Meet Jamie Taylor (no, not that one)

If you’ve ever wondered where characters in your favorite author’s books come from, this is a terrific blog hop to follow. The Meet My Character series, written by authors, sheds terrific light on a single character of their choosing, which also might shed a little light on the author!

I was invited to join this parade by Lala Corriere. Here’s a little about her (and how you can meet one of her characters):

Lala Corriere is the author of four titles in suspense, with her most recent work, Bye Bye Bones, scheduled for release in late winter, 2014. Her credits include the endorsement and long-term mentorship from the late Sidney Sheldon, and blurbs from Andrew Neiderman [author of the Devil’s Advocate], J.Carson Black, Paris Afton Bonds, KT Bryan, and CJ West. Lala’s a desert rat. She nestles there with her husband of twenty-five years, two Teacup Yorkies, and an American Curl.

www.lalacorriere.com

Amazon Author Page

______________

Jamie Taylor recently agreed to be interviewed by Suspense Novelist. What follows are excerpts from that interview.

SN: What makes you interesting?

JT: (laughing) That’s kind of direct. I suppose it isn’t me so much as my dogs. I have four of them, and they’re all working dogs. When we’re not looking for lost hikers in the Colorado High Country, we’re looking for signs of arson, making ill people feel better, or finding evidence of human remains. Each of my dogs has his or her specialty and I just go along to write the reports.

SN: Have you always had dogs?

JT: We got our first dog when my dad took early retirement from an international security company, and we moved to Aspen Falls. I’d always liked dogs—from a distance. But when we got Sammy, I fell in love. If I’ve been disappointed in people, dogs prove that God got something right.

SN: How have people disappointed you?

JT: Where do you want me to start? I have a lousy record of choosing men. Is that me, or is that the men? I was married once, and the only thing I took with me from that experience, aside from the clothes I was wearing when I left, was a six-inch scar that runs from my belly button up to my left breast. I’m not sure an intimate, lasting relationship is in the cards for me.

Then there’s the fact that my mother was murdered.

SN: Wow, I’d say “disappointed” is an understatement. Did they catch whoever murdered your mom?

JT:  We did, but that’s another story.

SN: What are you working on now?

JT:  My accelerant detection dog, Kaji, and I are working on a series of fires in Colorado, many of which have turned out to be arson, and dodging threats from the arsonist, which, as you can guess, makes everything personal. In addition, I’m trying to figure out my relationship with the FBI agent I met a year or so ago. It’s a little dicey given my history.

SN: If readers want to get to know you a little more, where can they find you?

JT: Red Tide is a terrific book, and you can find out about what happened to my mom there, and a little more about my ex-husband. Peg is working on telling the story about arson in Flame Game, where Kaji and I are trying hard to help the investigating detective. That should be available by the end of this year.

______________

Next: (Just so you know, I feel incredibly fortunate to have these two authors coming up. You should take advantage.)

On August 14th, it's Sheila Lowe: Like her fictional character Claudia Rose in the award-winning Forensic Handwriting Mysteries series, Sheila Lowe is a real-life forensic handwriting expert who testifies in handwriting-related cases. She holds a Master of Science in psychology and is licensed to provide continuing education for marriage and family therapists. She also authored the internationally acclaimed The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Handwriting Analysis and Handwriting of the Famous & Infamous, as well as the Handwriting Analyzer software.

www.claudiaroseseries.com

Blog: www.algonquinredux.com  

On August 18th, it's L.J. Sellers: L.J. Sellers writes the bestselling Detective Jackson Mysteries—a two-time Readers Favorite Award winner—as well as the Agent Dallas series and provocative standalone thrillers. L.J. resides in Eugene, Oregon where many of her novels are set and is an award-winning journalist and the founder of Housing Help. When not plotting murders or doing charity work, she enjoys standup comedy, cycling, and social networking. She's also been known to jump out of airplanes.

http://ljsellers.com

https://www.facebook.com/ljsellers?ref=profile

https://twitter.com/LJSellers

google.com/+LJSellers

________________

And then:

On August 22nd, you'll get to hear from Michael W. Sherer: Michael W. Sherer is the author of Night Tide and soon-to-be-released Night Drop. The first book in the Seattle-based Blake Sanders series, Night Blind, was nominated for an ITW Thriller Award in 2013. His other books include the award-winning Emerson Ward mystery series, the stand-alone suspense novel, Island Life, and the Tess Barrett YA thriller series. He and his family now reside in the Seattle area.

Please visit him at www.michaelwsherer.com or you can follow him on Facebook at www.facebook.com/thrillerauthor and on Twitter @MysteryNovelist.

http://www.michaelwsherer.com

Also on August 22nd, it's Gayle Carline: Gayle Carline is a typical Californian, meaning she was born somewhere else. She moved to Orange County from Illinois in 1978 and finally nested in Placentia a few years later. Her husband, Dale, bought her a laptop for Christmas in 1999 because she wanted to write. A year after that, he gave her horseback riding lessons. When she bought her first horse, she finally started writing.

Gayle soon became a regular contributor to Riding Magazine. Then, in March 2005, she began writing a humor column for her local newspaper, the Placentia News-Times, entertaining readers with stories of her life with Dale and their son, Marcus. In 2009, she published her first mystery novel, Freezer Burn, featuring housecleaner-turned-detective Peri Minneopa. She has now published seven books, three Peri Minneopa Mysteries, two humor books, and two books featuring her favorite hobby – horses.

In her spare time, Gayle likes to sit down with friends and laugh over a glass of wine. And maybe plot a little murder and mayhem. She’ll continue to write columns and mysteries as long as there are stories to tell.

http://gaylecarline.com/

http://www.facebook.com/AuthorGayleCarline

http://www.twitter.com/GayleCarline

http://www.amazon.com/Gayle-Carline/e/B002C7FHZW

It's all better with friends.

The Writing Process Blog Hop

I confess that had I been asked by just about anyone other than former CFC blogmate and thriller-writer, A.M. Khalifa, to participate in a Blog Hop I would likely have taken a pass. But A.M. is a friend, he's talented, and I want to stay connected with talented friends and readers. To find out what A.M. had to say in a brilliant way, you can check it out here.

Everyone's writing process is unique (mine is always getting tweaked), but even after only three books, I have found some things that work well for me. I hope those of you who are writers can find something useful, and that readers will find something interesting.

At the end of this (way too long) post, I'll be passing the baton to some other writers so they can share their madness. Their posts will air on May 17th, so be looking for them. Each of us are answering the same four questions. So without further ado... because this is easily the longest blog post I've ever written...


1. What am I working on?

I love this question because it let's me express how incredibly lucky I am to have readers who not only enjoy the stories I write but have grown to care about the characters as well. Because of them (the readers more so than the characters), I'm writing what will ultimately be the third book in the Aspen Falls series. This one is called Flame Game.

FG will bring back Jamie Taylor and her dogs with a wonderful new addition who shines in the spotlight. Kaji, Japanese for fire, is an accelerant detection dog. In Red Tide, Jamie and her sister Jax were almost killed in a fire. Yes it was one they set, but they didn't have much choice. Kaji is a natural addition to Jamie's four-legged brood. We'll also get to know Terri Johnson a little more. Terri is a detective who, in The Missings, adopted the daughter of a woman who was a victim of domestic violence.

Although I don't write romantic suspense, relationships will always play a role in my books because they play a role in our lives. In FG, the pairings that showed some promise in my first two books are continued, and there might be a new one in the offing. Just sayin'.

And since I have your attention, my fourth book, The Sacrifice, will also be turned into a series thanks to reader interest. The Sacrifice was a finalist for an award from Colorado Authors' League and is also a finalist for the Colorado Book Awards. Both acknowledgments provided affirmation that fed my own fire. I'm hoping to put some of my international travel to good use in the next installments, 'cause Mex Anderson is just that kind of guy.


2. How does my work differ from others of its genre?

As a thriller writer who happens to be a woman my books are going to automatically differ from the norm. My female characters might be flawed, but they're strong.

And while the plot is critical, the connection to the people I toss into the plot is as important.

Another thing I try to do with each book is to expose a relevant social issue. For example, in The Missings, topics include illegal immigration and organ donation. In The Sacrifice, I attempt to take depression out of the closet and highlight its manageability. All while still providing an entertaining escape for my readers.


3. Why do I write what I do?

In a much earlier incarnation, The Missings was women's fiction as opposed to a thriller. Say what? Yep. I was about to submit it to a contest when it occurred to me that I might actually win. And if I did I might be stuck writing women's fiction. Not that there's anything wrong with women's fiction. I love Anne Rivers Siddon and Maeve Binchy and many others. But writing it? Again and again? It would have been wrong for me.

The night I made the decision to not submit my manuscript and to rewrite it as crime fiction was one of the best night's sleep I'd had in months.


4. How does my writing process work?

For the longest time I thought I was obviously wrong. I'm not the kind of writer who can sit down at my computer and create a great story with no planning. And I'm not the kind of writer who can keep things fresh while working from a detailed outline. It might be fresh for the reader but it certainly wouldn't be fresh for me. I sort of think that in the end, stale will tell.

Here's what works for me at this moment (and remember, if you quote me, date me... things change):

SOC for Flame Game 

This is my favorite part: Ideas come constantly. The trick is to figure out which ideas are big enough for an entire book and which are best suited for short stories. Or a blog post. So I need to kick ideas around for a bit. If one sets its hooks in my head and I can feel a book in its bones, I sit down and write a free-form stream-of-consciousness blowout. I type (or write longhand) like a madwoman. I'll ask questions and answer them. I'll pose a possibility and veto it then move on to something else. It's the messiest bunch of seemingly disjointed thoughts you'd ever want to see. And believe me, you probably wouldn't. But for me, it confirms that the idea will stretch and hold.

This is my favorite part: From my SOC document (Stream of Consciousness) I'll get a ton of stuff I need to research. The cool thing about research is that it often leads to new plot ideas. And I learn so much! From just the few books I've written, I've learned about human remains detection dogs and how they search; about a special algae and drones; about organ donation and depression and prisons. And now I'm learning more about fire and accelerant detection dogs. How cool (or hot) is that?

Scene List for Flame Game

This is my favorite part: Developing a Scene List. A fluid and incredibly delicious roadmap. I know I want to get from one plot point to another but I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to get there and I'm completely open to taking a side road. When I sit down to put flesh on those scenes and bring them to life is when the magic happens. Sometime I just sit back and become a recorder of events. Those are the days when writing is especially invigorating.

Timeline for Flame Game

This is my favorite part: After I finish the first draft, I read and revise and rewrite and delete and buildup and add and well... really write the book. I do my best to check for flow and timelines and bumps and holes. If I don't completely hate the story after hammering and cutting and stretching and barfing occasionally, I know it holds promise. I'm not at this stage for Flame Game, but I've learned one of the things that always trips me up is my timeline. And I'm visual. So the windows by my desk get converted. By the end of the first draft it will look like a weird stained-glass sticky-not window.


This is my favorite part: I send the manuscript out to beta readers for their input. My beta readers are like a critique group on steroids. They help me push my story to the next level.

And then truly, this is my very favorite part: I hire a fabulous editor who can easily catch my vision. Who pushes and prods and questions and hardly ever gives me a high-five. Who, in the end, is as much responsible for the success of my book as I am.

Oh, wait... another favorite part: Working with a talented cover designer to come up with a cover that reflects the story with a quick pass of an eye.

Can you tell I love what I do? And I'm so grateful to the readers who make it possible. You're as much a part of the writing process as anything!

NEXT WEEK, look for some more fun and secrets from Michael Sherer and Leslie Budewitz on their blogs. You won't be disappointed!

Michael W. Sherer is the author of Night Tide and soon-to-be-released Night Drop. The first book in the Seattle-based Blake Sanders series, Night Blind, was nominated for an ITW Thriller Award in 2013. His other books include the award-winning Emerson Ward mystery series, the stand-alone suspense novel, Island Life, and the Tess Barrett YA thriller series. He and his family now reside in the Seattle area.

Please visit him at www.michaelwsherer.com or you can follow him on Facebook at www.facebook.com/thrillerauthor and on Twitter @MysteryNovelist.

Leslie Budewitz is the bestselling author of the Food Lovers’ Village Mysteries, featuring Erin Murphy, manager of a local foods market in Jewel Bay, Montana. Death al Dente, first in the series, won the 2013 Agatha Award for Best First Novel. In Crime Rib, a hot new TV show comes to town to film the annual steak grill-off. When a contestant is killed, Erin must investigate to keep the town’s reputation from going up in smoke. (Out July 1---available for preorder now.)

Visit her at www.LeslieBudewitz.com

It's all better with friends.