Doubt: The Mind of an Author by Brian White #AmWriting #AmReading #Crime

Doubt: The Mind of an Author

Writers are usually inside our own minds more than we are in the real world. This results in some great stories for you, but difficulty in other matters. Like when we need to interact with people

You see, there is a reason why we became writers, and that reason is money.

Ha! No, seriously, the reason is because writing makes the strange things in our heads, and the equally strange outside world, make sense. So a lot of the time when you try to engage a writer in a difficult task – say, conversation – you’ll find yourself faced with a challenge as the writer is likely to give you that deer-in-headlights stare and either bolt away after a few seconds, or remain motionless and silent until you give up and try your conversational luck elsewhere.

Besides the random thoughts and ideas flitting in an out in a fashion that resembles the particle fluctuations of quantum mechanics, a writer’s mind is fairly algorithmic in circular sort of way.

Usually it starts with mild self-doubt. Like wondering if he shouldn’t have started that last sentence with something other than an adverb – the most hated word form in American English. This evolves quickly into

Crippling self-doubt. Oh god, because of that adverb the reader is going to assume he’s a hack. And because he’s a hack his books won’t sell. And because his books won’t sell he’s going to be stuck as a paramedic the rest of his lifehelping people. And because he’s going to be stuck doing such menial labor he will eventually (another adverb – it’s hopeless now!) spiral into deep depression and become desperate and rob a bank. And because he knows nothing about bank robbing, or crime in general outside of maybe downloading the torrented copy of Social Distortion’s early discography, he’s going to get caught and go to prison. This line of thinking leads to

Paranoid determination. He won’t get to the point of robbing banks. He won’t. He will write so hard that people will be forced to take notice and buy his work. They will have to notice him because he wills it. This leads to

A completed manuscript and a momentary burst of self-confidence. Look, a book. A whole book. How many people can say they’ve written an entire book? Now all that needs to be done is get it published, market to readers, create a brand, continue marketing while writing something new to keep the brand fresh and avoid losing the newfound readership and . . .

Oh God.

A beautiful young escort is strangled to death, her corpse discarded in a back alley dumpster. The killer’s identity is a mystery, and the homicide has gone almost unnoticed. Welcome to Middleton, where these things happen every night and the police are too busy or too jaded to notice.

Ezzy Morgan once roamed these blue collar streets as a paramedic. Here she was weaned from innocence and taught the cold-blooded nature of the human heart. Now she works as a private detective and has shut the door on shootings, stabbings, and the constant specter of death. But her life is about to be shattered when the dead woman’s only surviving friend seeks her out, looking for justice.

Clues are sparse and the trail seems to be a dead end before it has even begun. But the mystery takes a macabre turn after another death is dropped at Ezzy’s feet, and she’s hit with an ultimatum from the world of organized crime: find the killer in the next twenty-four hours . . . or die.

This murder mystery turned terrifying struggle between life and death will expose a cover-up spanning two generations involving a sadistic psychopath, a burned-out cop with a cocaine habit, and a powerful man willing to commit murder just to ensure a secret stays buried.

With the noose tightening and the clock winding down to her own demise, Ezzy must come to terms with a darkness she thought she’d left behind years ago. Nightfall has come to Middleton, and she might not live to see the dawn.

Brian White has crafted a captivating tale in the new noir. Nightfall, with its crisp prose and razor-sharp dialogue, is a thrilling tale of crime and suspense that grips you by the throat and doesn’t let go until the end.

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Genre - Crime, Noir, Mystery

Rating – R

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@LMSteel1 on Computers, Wireless and Procrastination Demons #AmWriting #WriteTip #Thriller

My computer connects to the internet and there is a world of wonder at my finger tips! This is not good!

I actually started writing once upon a set of wheels in 2001 and I didn’t have a pc that connected to the internet, I had a word processor. I then had a pc but it was second hand and I lived in a flat share. My flat mates had a laptop and they had internet which they paid for and my parents had internet which I could go and use from time to time to do research.

After this I lived in my first house and I didn’t have internet. All I had on my lovely little second hand PC, where the monitor took up more space on the desk than anything else, was Solitaire, FreeCell, Hearts and minesweeper. I didn’t really even have music on it, I had my little CD player in the corner that I played music on.

When I came to the computer I would play Solitaire or minesweeper for between five and twenty minutes while I arranged all the raging thoughts I had had all day about the next progression of the story. Then it was just me and the page in front of me (and Guns n Roses greatest hits!) and I could work.

Now, there’s a whole universe in my computer and it’s not good for my wondering mind! There are too many distractions! Even when you fight them, they are there, tickling the back of your mind, reminding you of random things like: Oh I meant to order those photo’s, I’ll just go on line now! Or I wanted that book on marketing, I’ll just go on Amazon!

If you’re self publishing, then comes the balance. ‘While I’m at the computer I’ll just do a tweet for the book, I’ll just go on Facebook for the next blog, I’ll just check Google plus, I’ll just go on Good reads. I’ll just read that blog, I’ll just.. I’ll just…. I’ll just…’ then 3 hours have passed and you’ve written ‘Chapter 4’ and the rest of the page is staring at you blankly. Now you have to cook dinner, take the dog for a walk, sort out the clothes washing etc etc etc.

I’ll be honest my biggest distraction isn’t just the internet, it’s the TV, which before the internet was at my finger tips was actually ok, especially before digital recording, because you had set times to sit and watch your favourite programmes and then you had the rest of the day. Now you can record all those programmes while you spend all day on the internet ‘marketing and researching’ (spending time on Facebook and twitter and funny cat videos on Youtube!) then you go back and you have five hours of programmes to catch up on so you can free up memory on the box.

Your brain is a weird and marvellous thing, because while you’re doing all that, you are making up the story and developing it in your head and you think, ‘yeah I have a story’ but it’s only in your head because you spent so long on the bloody internet!

You need to write it down, and that is hard, because there’s so much going on.

Turn off the wireless!

Seriously, I know it doesn’t fix it because to be fair you can just switch it back on. But it’s a start.

I work best under pressure, whether it’s my writing or work. I wrote most of my dissertation in the last three weeks, because the pressure suddenly hit me and I had to get it done! NaNoWriMo is great if you can convince yourself it’s a real serious deadline: you have to write those 50’000 words!

Give yourself deadlines if no-one else does. Almost bully yourself into the focus. You have to get it done or it’ll fail.

Use that wonderful box that records all your favourite programmes as a reward. I will finish this and when I do I can sit down for a whole and just let my brain numb at the soaps.

Delete the candy crush app. I know you can just download it again, but you know what, you have to start from level one again! How devastating!

Time is important. Yes you have to market your book, and yes you have to write for your blog and yes you have to do research. However it’s amazing how unimportant what everyone else on Facebook is doing when you have a deadline. We’re social creatures, we need to talk and be involved with each other which is why all these networks are so popular, but you’re a writer, like a lighthouse keeper; you only socialise with others when the job is done!

Easier said than done? Oh hell yeah! We’re not marines or SAS, we’re not athletes with that incredible self discipline. We’re writers, we write about human interaction more than anything else so we feel that desire to indulge in it. Discipline really is what it’s about though, it has to come from you, you have to push yourself and be strict.

On May 17th 1982, an infant girl is found in a stolen car abandoned on a bridge. The police call her ‘Lotus’ after the car she is discovered in, and ‘Ogden’ – the name of the dam over which the car rested. Abandoned for no one; for no one came to claim her as their child, no one came to say that they were responsible for this babe, no one came to love her. This was how it was to be; always. 

Following abuse at the hands of her adoptive father, foster families and others, Lotus finds unlikely allies in car thieves and drug dealers, but her life of crime extends so much further than any of them appreciate. So very young, she takes her first life and realises how easy it is, and how no one would ever suspect the poor, timid, shy little girl who nobody calls their own. “Villain? Anti-Hero? Whatever she is, Lotus Ogden is like a perfect storm of rage and pain, but she’s also disturbingly human.” “Feed the dogs and take the phone off the hook. Once you get into this book you’re not going to want to put it down.” “A fast read, a great story, full of twists and turns.”

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Genre – Crime, Thriller

Rating – PG-18

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Rik Stone on Growing Up in the Slums of North East England #Crime #Suspense #AmReading

What motivates you to write?

The desire to create the perfect novel. I know, no such thing, but you have to have a dream.

What genre of books do you adore?

I love a good thriller, but I was also once addicted to both Terry Pratchet and Tolkien.

What do you hope your obituary will say about you?

He's been telling us for the last 90 years he wasn't well, looks like he was right.

Location and life experiences can really influence writing, tell us where you grew up and where you live now?

I grew up in the slums of north east England and now live in a nice area in south-east England. And you’re right about influence, what I write is akin to my own experiences, albeit they are grossly exaggerated.

How did you develop your writing?

I guess you learn the most from the mistakes you make along the way, which means I must be pretty good by now.

Where do you get your inspiration from?

Real life, but mostly good old imagination.

What marketing works for you?

Blog tours, I hope.

Do you plan to publish more books?

Birth of an Assassin is the first in a series. Book 2&3 are written, but both require one more redraft.

What else do you do to make money other than write? It is rare today for writers to be full time?

I’m very lucky with that one. I took an early retirement at 50 and live on a company pension, so I can give my full time to writing… and I do.

What other jobs have you had in life?

I worked in shipyards before going into the merchant Navy. When I came ashore, I worked in a quarry. Redundancy took me to Ford Motor Co. and that was when my life went through a change: I began studying. Working my way through the lower level stuff, I moved on to study for a bachelor's degree in mathematics-and-computing and moved into the IT sector of the company.

If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be?

I love living in England, but I’m sure I’d be as happy to settle anywhere else. I probably am, but I don’t care to believe I’m held down by roots.

Set against the backdrop of Soviet, post-war Russia, Birth of an Assassin follows the transformation of Jez Kornfeld from wide-eyed recruit to avenging outlaw. Amidst a murky underworld of flesh-trafficking, prostitution and institutionalized corruption, the elite Jewish soldier is thrown into a world where nothing is what it seems, nobody can be trusted, and everything can be violently torn from him.

Buy Now @ Amazon, B&N, Kobo & Waterstones

Genre - Thriller, Crime, Suspense

Rating – R

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Connect with Rik Stone on Facebook & Twitter

Website http://rik-stone.simdif.com

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William Knight on 12 Ways in Which Writing is Like #BreakingBad @_William_Knight #WriteTip #AmWriting

Breaking Bad is more than a TV show about a teacher turned rotten, it's a metaphor for the dual personality of the struggling writer. Behold, with a tongue firmly in a cheek, here are a dozen – more or less – reasons why writers are secret repeat offenders in the vein of Walt:

1. It's criminal. Let's face it, writing is so self-indulgent anybody taking part should be arrested and thrown in a dark pit for eternity.
2. You want your customers to be addicts. Your intention is to pound out such a perfect product  that people cannot get enough and keep coming back to buy more. You think one book a year is probably enough, but you'd like to supply more if only you didn't have to make money.
3. You have a secret identity. Like Heisenberg, you have a fake online persona so that readers can't trace the real you. You cultivate this persona to mythical proportions, inventing attitudes and ideas you use in author interviews and at book launches. Sometimes you don't know the persona from the real you because you are so creative.
4. You keep secrets. There are things you think and do that you can't tell your closest friends and family (this is particularly true if you write thrillers or – obviously – erotica.) Your partner is in denial otherwise they would have to leave you.
5. You are hunted: You secretly think everybody is trying to steal from you. You are obsessed with finding your product for download on Pirate Bay or for sale under another name and cover. What if your work is stolen but international digital marketers?
6. No matter how successful you are, the money just slips through your fingers. Bad marketing schemes and poor judgement for suppliers are just a few of the pitfalls you have in common with Walt. All this means any money you do make from writer is gobbled up attempts to make even more.
7. You could murder people who say bad things about you or your product. All reviewers are entitled to their opinion of course, but some are simply wrong and deserve an acid bath.
8. You have an unfailing belief your product is by far the best on the market.
9. An idea you once had has made some other person a millionaire while you slave away in a day job. You'd like to get even.
10. You have a day job that you keep to avoid the suspicion you are really a writer.
11. You wear a stupid hat.
12. You don't try your own product except to check the quality.

A man emerges from the sodden undergrowth, lost, lonely and starving he is mown down by a speeding car on the edge of a remote forest.

Rumours of ghostly apparitions haunt a rural Northumberland community.

A renowned forensic research establishment is troubled by impossible results and unprecedented interference from an influential drug company.

Hendrix 'Aitch' Harrison is a tech-phobic journalist who must link these events together.

Normally side-lined to investigate UFOs and big-beast myths, but thrust into world of cynical corporate motivations, Hendrix is aided by a determined and ambitious entomologist. Together they delve into a grisly world of clinical trials and a viral treatment beyond imagining.

In a chase of escalating dangers, Aitch must battle more than his fear of technology to expose the macabre fate of the drugged victims donated to scientific research.

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Genre – Crime, Thriller, Horror

Rating – R-16

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Connect with William Knight on Facebook & Twitter

Website http://www.williamknight.info

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The King of Sunday Morning by J.B. McCauley @MccauleyJay #Excerpt #Thriller #Crime

The Mile End Mambo - 1990

He held him in his arms and looked into the glassy eyes. Yellow flecks dotted the cornea. This boy was dead a long time before Roger had run him through. He knew the look. Too much top shelf and not enough down time.

The body from which life dramatically seeped away began to convulse. It would not be a Hollywood death. It would be a harsh demise for this gangster. Unexpected but unavoidable. He had stepped on the wrong toes and nobody touched Roger’s patch.

The big screen had always glamorised death but there was nothing glamorous about having a gaping 12-inch gash where your stomach had once been. Roger’s white shirt was splattered with blood and sputum. He noted to himself with an air of cold detachment that he would have to dispose of it later. The boy soldier’s back arched in agony. A gurgling noise rushed from his throat and then he was gone.

Roger put his arm underneath the boy’s knees and slowly lifted him from the red morass that had filled the doorway. He cradled him in his arms and walked slowly along the pavement. A young couple averted their gaze as he struggled with the limp body. They knew not to look. This was after all the witching hour in the East End. What you don’t see, you can’t tell. He turned the corner and moved into another shop doorway. It was a Dixon’s electrical shop exalting the latest stereos and TV’s.

Roger placed the body carefully on the ground. He took one final look at what 10 minutes ago had been the epitome of arrogance, bravery and youth, then left. He walked quickly to the edge of Walters Street, turned into Burden and darted through a now deserted car park and onto Rially. He saw a red telephone box just up from Dunston Road. He opened the door and tried to ignore the stench of piss and shit. He dialled the number and waited patiently for the connection.

“Rudi?”

His rich baritone West-Indian voice caressed the receiver.

“Yeah, he’s in Dixon’s shopfront on Walters Street.” He paused, digesting the question on the other end of the line.

“Yeah he’s dead. Dead as a door nail. See you at home.”

With that, he hung up the phone and disappeared into the night. His red Rasta beanie swaying as he loped through the shadows. The victim wouldn’t be missed. Roger had nothing to fear. The status quo had been maintained and an example had been made.

Most of all, Rudi would be pleased.

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Genre – Thriller, Action, Suspense, Gangster, Crime, Music

Rating – PG-18

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#ReviewShare - The King of Sunday Morning by J.B. McCauley @MccauleyJay #Thriller #BookClub

The King of Sunday Morning by J.B. McCauley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book has more than one theme and all of it are executed close to perfection. One thing I must say that many of us at the book club found especially thrilling was the editing. This is probably one of the very few books we will ever give a perfect 10. For example, "Are you sure Mr McCarthy?" is correct. For years, and years we have seen writers, authors and 'editors' misuse the comma before a person's name.

The main character is not easy to understand or connect with, at first. His decisions are questionable and the reader may sometimes catch himself saying, "I told you so" because he seems to charge first and think later. However, as he moves from one experience to another, the reader finds that Tray is misunderstood.

What he seeks, what he feels and where he wants to be in life is no different from any of us. My favourite scene was when he gives Sharon money and she turns it down. In that single moment, the reader realises he is where is because of circumstances and not because he wants to.

The dialogue and some narration was not my favourite part of the book. More often than necessary it was too abrupt and sometimes felt stiff. Maybe this was intended to further enhance Tray's bad boy image but it didn't work as well as I would have liked it too. Overall, this is a highly recommended book for any adult who likes thrillers.

Disclosure - As a Quality Reads Book Club member, I received a free copy of this book from the author via Orangeberry Book Tours in exchange for my honest review.


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#Free #NonFiction #Crime - Maximum Insecurity by William Wright M.D. @kindleexpert

After three decades as a successful ear surgeon, William Wright, MD is bored beyond belief. He dabbles with retirement, but finds idleness infuriating. He has to do something.

Then he sees an ad for a doctor’s position from the Colorado Department of Corrections at a supermax prison. Now that, he thinks, would be different. His wife has some thoughts on the matter too. She thinks her husband just lost his mind and is on a collision course with a prison shiv.

After his first day on the job, he wonders if she wasn’t onto something. His first patient is an arrogant, callous youth convicted of five cold-blooded murders. Dr. Wright has to steel himself not to bolt.

Nothing prepares a doctor for life at the Colorado State Penitentiary. He quickly discovers treating maximum security convicts is like treating recalcitrant murderous four-year-olds. Always willing to threaten their doctors with bodily harm, they are more interested in scamming drugs than treatment.

Told with self-depreciating humor and scathing wit, Maximum Insecurity describes Dr. Wright’s adventures practicing medicine in a supermax correctional facility without, he’s glad to say, getting killed even once.

Maximum Insecurity: A Doctor in the Supermax by William Wright M.D.

Amazon Kindle US

Rating – PG-13

Genre – Non Fiction

4.4 (21 reviews)

Free until 4 February 2014

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