A Christian Writer's World ~~ Characters who grip your heart: Secrets and Lies

Showing posts with label Secrets and Lies. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

SECRETS AND LIES - Janet Sketchley - One Free Book

Bio: Janet Sketchley is the author of Heaven's Prey and Secrets and Lies, two novels of suspense and redemption. She also blogs about faith and books. Janet loves adventure stories, worship music, tea, and Formula 1 racing. Like Carol in Secrets and Lies, she loves music and tea. Unlike Carol, Janet isn't related to a dangerous offender, has a happy home life, and has never been threatened by a drug lord. May those tidbits continue to hold true! You can find Janet online at janetsketchley.ca. Fans of Christian suspense are invited to join Janet's writing journey through her monthly newsletter: bit.ly/JanetSketchleyNews.

Welcome back, Janet. Why do you write the kind of books you do?

I like to explore how Christians face their problems, or how a non-believer might discover the difference Christ makes. And suspense or adventure just makes the story more fun for me.

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

The day I married my high school sweetheart J Our sons' births and holding my first novel were pretty special too!

How has being published changed your life?

Being signed by a traditional publisher gave me a sense of validation as an author, and reader response has strengthened that. I'm more confident in that role now, which is good because promotion is a new part of my life. Striking out on my own as an independent (self-published) author has taught me many new things about the process and increased my confidence as I hold the finished product in my hands.

What are you reading right now?

I'm reading a non-fiction book, Quiet: The power of introverts in a world that can't stop talking, by Susan Cain. And I'm about to dive into Davis Bunn's new suspense novel, The Patmos Deception.

What is your current work in progress?

I'm working on book 3 of the Redemption's Edge series, No Safe Place. Right now I'm in that exciting discovery phase.

What would be your dream vacation?

Viking Cruises just announced a new ocean cruise, Into the Midnight Sun, that explores the Norwegian fjords and follows the Viking routes to Scotland. My husband and I have been dreaming about this one. Not sure if I'd like the bigger ocean vessels, but we loved our European river cruise this year!

That sounds like fun, since my father’s family are descendants of the Vikings. How do you choose your settings for each book?

Significant parts of my first novel, and most of the one I'm working on now, are set in Nova Scotia, Canada. This is my home turf, and it feels easier to write about it. Other settings are chosen by the plot. For example, Secrets and Lies is set in Toronto, Canada, because that's where the heroine, Carol, and her brother grew up. They grew up there because in Heaven's Prey I wanted a large Canadian city with reasonable road access to the eastern US.

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

My favourite living author is Timothy Zahn, science fiction writer and master of the twist ending. I'm sure he could teach me a few things to improve my storycraft.

What are your hobbies, besides writing and reading?

I enjoy knitting and cross-stitch, a fine cup of tea, and worship music.

What is your most difficult writing obstacle, and how do you overcome it?

Right now it's making time to actually write, instead of networking, marketing, and all the other things that go with being an author. My strategy is to write first, after a brief check of email, and to tackle the other things later in the day. I've set Monday evenings aside for writing weekly blog posts, so the short-term deadlines don't crowd out the long-term novel progress.

Sounds like a good plan to me. What advice would you give to a beginning author?

Keep writing, connect with other writers, and keep learning. Consciously enjoy the process, instead of investing all your hope in publication. Also, it's an advantage to have two or even more manuscripts ready to go when your first one is accepted, because you'll have a lot less time to write once the edits and the promotion begin. The editing process is your friend, because fresh eyes will see many things yours have missed.

Tell us about the featured book.

A single mother must protect her teenage son—from organized crime and from himself.

Carol Daniels thinks she out-ran her enemies, until a detective arrives at her door with a warning from her convict brother. Minor incidents take on a sinister meaning. An anonymous phone call warns her not to hide again.

Now she must cooperate with a drug lord while the police work to trap him. Carol has always handled crisis alone, but this one might break her. Late-night deejay Joey Hill offers friendship and moral support. Can she trust him? One thing's certain. She can't risk prayer.

Please give us the first page of the book.

Carol jolted upright, eyes wide in the dark. She searched for familiar touchstones to pull her back to reality. The faint light outlining her bedroom curtains. The red digits on her clock radio, mocking her with the hours left until dawn. The two dark rectangles on her bureau — Paul's and Keith's school photos.

Her hands ached. It took a conscious act of will to release her two-fisted grip on the sheets.

Paul.

The afterimages of Carol's dream burned in her imagination. Her sixteen-year-old son, larger than life on a brightly-lit stage, arms raised to embrace the crowd's cheers, electric guitar draped low across his hips. An oversized brown leather jacket hung open over his faded T-shirt and jeans.

Carol knew that jacket. Butter-soft Italian calfskin, steeped in beer and Old Spice, nicked and scraped here and there and with a cigarette burn inside the left cuff.

Skip's jacket. Paul's father's.

In her dream she'd stood beside her son, but Paul only had eyes for his fans. An almost palpable energy radiated from his body — the same power trip that took Skip whenever he performed. With the same cost to those who loved him.

How can readers find you on the Internet?

The best place to find me is my website: http://janetsketchley.ca/, and readers interested in suspense can sign up for my monthly newsletter at http://bit.ly/JanetSketchleyNews.

Saturday, November 28, 2009

SECRETS AND LIES - Rhonda McKnight - Free Book

Tell us how much of yourself you write into your characters.

I actually think there’s very little of me in my characters. They’re a combination of different people I know, and my bad girl walked right out of my imagination. I had to dig deep to create her persona. But I will say there are elements of my life in the actual stories, more so in Secrets and Lies than my other projects, probably because it was my first novel.

What is the quirkiest thing you have ever done?

Oh dear, I’m not too quirky, but I did perform Mariah Carey’s song “Hero” on a cruise boat during Karaoke. What was I thinking?

When did you first discover that you were a writer?

That’s an interesting question, and one without an answer. I read what I’ve written sometimes and ask myself the same thing I did after trying to sing “Hero,” what was I thinking? But I can definitely say, I began writing at age six when I crayola-ed my first story about a family of mice that lived under the boardwalk near the beach in my hometown. My high school teachers noticed a little something special about my writing and I was appointed to senior editor of the school paper, so maybe it was then. I really don’t know.

Tell us the range of the kinds of books you enjoy reading.

I’ll read just about anything with a lot of conflict. I love anticipating what’s next, even if I guess it before it happens. I’m a big suspense and mystery fan. I love women’s fiction, but it has to include a lot of good, juicy character-driven tension. Victoria Christopher Murray is my favorite author. She’s the queen of purposeful drama. I also don’t miss anything by Sherri Lewis, Pamela Samuels-Young, the writing team of Virginia Deberry & Donna Grant or James Scott Bell.

I love Sherri Lewis and James Scott Bell, too. What other books have you written, whether published or not?

My second novel, An Inconvenient Friend, which I completed this summer, will be released September 2010. My bad girl from Secrets and Lies gets her own book, and she’s so much worse. Prior to my first novel, I wrote nothing. I sold the first book I finished. Isn’t that something?

We'll have to feature you with your new book, too. How do you keep your sanity in our run, run, run world?

I talk to my mother every day. She’s my best friend. When I’m on the edge of losing it, hearing her voice relaxes me. I’m also really good at saying no, which I learned from my mom. When I’m really overrun, I get in my bed at night and I cry and pray, and cry some more and pray some more, and the next day it’s just better. Jesus works it out while I sleep.

How do you choose your characters’ names?

My main characters names come from the Holy Bible. I base their names on the attributes of characters or a theological principle. For example, in Secrets and Lies my main character’s name is Faith and she struggles with her name-sake daily.

What is the accomplishment that you are most proud of?

Other than potty training my son, I’d have to say finishing and selling a book. It’s dog eat dog in publishing and actually selling is a lot to be proud of.

If you were an animal, which one would you be, and why?

A gazelle, because it’s lean. I’ve never been lean. I’m sure I had queen size diapers.

What is your favorite food?

Chocolate; cake, ice-cream, candy bars, drinks, you name it. I’m a choc-a-holic. See why I want to be a gazelle?

I love chocolate, too. When James and I went to the movies last weekend, I had Blue Bell Chocolate Covered Cherries ice cream. It's wonderful. What is the problem with writing that was your greatest roadblock, and how did you overcome it?

I’d love to say time was a roadblock, but I can’t. I was unmotivated for a long time. When I finished the last half of Secrets and Lies, I was working about 45 hours a week in an extremely demanding job, nursing a 6 month old baby, running my eldest son to physical therapy 3 times a week, and finishing graduate school. Even with all that going on I wrote 40,000 words in three months. I’m a living testament to the statement we do what we want to do (except sleep of course). I was unmotivated for years and then something happened. I turned 40. That was the year I sorted my life out, separated the chaff from the wheat. I decided it was time for me to walk in my purpose. I really want to hear the Lord say, “Well done.” I also wanted to be a living example to my sons of Proverbs 18:16, that their “gifts would make room for them.”

What advice would you give to an author just starting out?

Answer for Authors: Publishing is competitive, make sure to continue to do the things you did prior to being published to stay published. Continuing education is critical to your development. You always want to write a stronger book than the last one. Have some type of critique system in place. If you have a strong editor at your publishing house then it can be the editor, but we all know that’s not as common as it used to be. Find someone to look at your work. I know several authors who have no critique system, because they’re overconfident about their writing and it shows in the quality of what they’re publishing.

Answer for Aspiring Writers: Read a lot and then read some more. Write what you enjoy reading, otherwise it won’t be good. I’m a free-lance editor and I can always tell when someone is writing in a genre they don’t read. Invest in craft books. I have 28 of them and have probably borrowed at least another 15 from the library. Read them and learn from them. Apply the things you learn. Join a writer’s group. If you can’t find one, start one. There are bound to be other writers looking for a group also. If you build it, they will come. Lastly, don’t be thin skinned about criticism and critiques. Be teachable. Writing is a gift, but it’s also a craft that has to be learned.

What would you like to tell us about the featured book?

Secrets and Lies is a great story that anyone would enjoy. Although my publisher is Urban Christian, there’s nothing gritty about it. I know sometimes people associate street-life with the word “urban,” but with respect to Secrets and Lies, nothing could be further from the truth. My folks are upper-middle class, and they live in the suburbs. Nothing gritty about them. Here’s a synopsis:

Faith Morgan is sick of begging her husband to spend time with her. Anonymous hang-ups on their home phone have her wondering if he’s sick of her, too. When she discovers he’s been keeping a secret from her around the same time his coworker accuses him of sexual harassment, Faith wonders if she can believe his side of the story.

Pediatric cardiologist, Jonah Morgan is obsessed with one thing, his work. The childhood death of his brother has intensified his desire to heal children, at any cost, including his family's plea to be more involved in their lives. When a nurse accuses him with of sexual harassment, Jonah finds himself at a crossroads. Will he continue to allow the memories from his childhood to haunt him or find healing and peace in a God he shut out long ago?

Sounds wonderful. I can hardly wait to read it. How can readers find you on the Internet?

Readers can find me at my website http://www.rhondamcknight.net/ and on just about every social networking site known to man. They’re listed on my website. I also have a blog for the novel at http://www.secretsandliesthenovel.blogspot.com/ and a pretty popular blog at http://www.urbanchristianfictiontoday.com/ where I highlight African American Christian fiction.

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

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Pages

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

SECRETS AND LIES - Janet Sketchley - One Free Book

Saturday, November 28, 2009

SECRETS AND LIES - Rhonda McKnight - Free Book