October Madness

Tomorrow I begin my crazy weekend. Of course, my first day will be spent driving to Dulles Airport (I double checked to make sure I go to the right airport this time) and then flying through Dallas on my way to Salt Lake City. I'll arrive there in just enough time to get a rental car and head to a friend's house for the night.

Thursday I get to visit Payson Jr. High. I always love school visits, especially since I know how much my kids always enjoy an excuse to have a guest speaker instead of attending regular classes.

Friday will be another school visit, this one for the fourth grade at a friend's elementary school. Then, of course, since I'll be in Utah, and so will the BYU football team, I'll attend the game against Utah State that night with some friends and family.

Saturday will bring a couple of book signings for my latest novel, Drop Zone, which will be released tomorrow. The first will be from noon to 1:30pm at the Deseret Book - University Village in Orem. The second will be from 6pm - 8pm at Deseret Book - Fort Union in Midvale.

Then Sunday morning I get to attend the first session of General Conference with my daughter. I have a feeling that by the time I get on the red-eye to come home, I'll be ready for some sleep. Hopefully, I will also get the chance to see a lot of friends before that moment comes.

Drop Zone

The Saint Squad is expanding this October. Thank you to the readers who encouraged me to keep writing this series. Two new team members are joining the Saint Squad beginning with Damian Schmitt in Drop Zone. I am in the process of writing the next one which is expected to hit the shelves in 2015.


Back cover blurb:

Paige Vickers needs a new life, so she’s relieved when she’s given an assignment that takes her away from her stressful position as a psychiatric nurse with the CIA and puts her in a job as administrative assistant for Vanessa Johnson, an instructor for undercover operatives at the CIA’s training facility. 

 

At the same time, Damian Schmitt has been transferred to become a part of the Saint Squad—an elite group of Navy SEALs. However, on his first training mission with the team, he is almost killed, and the team suspects that the nearly fatal exercise was no accident. Then tensions accelerate when the rest of the squad is deployed on a secret mission—only to come up missing. 

 

When the Saint Squad’s disappearance endangers Paige’s boss, it is up to Paige and Damian to discover what has happened by going undercover to Maracaibo, Venezuela, the city of Damian’s childhood. The shocking twists and turns keep all  the members of the team guessing as they push to find out who is responsible for the attacks on the tightly knit Saint Squad. 

Twisted Fate

It seems like I always start each post with the phrase, "I know I haven't posted in a while." Yes, this is another of those posts, but so much has happened lately, I thought I should put something up here.

Photo by Heather Gardner Photography

First, thanks to all of the readers who nominated me for a Whitney Award. I won the Mystery/Suspense category for Deep Cover this year and I still can't believe that night wasn't just an awesome dream. Except maybe for the part where I accepted my award barefoot because I had kicked off my shoes. My daughter Christina will tell you she warned me to put them on...and she'd be telling the truth. Maybe that particular incident is just a tribute to my sense of humor...and my inability to wear shoes for more than a few minutes at a time.

The LDStorymakers Writers Conference in Layton, Utah that preceded this event was amazing. I had so much fun reconnecting with old friends and meeting new ones. I taught a couple of classes and had an awesome group for Bootcamp. I'm already looking forward to next year.

Earlier this month, a couple of the friends I met in person at my first LDStorymakers conference joined with me in a fun publication. You can see from the photos that we all enjoyed ourselves at little too much at times.

Twisted Fate was born from the realization that Stephanie Black, Gregg Luke and I all write mystery/suspense for the same publisher and yet we all have our own flavor. Stephanie writes classic mystery/suspense. She is exceptionally gifted at pacing her novels and creating a lot of tense moments as she guides her readers on the path to discover who dunnit.

Gregg is a pharmacist by day and a scare-the-pants-off-you writer by night. He uses his knowledge of the medical field to write amazing medical thrillers, the kind that make you wonder if the stories within his pages could really happen.

As for me, I write government intrigue, relying on my past experience working for the CIA as well as the experiences of many of my friends who work in various military and government positions.

Twisted Fate gives a flavor of each of our writing styles with three unique stories and a chance to try a new author or two.

For my novella, Hunted, it brings back some of the characters from my Undercurrents series. The main characters are Doug and Jill Valdez who first met one another during Ripple Effect. Doug has shown up a few times since then when characters in my other books needed an FBI agent they could trust.

In other news, the Saint Squad is expanding. Two new members are being added to the elite squad of Navy SEALs. The first will join us in Drop Zone (October 2014) and the second will appear sometime in 2015. I'll post the cover shortly.

Chances Are preview

Today I received my much anticipated cover for my next novel, Chances Are, along with the blurb for the back of the book. I thought I would share, so here you go. It will go to print this week, and the publication date will be this March.

Maya Gupta is a survivor. After escaping an impending arranged marriage in India as a teenager, she has thrived in America. But now she faces her greatest challenge yet—cancer has invaded her life, and unless she finds a way to participate in a clinical trial in Washington, DC, this may be one battle she loses. When Maya’s best friend Kari offers Maya the lifeline of a place to stay—her brother’s currently vacant DC apartment—the young woman eagerly accepts and goes to meet her fate . . .

 

Ben Evans’s plans have changed, and he’s heading home for some much-needed rest and relaxation during his off-season in the major leagues. Upon arriving at his DC apartment, however, Ben is shocked to find Maya—his sister’s friend, who he hardly knows—in residence. He soon finds himself trapped between protecting his above-reproach reputation and searching for a way to help a woman he is coming to admire. When Maya’s fight to survive her disease becomes more complicated than ever, she and Ben scheme an extreme solution to her predicament that tests to what lengths they’re willing to go together to save Maya’s life.

Final proof

Today I found in my inbox the much anticipated final proof of my next novel.

A red pen, a freshly printed manuscript. This is one of my favorite parts of being a writer. I love that moment when I realize I get to spend the next week or so reacquainting myself with some old friends.

Gone are the memories of the sleepless nights, the struggles with characters who wouldn't cooperate, and the edits that sometimes cut out some of my favorite scenes. Now I only feel the excitement of reading a book I've been waiting for, one with characters I already know and love.

Usually by the time I get to this point in a project, I'm already well into writing my next book. Admittedly, I'm running behind schedule this year. Mentally, I've been gearing up for what I should write next, but I know that I don't do well when I get interrupted, so I've let my imagination work without putting many  of those thoughts to paper.

The new characters and plotlines that have been circling through my head may not be happy with me, but for the next week they're shifting down on my list of priorities. This week I get to play.