a stop on Jack Getze's blog tour with Great Escapes Virtual Book Tours to promote his second Austin Carr mystery, Big Money, published by Down & Out Books. And there's a giveaway you don't want to miss--a $100 Amazon gift card. Yes. I said a one hundred dollar giveaway.

About the book:

In this jaunty follow-up to Big Numbers, a scruffy stockbroker returns to tangle with

mobsters, women and his own big mouth. The good news, as the story opens, is that the hero is in the company of a gorgeous naked lady. The bad news is that she’s pointing a shotgun at him. It’s a typical predicament for Austin Carr, a semi-shady New Jersey financial professional temporarily in charge of Shore Securities…He’s being extorted into opening a money-laundering account for local crime boss Bluefish; an auditor who was investigating his company has turned up murdered; a fetching state police captain figures he’s the key to her organized-crime probe; and his boss’s mother has been picked up for fixing her church bingo game.

 
Interview with Jack Getze

How do you get to know your characters?

Let them talk, usually by doing a "writing practice" with the character talking to the reader in a first person voice. You try it and see if it works, if there is something inside you (this is also called method acting) which relates to the character -- some part of you that identifies. Writing practice is another term for free writing -- the writer uses a prompt from instructor or website (what is your character's favorite person and why) and lets go, just write down words and thoughts without critiquing yourself. The way I was taught, you are NOT ALLOWED to stop writing for ten minutes.

Whoa! Ten minutes. You can learn a lot about someone in ten minutes. Are any of your characters inspired by real people?

Austin's sidekick, the bartender Luis, is based on a real bartender I used to visit three or four times a week. (Stockbrokers drank after work in my day, and sometimes at lunch.) From the physical description -- tall, dark and handsome Mexican-American -- to the way he intimidated would be trouble makers -- rolled up sleeves with Popeye muscles -- Luis Guerrero the character is this bartender, at least in my mind. I didn't know the guy very well, but he did a great business. Everybody felt safe in his bar. He never had to BE tough because no one ever challenged his word.

Are you like any of your characters?

Yeah, I have to admit that Austin Carr is the devil on my shoulder, the part of Jack Getze always trying to get me in trouble.

Who are your favorite authors?


Elmore Leonard is more than my favorite writer -- he's a mentor, his work a guideline for my writing. He is the master of craft fiction -- fly on the wall, no author intrusion. Only your characters can tell the story. I've read everything he's ever written and frequently re-read my favorites like Stick, Killshot, and Hombre (the western).


Do you have a routine for writing?

I write every day and I like to start early -- four or five in the morning. Of course I have to make coffee, let the dog and cat outside, and then feed them before I can actually sit down at the computer.

Where and when do you prefer to do your writing?

I pretty much read and write all day long, so the computer goes where I do -- the den, the kitchen, the back yard, or even my upstairs office where I have a desk, files and a bulletin board with pictures of actors. When I want to see Austin Carr, I look at a shot I have of Johnny Depp in a suit and tie, wild hair.

Where’s home for you?

I live near the Jersey Shore and have for more than thirty years, but home will always be southern California. My mom's family has lived there for more than a century.

Tell us one weird thing, one nice thing, and one fact about where you live.

New Jersey gets a bad rap, I think because of all the oil refineries and port facilities near the Newark airport. Land in New Jersey, that's what you see. Also, those turkeys in New York like to make fun of us, spread rumors. But New Jersey is one the most beautiful places in all of America -- the rivers and streams, forests, the hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland. Think Kentucky is full of nice horse farms? It is, but there are more thoroughbred horses raised in New Jersey. One weird thing: Under the Red Bank railroad trestle near Front Street lives a real internet troll. His name is Dan.

Everything I know about New Jersey, I learned from David Rosenfelt. It sounds pretty good to me. Say...do you ever run into Andy Carpenter? Never mind...If you could only keep one book, what would it be?

The Complete Works of Arthur Conan Doyle. I've been a serious Sherlock fan since the age of twelve.

Your last meal would be ... 

Beef tacos.

Would you rather work in a library or a book store?

Bookstore. I need to talk and laugh a little bit at work.

You won the lottery. What’s the first thing you would buy?

A giant ranch in the California desert where I could take in and feed all the dogs no one wants. I'd set up a trust so there would be salaries for staff indefinitely, money to pay the property taxes and utilities. A self-sufficient dog retirement home. No one turned away.

You’re given the day off, and you can do anything but write. What would you do?

Take a book, a blanket and an umbrella, go to the beach. Read, swim, tan. And I can do this about eight or nine days in a row without getting bored. A week in Puerto Vallarta is my favorite vacation.

You can be any fictional character for one day. Who would you be?

Bugs Bunny. I think I'd get even more insight into Austin Carr's true nature.

What's up, doc? Sorry. Couldn't help it. What’s one of your favorite quotes?

From the old Dallas TV series: There's an episode where someone asks J.R. Ewing how he came to amass such a giant fortune. Why were you so successful? J.R. doesn't think too hard before he says, "Once you give up your integrity, the rest is a piece of cake."

What are you working on now?

I'm adding some final touches to Austin Carr #3, Big Mojo. I hadn't looked at the manuscript in over a year and -- surprise -- I discovered I'm a better writer now and can apply those new skills in many spots. For all you writers: I'm unpacking a few scenes that needed unpacking.

About the author:

Former Los Angeles Times reporter Jack Getze is Fiction Editor for Anthony nominated Spinetingler Magazine, one of the Internet’s oldest websites for noir, crime, and horror short stories. Through the Los Angeles Times/Washington Post News Syndicate, his news and feature stories were published in over five-hundred newspapers and periodicals worldwide. His two screwball mysteries, Big Numbers and Big Money, are being reissued by Down & Out Books, with the new Big Mojo to follow. His short stories have appeared in A Twist of Noir and Beat to a Pulp. Getze is an Active Member of Mystery Writers of America’s New York Chapter.   

Connect with Jack:        Buy the book:
Website | Goodreads      Amazon | Barnes & Noble

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Featured Author: Tova Mirvis

It's launch day for Tova Mirvis's new novel Visible City, published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. I'm happy to welcome her here today to talk about it, as well as a little bit about herself.

About the book:

An intimate and provocative novel about three couples whose paths intersect in their New York City neighborhood, forcing them all to weigh the comfort of stability against the costs of change.

Interview with Tova Mirvis

Tova, you've written for a lot of publications, and Visible City is your third novel. How long have you been writing, and how did you start?

I’ve been writing since I was a kid, always making up stories and writing poems, but I started to write seriously in college. I wrote about eighty pages of what I thought would be a novel about the Jewish community in Memphis where I grew up, but then put that aside since I didn’t really know what I was doing yet. But that was when I fell in love with writing fiction. A few years later, I started a different novel about the Memphis Jewish community and that became my first novel. I’ve been writing ever since.

What’s the story behind the title Visible City?

I’m terrible with titles. They always come late in the writing process, so late that I’m convinced I will never think up a good title. For Visible City, I had another title I was using for a while but didn’t love it and always hoped something else would occur to me. Finally, I went actively looking for a title I liked better. I read through the manuscript underlining any phrase I thought might work. When I came to the words "Visible City," I felt like this captured some of the themes of my book.

How did you create the plot for this book?

Very slowly. I usually start with a character or small scene that interests me and let the book grow from there. One piece of the book leads me to another piece. I don’t know where I’m going with a book until I get there, so I can’t really plot the whole thing out. It’s a nerve-wracking way to write, because I always worry that the different parts of the book won’t come together, but for me this is an unavoidable part of the writing process.

How do you get to know your characters?

I get to know them as I would another person--slowly over time. I often start with a few real-life models I hold in my head, almost like molds use to shape my characters and then begin to form them on my own. I spend a lot of time writing about the characters, separate from the actual novel itself. I think about them for years, trying to get closer and closer. There comes a point in the process when I feel like I can really see them and feel them. For me this is the most exhilarating part of writing fiction, that sense that you can really understand what it is to be another person. 

Which character did you most enjoy writing?

I enjoyed writing the characters who were the least like me. I also had a great time with the minor characters. It’s easier to feel free with them because less of the weight of the book rests on them. One of my minor characters was a man I referred to as dog man, and he was inspired by someone who lived in my sisters’ building. He liked to hang out in the lobby and monitor who came and went. He hung signs alerting residents to any rules they were breaking. I had fun with the idea of a character who appoints himself as an authority figure but the gratifying work of fiction is getting to think about what makes someone do this, what larger struggles are going on underneath. There’s always a deeper story to why people do what they do, and fiction is a place to lay that bare.

What would your main character say about you?

I think that Nina, my main character, would complain that I tried to hold her back, tried to make her behave. I spent the early years of writing the book overly protecting the characters. I allowed them to feel discontent in their lives, but the book took me so crazily long to write because I wouldn’t let anyone cross any lines, make any bold moves. Finally I realized I had to cut them loose, but I think far earlier than I realized it myself, Nina would have said to me “let me be free.”

Is Visible City based on real events?

My book is fiction, but I made use of some real life events. One of the threads of the book is about a long lost stained glass window that one of my characters thinks is walled inside a New York apartment building. I did a lot of research about this stained glass artist and about the way famous works of art get lost. I also pulled from real-life events that took place in the Manhattan neighborhood I was writing about. While I was writing the book, there was a neighborhood battle about the huge amount of new construction, about whether the character of the neighborhood was changing, and that became part of the book. I read a New York Times article about a café that was tired of noisy kids and hung a sign asking them to use their “inside voices” and that also became part of the book.

Tell us about your favorite scene in the book. 

I think my favorite scene is when one of my characters, Jeremy, finally breaks out from his hated job as a corporate lawyer. He has been reading about urban explorers who sneak into sealed off spaces and decides to join them on an expedition to City Hall Station, a ghost subway station that is underground but no longer in use. He has this realization there that though he has felt so trapped in his life, he can still break out of his own constraints. I felt like so many of my characters, so many people for that matter, feel trapped in their lives, and I loved being able to write a scene when someone recognizes that new pathways are still open.

What book are you currently reading and in what format (e-book/paperback/hardcover)?

I’m currently reading Jeffrey Eugenides’ The Marriage Plot, in paperback. His first book The Virgin Suicides was one of my favorite novels. I loved his use of the first person plural voice – the we voice – which was one of the inspirations for the communal narrator in my first novel.

Do you have a routine for writing? 

I try to be very disciplined about writing and know that if I wait for a quiet, free time, it will never come. I like to write first thing in the day, before my mind gets cluttered with other things. But with that said, I have three kids, so my writing time is very often interrupted. I have had to learn to write around and through the chaos.

I hear you. Where’s home for you?

I have lived outside of Boston for about ten years and moved here because my then-husband was from here. I’ve slowly come to like Boston, but don’t feel like it’s my real “home.”  I grew up in Memphis, Tennessee and am a fifth generation Memphian. Though I haven’t lived there for many years, I feel like that is where I will always consider home.

I love Boston! What would your dream office look like?

My dream office would be any room with a door that I could close, and have complete silence. Also, maybe a room that is bare except for an empty oversized desk and maybe a big window. I write in coffee shops or libraries or at home when my kids are at school, so the notion of any space where I can’t be interrupted or distracted, or where I don’t feel the pull to do the dishes or pick up toys, feels like a wild fantasy to me.

What’s one of your favorite quotes?

I love a line from a Mary Oliver poem: “Tell me what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”

What are you working on now?

I’m working on a new novel, set it the suburb of Boston, where I live. After working on one book for so long, it's strange to be back at the beginning, in that unsure place where I’m not sure exactly where I’m going or how I’m going to get there. As I did with Visible City, I’ve started out with a few pieces that interest me, and trust that those will slowly lead me to others. I’ve learned to be cautious when saying what a book is about at the outset, because so much changes in the writing process. But at this point, I know that the novel is about religious passion (or the lack of it) and teenage angst and about a realtor who can’t sell a dilapidated house along the town lake, and about next-door neighbors who are feuding. I’m sure it will end up being about other things too, though I don’t yet know what those are.

I hope you come back and tell us more when it's published. And thanks for being here today!

Other books by Tova:

The Outside World   The Ladies Auxiliary

About the author:

Tova Mirvis is the author of three novels, Visible City, The Outside World and The Ladies Auxiliary which was a national bestseller. Her essays have appeared in many anthologies and in publications such as The New York Times, The Boston Globe Magazine, Poets and Writers, and Good Housekeeping, and her fiction has been broadcast on National Public Radio. She lives outside of Boston with her three children.

Connect with Tova:
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

Buy the book:
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Indiebound 

Featured Author: Dan O'Brien

You’re never too old to have one more adventure 

Brought to life by Steve Ferchaud’s vibrant drawings, this story for all ages by Dan O’Brien lets us know that it is never too late to have one more adventure. 

An Excerpt:

Robert Pendleton opened one eye as the light of a passing car flashed over the window, shattering the darkness into prisms. He rolled onto his back on the beat-up couch and yawned as he reached his hands up and rubbed his eyes unceremoniously. 

He looked out over the darkness at the digital clock. The red digits spelled out a quarter ‘til midnight––nearly fourteen hours of sleep. He smiled and grabbed one of the cushions of the couch, burying his head in it. Just enough sleep, he reminded himself. Robert felt that anything less than twelve hours of sleep was very nearly too little. 

He grasped blindly for the TV remote. 

Groaning as he lifted his head, he looked at the empty table––his eyes drawn by another flash of a passing car. He couldn’t see clearly, but he knew that the remote had been there before he had fallen asleep nearly half a day ago. 

“Could have sworn….” he mumbled as he pushed himself up and brushed his hand around the top of the table, finding nothing. “Where did….”

Another groan escaped his lips as he lifted his body to a sitting position and threw aside the cluster of pillows that he had gathered around himself. He reached out for the lamp, but instead knocked it to the floor with a resounding thud. 

Robert muttered as he stood up from the couch, and then sank to his knees to search around in the darkness for the fallen lamp. Reaching around on the shadowed floor, shards of the broken lamp scattered like pieces of light. 

He turned his head, peering beneath the large space underneath the couch and saw the reflection of the buttons on the remote. The off-gray piece of machinery was underneath the couch––only darkness lingered beyond it. He reached out as he spoke again. 

“How did it get all the way down there?” 

Robert flexed his hand and strained as he twisted his back to reach farther; yet, the remote remained just out of reach. He pulled his arm away with a huff and craned his neck to the side, staring underneath into the darkness below the couch. 

His eyes widened as he saw the impossible: there was something beyond the remote. He shook his head and closed his eyes, whispering to himself that he didn’t see what he thought he had.

“I saw a little man,” he whispered to himself as he opened his eyes once more and nearly gasped as he did so. 

The figure was closer now and he could make out the outline clearly. A tiny man rested just beyond the remote. 

“What in the name of…?”

“Not here in the name of nobody, laddie. I be a friend though,” crooned the miniscule figure as he interrupted Robert and stepped forward, placing a hand on the darkened and slick surface of the remote. 

A tam-o’-shanter crested his bright red hair, the shaggy mane blending perfectly into his equally crimson, neatly trimmed, beard. 

A billow of whitish smoke drifted from the long-stemmed pipe that he held clenched between his lips. 

Robert fell back and knocked aside the adjacent table. Rubbing his eyes, he spoke a single word: “Leprechaun.”

About the Author:

Dan O’Brien, founder and editor-in-chief of The Northern California Perspective, has written over 20 books––including the bestselling Bitten, which was featured on Conversations Book Club’s Top 100 novels of 2012. Before starting Amalgam, he was the senior editor and marketing director for an international magazine. In addition, he has spent over a decade in the publishing industry as a freelance editor. You can learn more about his literary and publishing consulting business by visiting his website at: www.amalgamconsulting.com. Contact him today to order copies of the book or have them stocked at your local bookstore. He can he reached by email at amalgamconsulting@gmail.com. 

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Would you like to win a remarked copy of Conspirators of the Lost Sock Army and Loose Change Collection Agency signed by the author and illustrator?

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Cover Reveal: Sucker Literary Volume III

Sucker Literary is a platform for established and emerging, hugely intelligent writers who have the grit and talent to create compelling, authentic young adult literature that both adults and teens can enjoy. We are a literary enterprise dedicated to showcasing and promoting undiscovered and established writers who write for young adults (this is not to be mistaken for young adult writers). We are not affiliated with any writer’s organization or program and welcome writers at any stage of their writing career/ journey.

Sucker Literary Volume III

Available April 15, 2014

Bullied and alone, Ainsley seeks refuge in the arms of a strange boy. Time is slipping away for overachieving Sadie Lin, but reigniting an old flame might help. Scarred by a pressuring ex, Alexandra finally faces the rain. “Pasty and chubby” Charlotte makes a public play for the “Tan and Smooth” king. The beautiful girl in the black, lacy push-up bra says that it’s time for Brenn to stop lying . . . at least to herself. A halfway house is no home for Dawn—or is it? How will Dana survive knowing everyone at school thinks she’s a monster, when they just may be right? JJ and her crush finally get a moment alone—at his girlfriend’s hottest party of the year. Sixteen-year-old Sarah prepares for her first day of school by chaining up her Mamí in her bedroom. Alyssa’s life is a well-rehearsed ballet until a tragedy sends her hurtling towards a fall. Loving a boy is as simple as chemistry . . . unless that boy is an unstable element.

Eleven stories that delve into the depths of our experience—driven by fierce and untouched love that makes us seek, lose, fear, desire, long, reflect, survive, steal, protect, fall, and confess.

Founding Editor:
Hannah R. Goodman

Contributors:
The H8TE  Lilliam Rivera
Valentine’s Day  Claudia Classon
Halfway From  Shelli Cornelison
Her Tree Boy Blaze  Lina Branter
How To Fall  Kacey Vanderkarr
If it Rains  Kristina Wojtaszek
Black Lacy   Kimberly Kreines
Superpower  Mary Malhotra
The Chemistry of You and Me  Evelyn Ehrlich
Just a Matter of Time  Charity Tahmaseb
A Different Kind of Cute  Hannah R. Goodman

Find Sucker Literary
Sucker Literary website | Twitter | Goodreads

Buy Sucker Literary
Sucker Literary Anthology |  Sucker Literary Magazine Issue 1

Featured Author: Jim Webster

I'm happy to feature author Jim Webster today. He's here to talk about his newest book, Justice 4.1, a science-fiction/space opera novel, published by Safkhet Fantasy, and he brought along an excerpt from the book.

Interview with Jim Webster:

Jim, how long have you been writing, and how did you start?

Some time in the mid 1970s, but I was mainly writing magazine and news paper articles as a freelance.

What’s the story behind the title Justice 4.1?

It wasn’t the initial title, so I might use that one somewhere else. We wanted something snappier, something which captured some of the underlying themes of the book. So Justice seemed to fit. But I added the 4.1 to help drive home the idea that they’d been trying to get it right for a while and who knows whether the current version work properly.

Do you have another job outside of writing?

I farm, I’m a freelance journalist/writer, I’ve done consultancy. 

Tell us a book by an indie author for which you’re an evangelist.

I really like the Banned Underground series by Will Macmillian Jones. The series grows and deepens as you get into it, and I think that in Bass Instinct he reached a whole new level.

What book are you currently reading and in what format (e-book/paperback/hardcover)?

Paperback, I’m reading The Wrong Stuff, K'Barthan Trilogy: Part 2 by MT McGuire.
The next one in the trilogy is expected soon so I’m making sure I’m ready for it.

What would your dream office look like?

It wouldn’t have me in it.

What are you working on now?

I’ve written the second book about the Tsarina Sector. It’s with the editor, and I’m working on the third. 

Excerpt from Justice 4.1

The flitter was hardly luxurious. It was a spacious workhorse with just enough concessions to comfort to deter personal injury claims from those who hired it. At the moment, it loitered over the northern highlands of the Border Kingdoms at a safe altitude. To their north, the highlands rose steadily until they became snow-capped and were lost in the clouds. Below them was a jumbled badlands of gorges and ridges, twisted rock, frost-shattered and crumbling. Wheeling below them was a pair of great four-winged aradons, keen-eyed carrion feeders. In the distance, perhaps five miles away, Kilonwin Kardoverin could just make out what might be another pair. As far as he could tell, they were the only signs of life in sight. He looked down; even with vision enhancers, the ridges showed virtually no sign of life. He counted three stunted bushes with occasional blades of grass poking through the loose scree.

Kardoverin strapped himself into the co-pilot seat and fiddled with the camera array, determined to get as much footage as possible. Kardoverin had a reputation in the industry as one of the best documentary makers in the sector. This reputation was based on arrogance, a casual disregard for personal safety, and painstaking camera work. He was reputed to get five times as much material as was needed, even for top quality holo work. He turned to the pilot. "Can we get lower? I'd like to film into those gorges."

"Why?"

"Well, there's damn all up here."

"Why not zoom?" The pilot sounded nervous.

"They're in heavy shadow."

"Look, this is the Border Kingdoms, it isn't safe."

Kardoverin adjusted the central rig and raked the peripheral arrays so that they covered both flanks.

"Take us down fast; we'll be through and out."

"They're barbarians! They shoot at people."

"With black powder weapons." Kardoverin's tone was dismissive as he checked the satellite relay. It seemed to be working perfectly. "Look, just go in, one quick fly-through. It isn't as if I'm asking you to land, or even hover."

The pilot muttered something blasphemous under his breath and brought the flitter round. "I'll take us up that gorge on the left, it's narrower. Being so overcast, it's less likely to be inhabited."

He opened the throttle and brought the bow of the flitter sharply down. The clumsy craft accelerated rather faster than Kardoverin had expected, and he hastily checked the camera focus. This model of vehicle was effectively a rectangular box which flew and had little consideration of style. But for his purposes, the open top meant it had been comparatively easy to fit the cameras. The pilot brought them down sharply, heading south, gaining speed as he lost altitude. Then suddenly, he spun the controls and the flitter turned and banked so sharply Kardoverin felt himself hanging in the harness. Then the pilot pointed the nose of his craft straight into the mouth of the gorge, still dropping and gaining speed. As they entered between the towering rock walls, they were barely twenty feet above the ground and moving faster than Kardoverin would have believed possible. Kardoverin kept his eyes on the monitors, running his fingers over the controls in front of him, altering the zoom, the angle, the filters. They were deep in the gorge now and the boxy craft was travelling at breakneck speed. Kardoverin constantly re-adjusted the controls. "Isn't this a bit fast?"

The pilot's answer came through clenched teeth. "If I could go faster, I would. I want us out of here and—" He paused. "Oh hell, we are in deep—"

There was a staccato rattle of automatic weapons fire from one side. The burst struck the pilot, jerking his body against the seat harness. Kardoverin tore his gaze from the monitors and looked towards where the noise had come from. The second burst hit the front of the flitter, and the engine began to whine. Kardoverin frantically unbuckled his harness and stood up to reach over the pilot's body for the controls. The third burst struck him in the chest, spun him round and left him draped over the side of the flitter. Thirty seconds later, with no one at the controls, the flitter struck the rock wall of the gorge and exploded.

About the author:

Jim Webster is probably fifty something, his tastes in music are eclectic, and his dress sense is rarely discussed in polite society. In spite of this he has a wife and three daughters.

He has managed to make a living from a mixture of agriculture, consultancy, and freelance writing. Previously he has restricted himself to writing about agricultural and rural issues but including enough Ancient Military history to maintain his own sanity. But seemingly he has felt it necessary to branch out into writing fantasy and Sci-Fi novels.

He lives in South Cumbria (which is in England)and thus he normally writes in English. Exposure to an editor who understands this sort of thing means he's managed to adapt to US spelling in his Sci-Fi.

Connect with Jim:
Goodreads

Buy the book:
Amazon

Featured Author: Susan Allison-Dean

Susan Allison-Dean is on tour with CLP Blog Tours, and she's here today to talk about her contemporary women's novel, I Know You're There. Keep reading for an excerpt of the book and a rafflecopter giveaway for a $35 Amazon gift card.

About the book:

Jill Bradley is a twenty-four-year-old nurse whose life is going great; she has established herself in her new career and she’s looking forward to getting engaged to her high school sweetheart. But faced with a watershed moment, she has to deal with simultaneous family tragedy, injury, and betrayal, and feels it’s way too much to cope with. In a moment of despair, Jill books a trip to a Caribbean island in an effort to escape. While she finds respite and romance, her problems have also packed their own suitcase.

Helen Bradley, Jill’s mother dedicated her entire life to her family like many mothers in the 1970’s and 80’s. Despite her best efforts, however, she hasn’t always been able to be the type of mother she wished she could be. She has a secret she was hoping would just go away, but it won’t. If she doesn’t share it with Jill it might bring her daughter more harm.

I Know You’re There is a mother-daughter journey, celebrating the highs and delving into the lows of family life. Can the power of love heal all things?

Interview with Susan Allison-Dean

Susan, how did you create the plot for this book?

From personal experience as a nurse and observation of nurses, I felt a need to share an example of the life experience of a nurse. I wanted to write a book that would hopefully represent the level of dedication nurses exhibit even when their personal lives are in turmoil. I wanted to balance this with the message that as strong as nurses are, they are human too.

Nurses were my target market for this novel. However, since there is such a strong mother-daughter story in it, many non-nurse women of all ages have given me very positive feedback. This has been a very welcome surprise.

Is your book based on real events?

The book is fiction, but there are some real events included.  For example, some of the marine mammal encounters and the ship rescue scene really happened to me while visiting the Caribbean.
What song would you pick to go with your book?
In the book, the protagonist, Jill wakes up hearing repeatedly the chorus to a song she has never heard.  That is how the title came to be, ‘I Know You’re There’.  I would love to see the rest of the song developed and made into its own song for the book.

How do you get to know your characters?

This has been a very exciting phenomenon as a new novelist. I find that my characters reveal themselves and their plights best when I am outside, alone in nature, either walking or gardening. Sometimes in the middle of the night, if I awaken and can’t fall asleep, my imagination will further develop them.

What book are you currently reading and in what format (e-book/paperback/hardcover)?

I am currently reading, The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert.  I bought the hardcover, because the book itself is a work of art.

I don’t claim to be an expert on writing, but there are some writing techniques (or mistakes) that stand out to me when I read (e.g. when an author switches POV mid-scene). What’s one pet peeve you have when you read?

I get frustrated when writers inject a big vocabulary word into their story that doesn’t have enough substance built around the word so the reader can infer what it means. It feels like I am stubbing my toe, when I am flowing with the story and then, ugg, what does that word mean? Perhaps one of the best things about the invention of e-readers is that they help define words quickly.


Do you have a routine for writing?  Where and when do you prefer to do your writing?

Yes, I walk the dog in the morning and return to a place of solitude in my home and write as long as the story wants to flow. This is usually most of the morning. I have a really hard time writing fiction in the afternoon or evening. I write 5 to 6 days a week, I generally always take Sundays off.
 
You’re leaving your country for a year. What’s the last meal (or food) you would want to have before leaving?

Homemade stuffed organic roast chicken with mashed potatoes and gravy, yumm, although, that may soon be changing. I am weaning myself over to becoming a vegetarian. I love animals and there are a growing number of health concerns with our meat these days.

Where is your favorite library, and what do you love about it?

The Armonk library in the town I grew up in. It has a room on the end that houses all the magazines and has two-winged backed chairs positioned by a sunny window. It’s the perfect place to sit and peruse for ideas and entertainment in the afternoon.

You’re given the day off, and you can do anything but write. What would you do?

Head for the beach if at all possible.

Why did you decide to self-publish?

I was originally planning on going the traditional publishing route. I even submitted one query to an agent and got a letter of interest back in just one week, which I am told is rare. At that same time, the self-publishing options were growing exponentially.  In the end, I chose to go it on my own for a few reasons.

1. I had a timetable in mind and I didn’t want to delay it another year, two or more if the agent ultimately decided she wanted to represent the book.

2. I have experience in running a business. I was just as excited about the process of publishing and marketing my book as I was about writing it.

3. I needed validation from readers that I didn’t personally know that what I was writing was something others would want to read. Writing is a big time commitment, especially a book. I didn’t want to be like one of those poor American Idol contestants who think they can sing just because the people who love them say they’re good.

Are you happy with your decision to self-publish?

I am happy with my decision to self-publish. It has enabled me to understand in depth the different facets of the publishing business. Like any business, now I know which parts I want to delegate out because either I am not the best person to do that particular task or I don’t enjoy doing it.

Going forward, I have to say, I would be interested in entertaining a traditional or hybrid publishing option. I know now what parts of publishing are worth sharing the fruits of my labor for.

What steps to publication did you personally do, and what did you hire someone to do? Is there anyone you’d recommend for a particular service?

I wrote a blog called "Is it really ‘self’ publishing?" In that blog, I basically talk about how this, in my opinion, is generally a misnomer. It would take a really talented person to write, edit, create a cover, and format his or her own book. I imagine there are some that can, but I certainly am not one of them. There are new tools coming on the market as we speak, however, that may make these steps easier.

I outsourced the graphics to Debra from Tugboat Design. She was amazingly patient and creative. She did my cover, formatting, and web art. My writing coach and editor, Alice Osborn was essential to my success as a writer.

What’s one of your favorite quotes?

"In the end only kindness matters" from the song "Hands" by Jewel. 
I try very hard to remind myself of that.

What’s your favorite candy bar? And don’t tell me you don’t have one!

Are Rolos considered a candy bar? I love the blend of chocolate and caramel! 

What’s your favorite line from a book?

“How can you prepare to have a life without someone whom you have always had in yours?”

What three books have you read recently and would recommend?

Me, Before You by JoJo Moyes. Miss Moyes states in the beginning of the book that she considers it a love story. I would say it’s more a story about the power of choice.  Bravely written.

Wild by Cheryl Strayed. This struck me as a women’s version of Bill Bryson’s, A Walk in the Woods. Wild was not funny like Bryson’s book, but thought provoking and inspiring.

I haven’t read this last one, but I just heard Sue Monk-Kidd speak at a book signing last night. Her new book, The Invention of Wings, is going to the top of my read pile! I love her work.

What do you like to do when you’re not writing?

Anything outdoors--walk, explore, go to the beach. I love to travel, especially to places that haven’t yet manipulated the natural habitat.

What are you working on now?

At present, I am working on a sequel to I Know You’re There. It should be available later this year.

Excerpt from I Know You're There

Chapter 1

Helen
OCTOBER 22, 1995

I woke up screaming, “It’s my fault! Jill, it’s my fault!”

Startled, I sat up and got my bearings. The top half of my white flannel nightgown was drenched in warm sweat that was now starting to cool. The alarm clock glared 12:20 am.
Thank God, I told myself. My daughter, Jill, a nurse at our local hospital had told me she was working a day shift, so she would be home in bed now. In my nightmare, Jill was in a room with two patients who both died at the same time. Frantic, she was screaming at them, “No, no, you can’t die!! No, you have to wake up! They will blame me, they will say it is all my fault!”

Guilt eroded my stomach. Somehow I would need to tell my baby the truth.

About the author:


Sue Allison-Dean is a nurse who retired from traditional practice in 1999, after working 13 years as a Wound, Ostomy, Continence Clinical Nurse Specialist. She found a second career in gardening after working in a garden center and completing an organic gardening internship at Highgrove Garden in England. She now co-owns Naturescapes with her landscape designer husband, Robert. She has authored several clinical and horticulture articles and was a contributing author to the bestselling book, Touched By A Nurse. She is passionate about the sea and loves exploring tropical islands. She extends this passion by doing volunteer work benefiting dolphins and whales. Sue splits her time between Armonk, New York and Cary, North Carolina, with her husband and English bulldog, Bubba.

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

Buy the book:
Amazon | Barnes & Noble  

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