MURDER IN DISGUISE - Donn Taylor - One Free Book

Welcome back, Donn. How did you come up with the idea for this story?

Murder in Disguise is the third book in the Preston Barclay Mystery series. In the first two books, hero and heroine—Press and Mara—had solved two murders on their home campus, one in the fall semester and one in spring semester. For the third book, I took them to the state university for a summer term and gave them a different kind of murder to solve. For once, it was mostly just logic—working out of something different enough to make a new book. Also, as a member of the National Association of Scholars, I've been concerned about universities' routine violations of students' constitutional rights. This setting provided the opportunity to look at some of those problems, though the main thrust of the book of course had to be an entertaining mystery.

If you were planning a party with Christian authors of contemporary fiction, what six people would you invite and why?

To include a suspense writer, I would invite Harry Wegley. He also brings a good background in technology, and he's well read in philosophical subjects. I would bring Kelli Hughett so that if the philosophical discussion got dull she could lead a discussion of pro football. I'd bring Brenda Hupp Norris for her sense of humor and her ability to make the Maine landscape entertaining. (Actually, she might count for two because she and her sister publish under the pseudonyms Sadie and Sophie Cuff.) I would add Aaron Gansky to bring fantasy to the group, and Linda Glaz to balance that with hard-nosed research into the world of human trafficking. And I'd round out the group with Deborah Dee Harper, the only writer I know who can punctuate the tightest suspense scene with something that will make you laugh.

Now let’s do that for a party for Christian authors of historical fiction, what six people would you invite and why?

I would start with Kathy Rouser and Susan Craft to tell us different aspects of the American Revolutionary War period. Then I would add Ann Shorey to bring us into the problems with slavery just before the War Between the States. And I would like Ann Tatlock to tell us stories from more recent times, using her rare talent to explore the emotional nuances. By then we'd be ready for a new subject, so I would ask Latayne Scott to explain who really wrote the book of Hebrews. And to finish the party, I would ask Rick Barry to entertain us with his tales of aviation in World War II. He knows as much about the P-47 as I did about the planes I flew in Vietnam, and Rick's ability to outpun anyone in sight would send us home happy.

Many times, people (and other authors) think you have it made with so many books published. What is your most difficult problem with writing at this time in your career?

My most difficult problem now is finding genuinely new subjects to write about. In my two suspense novels I used my Army and aviation background, plus a good body of research on the international black market traffic in weapons. With Mildred, I took time out for a historical novel, a nostalgia trip to Northeast Mississippi for the years when we grew up there. And with three mysteries set on college campuses, I exploited my years as a professor. Now I'm ready for something genuinely new and different, but years of caregiving have thinned out my reading, so while I write one more mystery I'm scraping around for that magic subject that will open up a new fictional world.

I so understand. Tell us about the featured book.

Like its two predecessors, Murder in Disguise is a lighthearted mystery that still manages to touch on a few serious subjects. Professor Preston Barclay (Press) has been invited to teach a summer term at the state university. Mara Thorn is there for her own research. But the department chairman who invited Press has committed suicide, and his replacement doesn't make Press feel welcome. Then the deceased's widow asks Press to prove that her husband was murdered. He has enough problems already in proving his competence to students and faculty, for the new department chairman and campus radicals do all they can to undermine him. And the sexy female siren assigned as his student assistant creates problems there and with his courtship of Mara Thorn.

 Press’s questions don’t find adequate answers, rumors accuse his friend of disgraceful activities, and Mara’s research reveals a wide range of criminal activity stretching from the community onto the campus itself. The more things don’t add up, the more dangerous the threats become, and the more determined Press becomes to clear his friend’s name and learn the truth about the alleged suicide. The question is whether he can find anything definitive before the people making the threats decide they've had enough . . .

Please give us the first page of the book.

It seemed like a routine summer term at the state university until the threat.

There was the usual process of settling into one of the just-off-campus apartments they keep for visiting professors. There was the matter of checking at the bookstore to be sure the textbooks I’d prescribed were on hand. To keep from getting ticketed by campus police, I picked up my temporary parking sticker, known locally as a hunting license because parking spaces are scarce. And there was the usual difficulty that the department chairman was away from his office.

“I’m Preston Barclay,” I told the bearded student who’d been left to man the telephone. “I’m teaching one summer term. Can you tell me which office I’ll be using?”

He looked up from his book, eyed the briefcase in my hand, and blinked a couple of times. “Uh ... I think it’s right next door, Professor Barclay. But they don’t let me give out keys. Can you come back between three and four?”

I nodded and straightened my trifocals. “That used to be the department chairman’s office.”

“Yeah, it used to be. But Dr. Elam said he couldn’t work there because of what happened.” The student tugged at his beard, perhaps reassuring himself that he’d actually grown one. “The last chairman blew his brains out in that office. About a month ago. I still get the creeps just thinking about it.”

“But it’s fine for visiting professors.”

The student looked away. “Dr. Elam said it wouldn’t worry the temporaries because they wouldn’t know about it.”

“Thanks for keeping me from worrying.”

Recognition dawned in his eyes. “Say, aren’t you the guy ... uh ... the professor ... that solved them two murders in Overton City?”

“Those two murders,” I said, looking for a way to change the subject. “My colleague Professor Mara Thorn actually solved them. I just teach history.”

“I’ve heard about her,” he said. “They say she’s a real h...” I think he was going to say hottie, but he gulped and said, “I’ve heard she was ... well ... what your generation would call ‘a real knockout.’”

“Touch her elbow, and you’ll see who gets knocked out,” I said. After her ill-fated teenage marriage, Mara abhorred being touched. I’d found that out the hard way, though she’d made a few exceptions after we became friends. But I wasn’t going to talk about her with a student.

“I’ll come back later,” I said.

In the hallway outside my office-to-be, I paused and breathed the decades-old odors of waxed floors and oiled hardwood. They brought pleasant memories of other summer terms, but those were now marred with sadness. For my friend Jordan Collier, the former chairman who’d brought me here several times as a visiting professor, was no longer here. One month before, without warning, he’d committed suicide in that office. I not only missed him as a friend, but I could already feel the difference in the department.

I’m eager to read this new book, and it’s on my table right now. But I’ve been completing some of my own writing assignments. It’s at the top of my to-be-read pile. How can readers find you on the Internet?

My website is www.donntaylor.com and I'm on Twitter at www.twitter.com/donntaylor3. My most active place is my Facebook page. I post something there every day. Five days of the week it's something funny, and others join in to see who can make the worst puns. On Wednesdays it's a serious quotation and on Sundays it's a scripture passage. Everyone is invited to come join the fun. That's at www.facebook.com/donntaylor.

Thank you, Donn. I believe I will be starting your book today or tomorrow. And I know my readers are eager as I am to read it.

Readers, here are links to the book.

Murder in Disguise (A Preston Barclay Mystery) - Paperback
Murder in Disguise (A Preston Barclay Mystery Book 3) - Kindle

Leave a comment for a chance to win a free copy of the book. You must follow these instructions to be in the drawing. Please tell us where you live, at least the state or territory or country if outside North America. (Comments containing links may be subject to removal by blog owner.)

Void where prohibited; the odds of winning depend on the number of entrants. Entering the giveaway is considered a confirmation of eligibility on behalf of the enterer in accord with these rules and any pertaining local/federal/international laws.

The only notification you’ll receive is the winner post on this blog. So be sure to check back a week from Saturday to see if you won. You will have 4 weeks from the posting of the winners to claim your book.

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MURDER MEZZO FORTE - Donn Taylor - One Free Book

BIO: Donn Taylor led an Infantry rifle platoon in the Korean War, served with Army aviation in Vietnam, and worked with air reconnaissance in Europe and Asia. Afterwards, he earned a PhD in English literature (Renaissance) and for eighteen years taught literature at two liberal arts colleges. His poetry is collected in his book Dust and Diamond: Poems of Earth and Beyond. His fiction includes a light-hearted mystery, Rhapsody in Red, and its sequel, Murder Mezzo Forte. He has also published a historical novel, Lightning on a Quiet Night (a Selah Awards finalist), and two suspense novels, Deadly Additive and The Lazarus File. He is a frequent speaker at writers’ groups and conferences. He lives near Houston, Texas, where he continues to write fiction and poetry, as well as essays on writing, ethical issues, and U.S. foreign policy.

Welcome back, Donn. Tell us about your salvation experience.

It happened at an ordinary Sunday evening church service when I was 14. I don't remember what the visiting minister said in his sermon, but during the service I began to feel that I was lacking something essential and that I needed to make a commitment. So I answered the invitation and, later, was baptized. I didn't understand very much at the time, and there was a lot of back and forth in the years following because I confused the deficient conduct of Christian leaders with the genuine truth of the Gospel. But everything that has happened since then in the way of belief traces from that particular moment.

You’re planning a writing retreat where you can only have four other authors. Who would they be and why?

Deborah Raney because she writes women's fiction, she is an excellent teacher of fictional techniques, and because her outgoing personality and interest in people draw conferees to her.

Terry Burns because he is well versed in genres of fiction as well as marketing, and because his personality and approach also attract conferees.

Karen Whiting because of her expertise in article writing and in marketing, and because of her interest in helping other writers.

Janice Thompson because of her expertise in the romance genre and in all aspects of marketing, including self-publication, together with her great energy and interest in other writers.

All four, of course, are dedicated Christians.   

Do you have a speaking ministry? If so, tell us about that.

I don't have a speaking ministry as such, though I teach at writers' conferences (primarily poetry) and integrate appropriate Christian subjects. My examples include heavy doses of the best Christian poetry.

What is the most embarrassing thing that has happened to you and how did you handle it?

As a 17-year-old freshman seated in my father's literature class, I had a delayed anaphylactic reaction to a dental anesthetic (Novocain). The symptom was simply passing out for a few seconds. There wasn't much I could do to "handle it." Two football players helped me out to Dad's car, and he came quickly after. The rigors began after we got home, and a shot of counter-irritant turned me every way but loose. The embarrassing part came about two weeks later when I returned to college, and I had to explain dozens of times what had happened. (Drug reactions were not widely understood then, even by some dentists.) I hated admitting the weakness some people perceived, but just brazened it out regardless of how they reacted. Some questioned my not running in the first track meet of the season, but the talk died down after I became established in the two mile run. The only bad thing after that was having my dental work done without anesthetic for about ten years until lidocaine came on the market.

People are always telling me that they’d like to write a book someday. I’m sure they do to you, too. What would you tell someone who came up to you and said that?

When that happens, I usually begin by asking what kind of book the person has in mind. If nonfiction, I ask what qualifies him to write it, then ask how he will research it. For fiction, I ask the genre. (That may take some time to identify.) For both fiction and nonfiction, I ask what the prospective author has studied on structure for that kind of book. At that point, I usually compare learning to write for publication to the time and practice required for learning to play a musical instrument or play basketball. I end by recommending that the prospective author join a writing group for guidance as he writes his book. In all of that, I try to strike a balance between encouraging and making sure the prospect has some appreciation of the time and effort required.

Tell us about the featured book.

Murder Mezzo Forte is a sequel to Rhapsody in Red with the same protagonists. Preston Barclay ("Press") is a reclusive history professor who suffers from musical hallucinations. Mara Thorn (the name she chose when she re-invented herself) is a headstrong professor of comparative religion, a former Wiccan recently converted to Christianity. Earlier, they solved a campus murder.

Book’s blurb:

He is a reclusive history professor with musical hallucinations, she a headstrong professor of religion and a converted Wiccan. Earlier, Preston Barclay and Mara Thorn solved a campus murder, but now police say they formed two-thirds of an illicit love triangle with a newly murdered female colleague—and they're probably guilty of her murder.

A leak of the alleged scandal to the college administration threatens their jobs. Their desperate attempt to prove themselves innocent of the triangle and the murder plunges them into a tangle of unsavory corporate relationships among college trustees. And it puts their lives in danger from a mysterious criminal organization that seems to have tentacles everywhere.

Can this ill-matched pair's stumbling efforts succeed against the entrenched forces of the police, the college's incompetent administration, and that powerful but unseen criminal organization? If not, they may end up unemployed, in prison, or suffering a fate much worse ...

Please give us the first page of the book.

In that first week of February we didn't know that Overton University was about to exceed its annual quota of murders.

           

We had no inkling of it that Thursday evening when the college administration held a reception for trustees and faculty. I didn't know then that Professor Mitra Fortier would make trouble or that I would have to defend myself against scandal and worse. We would learn all of that later.

           

The administration called it a reception, but it had no receiving line. Everyone just showed up at the gymnasium, now called "The Fitness Center" because the new president who joined us after The Crisis renamed everything either a Center or a Service. Faculty straggled in half frozen by the Midwestern winter and joined whatever groups they could find. The event had been billed as a mixer, but it didn't mix. Trustees talked to trustees, the president and dean talked to trustees, and faculty cliques talked to themselves. Yet everyone seemed to share an unspoken purpose: to forget that last semester our philosophy professor had murdered a faculty member on campus.

           

Someone had thrown a tarp over half of the gym floor so our street shoes wouldn't scar the finish. The gym's bright overhead lights cast an air of unreality over everything. Perhaps because of them I started wondering what was real and what wasn't.

I stood alone at one side, battling the music in my head and grieving for receptions past when my wife, Faith, was alive. We talked to everyone then. But now, as the campus recluse, I don't talk much at all. As always, I dreaded returning to my empty house and Faith's Steinway grand piano that has stood silent these past three years.

With any luck, I thought, I wouldn't have to talk to anyone. So I simply listened while the orchestra in my head played the overture to Die Meistersinger.

How can readers find you on the Internet?

My website is www.donntaylor.com. I post something every day—humor on most days—on my Facebook pages, www.facebook.com/donntaylor and www.facebook.com/authordonntaylor. I'm also at www.twitter.com/donntaylor3. I join others in blogging at http://authorculture.blogspot.com. Typing my name into Amazon will bring up my page in Amazon's Author Central.

Thank you, Donn, for sharing this new book with us. I loved all your other books and am eager to read this one.

Readers, here are links to the book. By using one when you order, you help support this blog.
Murder Mezzo Forte - A Preston Barclay Mystery - paperback
Murder Mezzo Forte - a Cozy Murder Mystery (A Preston Barclay Mystery) - Kindle

Leave a comment for a chance to win a free copy of the book. You must follow these instructions to be in the drawing. Please tell us where you live, at least the state or territory. (Comments containing links may be subject to removal by blog owner.)

Void where prohibited; the odds of winning depend on the number of entrants. Entering the giveaway is considered a confirmation of eligibility on behalf of the enterer in accord with these rules and any pertaining local/federal/international laws.

The only notification you’ll receive is the winner post on this blog. So be sure to check back a week from Saturday to see if you won. You will have 4 weeks from the posting of the winners to claim your book.

If you’re reading this on Goodreads, Google+, Feedblitz, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, or Amazon, please come to the blog to leave your comment if you want to be included in the drawing. Here’s a link:
Http://lenanelsondooley.blogspot.com

LIGHTNING ON A QUIET NIGHT - Donn Taylor - One Free Book

Bio: Donn Taylor led an Infantry rifle platoon in the Korean War, served with Army aviation in Vietnam, and worked with air reconnaissance in Europe and Asia. Afterwards, he earned a PhD in English literature (Renaissance) and for eighteen years taught literature at two liberal arts colleges. He was chosen by faculty as "Scholar of the Year" at one and by students as "Professor of the Year" at the other. His poetry is collected in his book Dust and Diamond: Poems of Earth and Beyond. In addition to his historical novel Lightning on a Quiet Night, he has published two suspense novels and a light-hearted mystery. He is a frequent speaker at writers’ conferences and groups. He lives near Houston, TX, where he writes fiction and poetry, as well as essays on writing, ethical issues, and U.S. foreign policy.

Welcome back, Donn. What are some of the spiritual themes you like to write about?
In one form or another, I write about the incompleteness of a life without Christ. Noble deeds themselves are never enough to satisfy: They have to be done in the context of Christian faith. Further, focusing too much on virtuous actions (instead of God as the source of virtue) can become a kind of idolatry. I write about characters whose demand for truth and integrity leads them inevitably to the Christian faith. Stated bluntly like this, these ideas don't seem like much. They only become meaningful when dramatized in the experience of a life-like character. I also celebrate the effect of God’s continuing work in the world (John 5:17). Why else does Christendom not practice the savagery that characterizes the rest of the world?

What other books of yours are coming out soon?

I'm trying to place a sequel to my mystery Rhapsody in Red, and I'm working on a sequel to the sequel.

I loved that book. If you could spend an evening with one contemporary person (not a family member of yours), who would it be and why?

I would choose the Hoover Institute scholar and syndicated columnist Thomas Sowell. We are about the same age, and we both served in the Korean War. But more important than that, Sowell practices an absolute intellectual integrity. To faddish topics like race, slavery, and political correctness, he brings wide-ranging, solid research, and he does not commit on any issue until the facts lead him to a conclusion. He is a constant breath of fresh air in the nation's poisonous fog of fashionable opinion.

What historical person would you like to meet (besides Jesus) and why?

It's a tossup between these two: First, the British naval hero Horatio Hornblower. I'd like to ask him how he recovered a large group of European slaves from their African masters without paying a cent or firing a shot. (His biography is silent on that.) The second person would be the biblical character Zaccheus, the tax collector Jesus called down from the tree. Zaccheus is usually interpreted as having gotten his wealth dishonestly, but I think that's a bum rap. As I do the math on what he promised Jesus, he had to have come by his wealth mostly by honest means, or Jesus would have called him out for lying. I'd like to talk to him about it.

How can you encourage authors who have been receiving only rejections from publishers?

If we haven't read their writing, we're limited to repeating stories about how many times some famous author got rejected. If we have read their writing, we can give honest critiques of it, crediting its strengths and identifying not more than three areas that need further study and work. I always begin and end by reminding them that Shakespeare began as a beginner.

Tell us about the featured book.

Lightning on a Quiet Night is a historical novel set in Northeast Mississippi in 1948, shortly after WW II and in the days when the Cold War was taking shape. It focuses on a small town, too proud of its virtues, that has to reconcile its vain self-image with the reality of its first murder. The young veteran Jack Davis holds that idyllic vision of the town and tries to share it with Lisa Kemper, newly arrived from Indiana. But she is repelled by everything in town. While the sheriff tries to find the murderer, Jack and Lisa's contentious courtship reveals the town's strange combination of acute perceptions and surprising blind spots. Then they stumble onto shocking discoveries about some of the town's foremost citizens. Beyond placing Jack and Lisa in danger for their lives, these discoveries pose a question: Will they lead the town to repentance? Or to denial and continuation in vanity?

Please give us the first page of the book.

The northeast Mississippi town of Beneficent, "A Town As Good As Its Name," had never known a murder until Friday, January 9, 1948. Nor, in the oldest memory of its 479 citizens, had the town known a single felony.

Until the fatal moment, that January day progressed as hundreds had before. The winter dawn came late, struggling through clouds and fog to shed a dull gray light more kin to night than day. Cold rain fell to drench the thrush-brown land, and stolid hardwoods thrust black skeletal limbs upward against an iron-gray sky. Farmers revised work plans in deference to the rain, and storekeepers pondered its effect on weekend sales. But more than rain would be required that night to keep them from the Coosa County basketball tournament, an event as fundamental to their lives as seedtime and harvest. From all corners of the county they came in mud-spattered pickups, the less affluent in mule-drawn wagons, to converge on Beneficent. All brought good spirits to share an experience that came but once a year.

Yet among that cheerful crowd one stranger would come unwilling …

In her bedroom in the darkening evening, Lisa Kemper stared at the rain that drummed against her window. She did not want to be there at all.

How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land? The psalmist's words leaped unbidden into her mind, but she shut them out. She was not here in captivity, the puddles in her yard were not the waters of Babylon, and she would not sit down by them and weep.

Still, she hadn't bargained for this. After her mother's death last August, she'd postponed graduate school for a year to help her father adjust to life as a widower. Then she would get on with her studies—that is, if she could ever decide what to study. But when she made that decision in August, she never dreamed Stephen Kemper would leave his position with an Indiana corporation to manage the small chemical plant the company was building here.

From first sight, she detested this backward town. She abhorred the unkempt fields and unpainted barns nearby, so different from the well-tended farms of Indiana.  Most of all, she abhorred the boastful motto "A Town As Good As Its Name" and the complacency of the townspeople who thought they made it that way.

How can readers find you on the Internet?

My Web site is www.donntaylor.com. I'm on Facebook at www.facebook.com/donntaylor and www.facebook.com/authordonntaylor, as well as Twitter at www.twitter.com/donntaylor3.

Thank you, Donn, for sharing this new book with us today.

Readers, here are links to the book. By using one when you order, you help support this blog.
Lightning on a Quiet Night Paperback
Lightning on a Quiet Night: In the years following World War II, a town too proud of its own virtues deals with its first murder. ($1.99 Book Series) - Kindle

Leave a comment for a chance to win a free copy of the book. Please tell us where you live, at least the state or territory. (Comments containing links may be subject to removal by blog owner.)

Void where prohibited; the odds of winning depend on the number of entrants. Entering the giveaway is considered a confirmation of eligibility on behalf of the enterer in accord with these rules and any pertaining local/federal/international laws.

The only notification you’ll receive is the winner post on this blog. So be sure to check back a week from Saturday to see if you won. You will have 4 weeks from the posting of the winners to claim your book.

If you’re reading this on Goodreads, Google+, Feedblitz, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, or Amazon, please come to the blog to leave your comment if you want to be included in the drawing. Here’s a link:
Http://lenanelsondooley.blogspot.com

DEADLY ADDITIVE - Donn Taylor - One Free Book

Welcome back, Donn. I'm glad to see you have another paramilitary suspense novel. What are some of the spiritual themes you like to write about?

They’re fairly basic. Chief among them is the reality of evil and the subtlety of it: things good in themselves become evil when pursued to excess or in the wrong way. A subtheme is the inadequacy of any religion except Christianity to provide an explanation of evil. Consequently, anyone who thinks deeply about evil will be driven to Christianity. Another theme is the emptiness and incompleteness of a life without God. And yet another theme is forgiveness.

What other books of yours are coming out soon?

To be honest, I wish I knew. I do have two that are being shopped around. One is a sequel to my mystery Rhapsody in Red. Another is a historical that’s quite different from my other books. And of course there are two others in various stages of completion.

If you could spend an evening with one contemporary person (not a family member of yours), who would it be and why?

I’m very tempted to say Newt Gingrich. I don’t think I’d ever vote for him, but he is probably the best mind on the political scene today. His blend of historical knowledge, Catholic faith, and politics would make lively and interesting evening conversation. But my real choice would have to be Billy Graham. I have no doubt that an evening with him would deepen my faith and spiritual understanding, and that kind of evening would be the worthier goal.

What historical person would you like to meet (besides Jesus) and why?

I'd choose the medieval poet Dante Alighieri. His Divine Comedy is one of my all-time favorites, and I'd like a first-hand reading of what he intended in his allegory, e.g., does the Greyhound represent Dante's patron or does it represent Jesus in the Second coming? I'd also like to know more about medieval Florence than the history books tell. My second choice would be the British naval hero Horatio Hornblower. I’d like to ask him how he rescued that group of European slaves from their African masters without firing a shot or paying a shilling. His biography is silent on that.

How can you encourage authors who have been receiving only rejections from publishers?

That’s always difficult because you don’t know the basis of the rejections. Let’s assume that flaws in the writing caused the rejections.  I think the best way is to emphasize things that the writer is doing really well. After the praise sinks in, you can make suggestions on how to tighten up the writing to achieve a more favorable reception.

Tell us about the featured book.

The book is a suspense novel titled Deadly Additive. To soldier-of-fortune Jeb Sledge it seems like a simple job: Rescue an heiress and her journalist friend Kristin Halvorsen from their kidnapping by Colombian guerrillas and collect a sizable paycheck. But Kristin has other plans.

After stumbling onto a mass of dead bodies, she won’t leave Colombia without the proof she needs for the story of a lifetime. While she and Jeb wrangle over her obstinacy, they discover a hidden factory where the guerrillas build a new and deadly type chemical weapon for the international black market.

Their discovery triggers a raid on the factory, followed by a desperate search through the Caribbean and the U.S. to prevent a catastrophic attack by weapons the factory has already produced. But who is behind that attack, and what are the planned targets? Finding out brings Jeb and Kristin again into peril for their lives. Unexpectedly, their experience also leads them into a spiritual odyssey. As always in my novels, the suspense is often laced with moments of humor.

Please give us the first page of the book.

            By habit, Jeb Sledge disapproved of people who pointed weapons at him. The present offender’s tuxedo did not qualify him for an exception, and the silencer on his pistol only aggravated the offense.

            They stood in the living room of Sledge’s drab one-bedroom apartment in north Houston. That morning his doctor had pronounced him fully recovered from last year’s wounds by an assassin. In the afternoon he’d refused an offer of two hundred thousand dollars to rescue the daughter of billionaire Steve Spinner from her Colombian kidnappers.

            Later that day he got a call from Roger Brinkman, the retired CIA officer who now ran an “information service” known among experts as the best source for data on international crime. Brinkman didn’t say how he'd heard about Spinner’s offer, but he chided Sledge for turning it down. He’d heard vague rumblings of something new among the Colombian guerrillas, and the Spinner problem might make a good takeoff point for the right operative.

            Sledge said he’d think about it.

            He did—for thirty seconds over dinner at a good Italian restaurant with reasonable prices and servers who didn’t introduce themselves. The dinner celebrated his advent as the “New Sledge.” The old one was a hard case with a bad habit—volunteering for dangerous jobs to support noble causes. The cantankerous Old Sledge also enjoyed throwing his weight around, all two hundred and fifty pounds of it. But that Sledge had not survived the assassin’s bullets. The new one sprung from his ashes would be too smart to take risks where there was no tangible reward. He would live the quiet life and avoid noble causes.

            Savoring the thought, Sledge drank a toast to his new self.

            Afterwards, when he opened his apartment door, the security system gave no warning beep. Had he forgotten to set it?

            Then the intruder switched on the lights, and the New Sledge found himself looking into the silencer on a Walther PPK. He was caught. Too far in to dodge back outside and too far from his captor to attempt disarming him. Besides, the man weighed at least as much as Sledge and looked like he’d be hard to handle even without a gun. The ugly curl of his lip said he was itching for an excuse to pull the trigger.

            Sledge’s anger blazed, but he raised his hands and controlled his voice. “You're welcome to my fortune—thirty-three dollars and sixty-two cents. You’ll find the silverware in the kitchen drawer, but it's actually stainless.”

How can readers find you on the Internet?

My Web site is www.donntaylor.com.

I’m on Facebook at www.facebook.com/DonnTaylor and https://www.facebook.com/authordonntaylor.

I’m also on Twitter as DonnTaylor3.

Thank you, Donn, for another interesting interview.

Readers, here are links to the book. By using one when you order, you help support this blog.
Deadly Additive - paperback
Deadly Additive - Kindle


Leave a comment for a chance to win a free copy of the book. Please tell us where you live, at least the state or territory. (Comments containing links may be subject to removal by blog owner.)

Void where prohibited; the odds of winning depend on the number of entrants. Entering the giveaway is considered a confirmation of eligibility on behalf of the enterer in accord with these rules and any pertaining local/federal/international laws.

The only notification you’ll receive is the winner post on this blog. So be sure to check back a week from Saturday to see if you won. You will have 4 weeks from the posting of the winners to claim your book.

If you’re reading this on Feedblitz, Facebook, or Amazon, please come to the blog to leave your comment if you want to be included in the drawing. Here’s a link.
Http://lenanelsondooley.blogspot.com

THE LAZARUS FILE - Donn E Taylor - Free eBook

I read the print edition of this book several years ago. I'm glad to see it come out at an ebook, so many more readers can read this wonderful suspense novel.

Welcome, Donn. God has really been moving in your writing life. What do you see on the horizon?

Right now there is too much fog for me to see the horizon. Unlike some writers, I can't see two novels ahead or even two poems ahead. I just keep plugging along on a compass course through the fog and trust the Lord to bring me out somewhere useful to Him.

Tell us a little about your family.

My father was a well-known scholar of American literature, my mother was a college librarian, and my older brother is a retired specialist on William Faulkner. Me? I spent two decades in the Army before going to grad school and becoming a professor. Mildred and I have been happily married for more than fifty years. Our two sons are lawyers. One daughter is a CPA, and the other just retired from teaching high school English. We have eight grandchildren and one great-grandchild. Counting our children's spouses, we have it all covered: an engineer to build it, a CPA to cost it, an Air Force officer to defend it, lawyers to handle the legal implications, and a liberal arts major to tell us what it means.

Has your writing changed your reading habits? If so, how?

I read less for pleasure and more to elevate my craft or to help other writers. I still go back to literature to keep my imagination active. Last week it was Tennyson's "Ulysses" and Kipling's "The Gods of the Copybook Headings." Pretty soon I need to revisit Andrew Marvell's lyric poetry.

What are you working on right now?

I have a mystery novel in progress and a suspense novel in the concept and research stage, plus one idea for a narrative poem. I'm blogging on poetry each third Friday for the Christian Authors Network blog (http://canblog.typepad.com/canbookmarketing/). I'll also be teaching at the Blue Ridge conference again in May of 2012.  

What outside interests do you have?

I'm teaching C.S. Lewis's Mere Christianity to a small group at our church. I'm also an avid fan of college football, especially the Texas Longhorns—though I place greater value on the Humanities Research Center at that university. But mostly I enjoy being married to Mildred. We like doing things together, especially walking. We also like keeping up with our children and grandchildren, who live near enough but not too near.

How do you choose your settings for each book?

The setting for Rhapsody in Red was a natural: I'd taught at two small colleges, so I was drawn toward setting the mystery on that kind of campus. The only trick was to keep the setting fictitious and well away from any place where I'd taught. Finding the setting for The Lazarus File was more interesting. At an anti-communist rally in North Dakota I met The Honorable Lewis Tambs, former U.S. ambassador to Colombia and Costa Rica, and a former member of the National Security Council. (He coined the term "narco-terrorism.") He interested me in the unholy alliances of Communist nations with Colombian guerrillas and drug cartels, so I ended up with a setting in Colombia and the Caribbean area. Ambassador Tambs also was kind enough to let me use his strategic concepts in the novel, and enjoyed my putting them in the mouth of a CIA defector. I'll let the choice of settings for current projects wait for another time.

If you could spend an evening with one historical person, who would it be and why?

Everyone's choice would be Jesus, of course. But if it were limited to mere humans, I'd choose the medieval poet Dante Alighieri. His Divine Comedy is one of my all-time favorites, and I'd like a first-hand reading of what he intended in his allegory, e.g., does the Greyhound represent Dante's patron or does it represent Jesus in the Second coming? I'd also like to know more about medieval Florence than the history books tell. My second choice would be the British naval hero Horatio Hornblower. I’d like to ask him how he got that group of European slaves away from their African masters without firing a shot or paying a shilling. His biography is silent on that.

What is the one thing you wish you had known before you started writing novels?

I wish I'd known the difference in structure between commercial novels and literary novels. I received several severe critiques for using tricks (like double flashbacks) that I'd seen used effectively in literary novels. That cost me a good bit of re-writing. However, I'm glad I didn't know how competitive the fiction-writing business is. That might have scared me off before I started.

What new lessons is the Lord teaching you right now?

The same thing He's been teaching me all my life: PATIENCE. I seem to be a slow learner.

What are the three best things you can tell other authors to do to be successful?

The first is to have patience: it always takes longer than you think it's going to. Second, learn the craft: don't be too proud or too stubborn to learn basic rules of grammar and punctuation. Third, read widely. Don't limit yourself to your chosen genre. Read subject matter as well as fiction. You never know where the next idea is coming from. (I would never have thought of musical hallucinations for Rhapsody in Red if I hadn't read about it in the New York Times.)

Tell us about the featured book. Here is the back-cover blurb of The Lazarus File: A CIA agent working under cover as a drug pilot in Colombia.... A Colombian woman of good family, threatened by industrial intrigue and a plot to kidnap her.... Unwillingly thrown together, they discover plans for an international terrorist strike against both of their countries. Held captive and marked for death in a remote Andean valley, they must find a way to prevent the terrorist attack....With action ranging over much of the Caribbean and the United States, The Lazarus File is a fast-paced narrative featuring unexpected plot twists, thrilling flight sequences, and emotionally charged personal relationships. Thematically, it images characters who keep their promises even when it may cost their lives.

The novel also has unexpected comic moments: The character Ramón is a blend of Shakespeare's Falstaff and Walker Percy's Moviegoer. He speaks in clichés, but never gets them right.

Please give us the first page of the book.

Medellín, Colombia, October 1977


Mark Daniel had never been hijacked before, but the man pointing a pistol at his heart was rapidly filling that gap in his experience. Worse yet, Mark realized, getting hijacked would make him miss the crucial appointment he'd won after eighteen months of dangerous undercover work.

At noon he had landed his white twin-engine Cessna 402 at Medellín after an overnight flight to Grand Cayman Island. After he parked and deplaned, a man wearing a baggy brown suit came forward, smiling. Two other men remained in the background. The spokesman was a rugged-looking mestizo about Mark's own size--a bit more than six feet tall, with a weight around two hundred pounds. He sported a neatly trimmed mustache and perfect teeth.

"Buenas tardes, Señor," he began, then changed into English. "This airplane is for hire?"

"Usually," Mark replied, "but I have an appointment this afternoon. I won't know about the next few days till my receptionist comes back from lunch."

A look of distress replaced the man's smile. "But Señor, this flight must be made today."

"Then someone else will have to make it." Mark's voice sounded more harsh than he intended. "I'm sorry," he added, "but I can't break my appointment."

The man grew adamant. "But you must, Señor. The airplane at Hacienda Agueda has become sick and cannot be flown, and we must bring the passenger back before nightfall. It is not wise to stay there overnight, for guerrilla territory lies nearby. For this flight I will pay you two thousand American dollars."

Mark swallowed his irritation. "I'm sorry, but if I don't keep this appointment, I'll lose my best customer."

That customer was Paolo Guzmán, one of the three most powerful drug lords of Medellín. To end the conversation, he turned away and checked the clips on the Cessna's cowling.

He hoped to hear departing footsteps, but instead he heard a flat, determined voice. "I do not wish to seem impolite, Señor, but you may lose more than your best customer."

Mark looked into the muzzle of a century-old Colt .45 revolver. Despite the anachronistic weapon, the visitor did not act like an amateur. The gunman's two henchmen had drawn late-model automatics and taken positions for a cross fire. Mark's anger boiled against the hijackers, but more against himself for being taken unawares.

"And if I don't make the flight?" he asked. If he could stall for a few minutes....

"Ah, Señor!" The visitor sighed and looked sad. "Before the Sabbath I must attend confession, and some patient Father must hear the tedious catalog of my sins. Why would you add your murder to that sordid list? You should be more considerate of the priesthood."

How can readers find you on the Internet?
My Web site is www.donntaylor.com. Beyond that, typing my name into Google will bring up several pages of references.


Thank you, Donn, for visiting with us again.


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The Lazarus File: How often must an undercover agent die in order to survive? (Legacy Series) - Kindle


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Author Donn Taylor - RHAPSODY IN RED - Free Book

Today I'm intruducing you to Donn Taylor, another Texas author. I loved his writing when I read The Lazarus File that was published several year ago. Now he has a new release, Rhapsody in Red. I'm in the middle of reading this book right now and enjoying it.

Why do you write the kind of books you do?

I haven't spent much time thinking about this. I suppose I write about characters I respond to, whether positively or negatively, and about situations that concern me. In The Lazarus File, my protagonists are people who keep their promises in spite of difficulties. The situation that concerned me for that novel, set in the 1970s, was the interface of Colombian drug cartels, native terrorist organizations, and Soviet expansionism. For Rhapsody in Red, the protagonists are professors devoted to truth with a capital T in a college that is sliding toward relativism. (It's a lighthearted mystery, though, so I don't want us to get too serious.) With poetry, it's a matter of finding interesting expression for small kernels of concentrated truth. I also don't want to get too serious about the poetry because my objective is to write good-quality poetry that a broad popular audience can enjoy. Many poetic truths can be expressed in humor and satire.

Besides when you came to know the Lord, what is the happiest day in your life?

That's an easy question, Lena. It has to be the day I married Mildred, the most wonderful woman in the world. John Milton (unknowingly) described it perfectly when he wrote, "With thee conversing I forget all time," or better yet, our status on our marriage day:

The world was all before them where to choose
Their place of rest, and Providence their guide.

How has being published changed your life?

Life has certainly gotten busier, but its qualities and objectives remain the same. There is a great satisfaction in having landed my first national contract, and that with a publisher like Moody. (Lazarus was a small-press book.) But it also raises the problem of making the next book as good as the one before it. As for busy-ness, I have to find time for edits of both the mystery and a poetry book, and publicizing both, as well as writing the next book. Fortunately, I have an encouraging wife who helps me find the necessary work time.

None of us could make it as authors without understanding and encouraging spouses. What are you reading right now?

The Bible, of course. To keep up with the world, I read two weekly and two daily newspapers, including the on-line NY Times. I also read the Baptist Standard and the Roman Catholic journal First Things, along with posts on an electronic bulletin board run by the National Association of Scholars. I've just finished Mark Moyar's Triumph Forsaken, the most thoroughly documented history book I've ever read. (It will undoubtedly become the definitive history of the early years of the Vietnam War.) In fiction, I've been reacquainting myself with the brilliant Western writer Ernest Haycox and the British aviation-and-espionage writer Gavin Lyall. In CBA, I've just finished Dodson Brandt's White Soul and begun Lisa McKay's My Hands Came Away Red.

I read White Soul, and now my husband is reading it. What is your current work in progress?

I'm working on a sequel to Rhapsody in Red. Same protagonists, same setting, very different problem, but the same lighthearted tone. I'd probably better leave it at that, for the characters and situation keep asserting themselves in unforeseen ways.

Be sure and let me know when you have a publication date. What would be your dream vacation?

Two weeks anywhere with my wife, Mildred. Better yet, the two of us for two weeks in Heidelberg during Fasching (German Mardi Gras). We'd alternate between the magnificent Mannheim Opera and those lively Fasching parties with their excellent popular music.

How do you choose your settings for each book?

The overall Colombian/Caribbean setting for Lazarus was determined by the subject. Research recommended local settings, and a single photograph helped me build a specific fictitious setting in the Andean Cordillera Oriental. The process was quite different for Rhapsody. The problem there was to make the setting seem specific and authentic while making Overton University an any-college located anywhere. (It is definitely not modeled on any institution, but shares characteristics with many.) The setting is vaguely Midwestern and west of the Mississippi, but defined no further than that.

If you could spend an evening with one person who is currently alive, who would it be and why?

It would be the economist and Hoover scholar Thomas Sowell because he is the most brilliant mind writing syndicated columns and well-researched books today. A close second would be Father Richard John Neuhaus, editor in chief of First Things. He has wide-ranging interests and is a master of quiet irony.

What are your hobbies, besides writing and reading?

Mildred and I enjoy walking the many woodland trails in our neighborhood. We also love classic movies—the ones made before Hollywood went sleazy in the mid-sixties.

I'm with you on the movies. What is your most difficult writing obstacle, and how do you overcome it?

Choosing a subject and shaping it into an appropriate plot. I don't always overcome. They all fight back, and some of them defeat me. When I do succeed, it's by thrashing away at airy nothing until something concrete and acceptable finally falls out.

What advice would you give to a beginning author?

Be patient: it's going to take two or three times as long as you think when you start out. Read, read, read, and learn the craft. And don't be too proud to learn basic rules of grammar and punctuation.

Tell us about the featured book.

In the lighthearted mystery Rhapsody in Red, a history professor with musical hallucinations and a female Wiccan professor of comparative religion have to solve a campus murder before police can pin it on them. They are ostracized when they expose unsavory faculty relationships, and their lives are endangered when they find that organized crime operates a racket from the campus computer network. Before they're through, they both face life-changing spiritual decisions.

How can readers find you on the Internet?

The quick way is www.donntaylor.com, my Web site for Lazarus that will soon undergo major overhaul. Rhapsody in Red is listed by title only on Amazon for advance orders. If people type my name into Google, they'll turn up all kinds of things.

Thank you, Donn, for spending this time with us.

Readers, leave a comment for a chance to win a free copy of Rhapsody in Red. I think you'll like it. The book has a unique flavor. And if you can, get a copy of The Lazarus File. You can probably find out how on Donn's web site.