Susan P. Baker on using her law experience for the suspense novel UNAWARE

Any one of us can end up the victim of a crime. Today's guest, Susan P. Baker, took inspiration from her experiences as a lawyer for her novel Unaware. If this essay is any indication, get ready for some major suspense!

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Unaware in Real Life

by Susan P. Baker

UNAWARE is loosely based a case I handled when I first started practicing law. At the time, I was married to my first husband. We were the parents of two young daughters. My husband traveled a lot on the job, which was necessary but could be annoying when I was trying to get a law practice off the ground and parent the children at the same time. We did not have an au pair, couldn’t afford one. My father had been an attorney but was on the bench when I won my law license.

One night, when my husband was out of town, I went to a meeting and was out too late. The girls were old enough to stay by themselves. I stopped off at the grocery store on the way home and noticed when I was almost to my house that a car had been following me. When I pulled into my driveway, the car stopped and parked in front of the house opposite mine. I immediately backed out and drove away, hoping to lead the person away from my children. We didn’t have cell phones back then. I drove a short distance to my sister’s house, jumped out, and ran inside. 

My brother- in-law drove to my house to check things out while my sister and I called the police. When they found no one there, I went home, having become aware of how easy it would be for someone to hide around my house, what with the hedge next to the front door. I pulled into the garage, put the door down, ran inside to check on the girls who were okay, and got the butcher knife out of the drawer and put it under my pillow. We didn’t have any guns. I had a hard time sleeping that night. The following day I bought a .38 revolver.

At that time, I was building my family law practice as well as practicing criminal defense law. I shared an office with two of my father’s former law partners. They were much older and often gave me advice. One of them had the messiest office I’d ever seen, but he had a brilliant mind and could cite law that I’d never even heard of.

In one of my cases, a beautiful, young woman with long, blond hair came to see me about her situation. She hadn’t been married to her husband very long but was ready to get out because he’d become violent almost as soon as they’d said “I do.” He worked on the wharves and had a very sharp cotton knife that he threatened her with when she spoke of leaving him. He was a few years older than she was and fairly good looking. His father was a big-wig in the longshoreman’s union and had bailed him out of trouble many times. 

Susan P. Baker

I took the case against the advice of the other lawyers because she didn’t have much money and had been turned down by other lawyers who were afraid. It wasn’t long before she told me that her husband threatened to kill her and me. We tried our best to settle the case amicably. The man’s father even came to see me in my office. He knew my father. He said he’d make his son settle the case, pay the money he needed to pay, and he even gave me a pendant of a gold leaf. Anyway, clearly the inspiration for UNAWARE came from my law practice.

UNAWARE

What you don’t know CAN hurt you.

Frustrated with the two controlling men in her life, Dena Barlow Armstrong has outlined a rosy future for herself and her children, independent of them. Her husband, Zack, constantly pushes her to turn over her inheritance to him and, when she doesn’t, he punishes her with his indifference. Her law partner and cousin, Lucas, controls her money and the types of cases she accepts.

Just as Dena begins to achieve her goal of independence, someone emerges with very different plans for her. Unaware of the danger she faces, Dena lives each day as a wife, mother, and attorney. Then one day, when her husband is out of town, the stranger lurks in her garage, waiting until she and the children go to bed…

This standalone novel is Susan P. Baker’s sixth mystery/suspense novel.

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Learn more about Susan P. Baker on her website.

Purchase Unaware on Amazon.

VIOLENCE IN VEGAS - A Kindle World Novella by Julie C. Gilbert

We do try to be cutting-edge here at Jester Harley's. To that end, I am pleased to welcome our first fanfiction-writing guest. Take it away, Julie C. Gilbert!

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Writing Crime Fiction for the Lei Crime Kindle World

by Julie C. Gilbert

Hi, Thanks for having me, Anne.

Today, I’d like to tell you about my book, Violence in Vegas – a Lei Crime Kindle Worlds Novella. It features FBI Special Agent Marcella Scott, who is not a character I came up with. That said, I have a weakness for writing FBI agents. This is true in my Heartfelt Cases series (Christian Mystery) as well as most of my Kindle Worlds stories, six of which are Lei Crime and one that’s in the Sydney Rye Kindle World.

Aside - What is Kindle Worlds?

Kindle Worlds is Amazon’s idea of officially licensing fanfiction. Basically, you find a world you like and write a story with one of the characters created by the original author. Then, you split the royalties with the author of that world.

Back on Track – Violence in Vegas

Julie C. Gilbert

I’d originally set out to write about many different characters in the Lei Crime Series, so I started the Defining Moments Series. However, Defining Moments II turned into Shadow Council #1 because I fell in love with writing Marcella Scott. She was just a ton of fun with her love of fancy shoes, her lovable partner, and her need to dodge her mother’s matchmaking efforts.

The Shadow Council series grew to 4 books which had her pitted against bank robbers, corrupt politicians, and crazy people from her past. I thought the poor lady needed a vacation. She wound up in Vegas to help a friend with an unofficial sabotage case. Since trouble follows her like a magnet, she ran into mayhem, of course.

Thanks for stopping by and listening.

Official Description for Violence in Vegas:

Sin City holds some dark secrets …

But Marcella Scott’s in town to help Angela Melkin-Pierce with a small case of sabotage. Somebody’s been slashing guests’ tires and ransacking rooms at The Grand Game Hotel. With the guest list including the Reno Birdwatcher’s Society and the Paradise Quilting Club, the suspect list is very thin. The only intriguing option is Gatton Technologies, headed by eccentric billionaire, Jeffrey Gatton. When he decides to host a masquerade party at the hotel, Marcella goes undercover.

The air of elegance quickly turns to terror when masked men kidnap Gatton and Angela.

Marcella’s going to need all of her wits—and a borrowed handgun or two—if she wants to survive the violence in Vegas.

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Grab your copy of Violence in Vegas today, or start at the beginning of Marcella’s adventures (Shadow Council #1: Money Makes it Deadlier). When you finish with that, Rescue in Reno should be ready for you.

You can visit Julie C. Wilson on her Website and learn how to get a free scifi or mystery book. You can also find her on Facebook.

K.A. Laity on Tricksters and her novel WHITE RABBIT

It's an old and widespread storytelling tradition, from African folktales to Dickens' Artful Dodger. Without tricksters, literature would be a much poorer universe. K.A. Laity shares her thoughts on why she loves this character type.

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BECOMING THE TRICKSTER

by K.A. Laity

I’ve become immersed in the crime genre in the last few years. Although White Rabbit owes just as much to the tradition of ghost stories, it’s really the crime genre that gave it birth. I’ve always had a fascination with tricksters and confidence men, from Harry in Your Pocket to Jim Thompson’s The Grifters. Dashiell Hammett said that anyone can become adept in a day at pick pocketing, but to be a real grifter one had to be an artist.

I think that’s the appeal. I’ve always been fascinated by people who are skilled. Although I am all thumbs myself, only nimble with words (and then, only on the page) I come a family of people who are good with their hands, who can make things and fix things. My older brother is a carpenter and my younger brother a silversmith.

While I admire the skill of a smooth pickpocket, I have never been desperate enough to really want to try it. I suppose that’s lucky, but I can’t help wondering if I would really ever do it. I found a lot of sympathy for my main character in White Rabbit, Draygo, who runs a fake psychic business to make money after he loses his job.

He’s in a desperate situation, but he’s also got the compelling aspect of history: he learned the fake psychic trade from his aunt who raised him. We find out about his life with Vera in little flashbacks which give us a glimpse of the tricks of the trade, too. The room he uses for his ‘séances’ has been specially adapted, though he’s not always specific about how.

Draygo makes a point of being cynical about ‘putting on a show’ for his clients—incense and candles, florid language, and quite possibly some mechanicals under the table—but the real hidden trick is that he has genuine psychic abilities: he hears and sometimes can even see dead people.

And it’s driving him crazy.

The last thing he needs is one more of them, but as the novel kicks off a big celebrity client arrives with a jangle of jewelry and an entourage. Peaches Dockmuir is the soon-to-be-ex-wife of a media mogul but she’s got a ghost on her mind. Before they can make contact, however, Peaches is gunned down and Draygo looks ready to take the fall.

Desperate moves take desperate measures. Will Draygo finally use the gifts he’s been given? And if he does, will they only make things worse? There’s a reason he’s avoided them so far. When you open up to the dead, they open up to you, too. Maybe faking it is safer.

I don’t know, but I’ll be over here, practicing my three card Monty. Pick a card, any card. Lay down your bets and take a chance.

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Visit K.A. Laity's website to get free reads and to connect with her on Facebook and Twitter.

Buy White Rabbit Amazon UK (paperback or ebook)

Buy White Rabbit Amazon US (paperback or ebook)

Stacy Green on Writing Crime Fiction

Stacy Green is a writer fascinated by the workings of the criminal mind. She shares with us how she used elements of true crime and the dark truths of the city of Las Vegas to add layers of meaning and texture to her debut novel, Into the Dark.

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When I was five years old, a group of teenagers were drag racing down our road and ran into a light pole, plunging our house into darkness. I remember getting out of the bath just as everything went pitch black. I lost all senses. I couldn’t remember where I was or what I was doing. For a few brief seconds, I was so terrified I couldn’t move.

I’m no longer afraid of the dark, but small, unlit rooms or places strike an immense fear in me. Maybe that’s why I was so drawn to the Las Vegas Tunnels.

My debut novel, Into the Dark, features the homeless living in the storm drains beneath Las Vegas. Described as by journalists as “eerily quiet,” “pitch black,” and “heartbreaking,” the Las Vegas tunnels were a shock to this sheltered Midwestern girl.

At any given time, more than 200 homeless take shelter from the heat in the drains, subjecting themselves to flash floods, filth, and danger. Many of them are addicts, some are criminals hiding from the police. All of them need a helping hand.

The initial drafts of Into the Dark were about an embattled heroine falling for the handsome, all-star SWAT officer. Fun maybe, but without any real layers or deeper meaning.

It wasn’t until I discovered the homeless in the drains below Vegas that Into the Dark’s characters became something more than one-dimensional creations. Emilie and Nathan only have a few scenes inside the drains, but putting them into the heartbreaking environment enabled me to get to the core of their characters.

Having the bright lights of Las Vegas contrasting against the dark depths below the city, showcasing excess against squalor, is what makes Into the Dark about more than a SWAT officer trying to save the girl.

Many have asked me if I’ve been in the tunnels, and the answer is no. This is where hours of research came in. I interviewed author Matt O’Brien, whose book Beneath The Neon brought the drains into the media spotlight. Matt and I talked at length about what it was really like walking through the dark maze, the smells, the bugs–the fear of what might be around the next corner. No matter how many times he’s explored the drains, that fear has never gone away.

I’m not sure I’d ever have the guts to set foot in the drains, but I know that without the tunnels as a backdrop, Into the Dark wouldn’t be the same story. Because of that, I’m doing what I can to give back to the homeless through a charity raffle.

Until February 28^th, 2013, participants will have several options to enter the raffle, including donating to HELP of Southern Nevada. The grand prize will be a $100 donation from me in the winner’s name to the homeless shelter of their choice.

Enter the INTO THE DARK Charity Raffle!

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Learn more about Stacy Green at her website and blog.

Purchase Into The Dark on Amazon  Coffeetime Romance  Bookstrand

All other digital formats at MuseItUp Publishing  or Buy the paperback

Novelist Carol Hedges on YA Heroines

Creating an effective main character is a complicated process, and writing a female protagonist in YA is particularly delicate work. British novelist Carol Hedges joins us today to discuss this challenge.  

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"I like the idea of being strong. I've grown up with the concept. It's in my bones and my blood. Strong people survive. They don't go under."

            So speaks 18 year old Annie, the heroine of my new ebook Jigsaw Pieces. My genre is YA Crime Fiction, and for me, there are two ingredients that go to make up a successful book in this genre. The first, clearly, is a crime of some sort. In Jigsaw Pieces, set in 1998 it is the mysterious death of one of Annie's fellow students. In my 'Spy Girl' series, crimes vary from selling drugs to teenagers (Once Upon a Crime) to stealing a priceless holy relic (Dead Man Talking).

            The second ingredient is a strong female protagonist. Annie Skaerdstadt, Jazmin Dawson. So what makes a strong character? Well, it's not enough just to tell readers they are strong. Strong characters have to demonstrate their strength, usually by being pitted against challenging events, or other characters. Annie is taken from her birthplace, Norway, and dumped in an English school, where she has to develop a carapace to survive the daily bullying. Jazmin is up against an adult world that does not want her meddling and playing detective, and is prepared to take drastic and dangerous steps to keep her out. Through both girls' determination and actions, we learn how strong characters function and survive in difficult situations.

            But strength can also be shown in softness: Annie has a compassionate side, shown when she bonds with the mute World War 1 veteran Billy Donne, whom she meets in a nursing home. Jazmin is intensely loyal to her friend Zeb Stone, even when he fancies another girl. Strong characters also must have failings and flaws, an inner fault line that makes us warm to them. Maybe because they are a little like us?

             At the end of Jigsaw Pieces, Annie discovers that there is still a vital piece of the Jigsaw missing from her life. In the Spy Girl books, Jazmin is faced with the reality that she is not cut from adult cloth - yet.

            And here we see the final ingredient of a strong character - there must alway be a sense that there is more to be grasped, new and different conflicts to be overcome. For a strong character, the journey is never complete; there is another story waiting to be told.

            I love writing strong female characters like Annie and Jazmin because they are so multifaceted and complex. They challenge me and push me to my limits. I hope they do the same for my readers as well.

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You can learn more about Carol on her blog, or follow her on Twitter @carolJhedges

You can buy Jigsaw Pieces as an ebook on Amazon or Amazon UK.