Category: Guest Blogger

Guest Blogger ~ Pamela Cowan

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I love diving into mystery and suspense thrillers because there’s nothing quite like the satisfaction of seeing an everyday person take on tough challenges and come out on top. It’s like a cathartic rollercoaster ride, and writing thrillers gives me the advantage of being able to control the ride — at least as much as my characters allow.

The inspiration for my latest suspense thriller, “Repoe Man” happened during the early months of Covid. My husband and I had decided to retire so I was living in our vacation home in Southern Oregon while he was 300 miles north, prepping our primary house for sale.

During that time, I got into the habit of nightly chats with an old writing buddy, who used his pen name, Jake. We’d start Facebook threads, and our friends would chime in. One of his friends was Bobby Poe. Their banter was a mix of reminiscing about their rough hometown, and their love for heavy metal and fast cars. I thought their friendship and the way they reminisced was funny and interesting and Bobby’s name was perfect for the character who had started to coalesce in my mind. With their blessing and loads of helpful feedback, I got started on what I affectionately called the “Bobby Poe and Jake book.”

As a person who’d spent most of their career in probation and parole and then in social services, I’d seen the struggles of kids growing up in the foster care system. In fact, my agency was key in helping address one of the more tragic aspects, which is kids who age out of the system and must leave their homes, often with no resources to fall back on. There is no one to help pay for college, or a car, or even offer a place to stay in tough times.

I wondered, what would happen if Jake and Bobby grew up in foster care and were forced to deal with that issue. I decided that without resources or support they might dabble in some sketchy stuff, but since they were basically good and had each other, they would escape real trouble. Bobby would join the military while Jake would discover a marketable talent as a writer.  

That doesn’t fix all their problems though and the novel starts with Jake picking up Bobby, who has just been released from jail. Bobby is ready to make a fresh start, until Jake asks him to help a mutual friend with a problem they can’t take to the police. Bobby agrees and soon finds himself drawn into a dangerous world of crime and criminals.

For this book I did research on burglary, munitions (or how to blow things up), sports gambling, sports memorabilia, cars, motorcycles, sex workers, and law enforcement. I spoke with a drug dealer, a professional thief, a pimp, a retired munitions expert with the Army, a lawyer, and a car mechanic. Each one was fascinating in their own way.

The book was nearly done but I still didn’t have a title. When I told subscribers to my newsletter the problem, I got a flurry of responses. One of them suggested, “Repoe Man.” I thought it was the perfect title for a book about a character who retrieves things for others.

Please note that it is a thriller written in a male voice and contains scenes of erotica and violence. If that doesn’t bother you, I hope you enjoy reading “Repoe Man,” as much as I enjoyed researching and writing it. You can find it here REPOE MAN: A Bobby Poe Novel: Cowan, Pamela: 9781957638966: Amazon.com: Books

Repoe Man

Bobby Poe and his best friend Jake grew up together in foster care, bonding over their rebellious natures, and shared love of fast cars and heavy metal music.

When Jake asks him to help a mutual friend with a problem, Bobby finds himself drawn into a dangerous world of crime and corruption.

Will love, friendship, and the support of a makeshift family be enough to assure his safety and success, or is the damage inflicted by his past too great?

“Suffering from PTSD and a broken heart Bobby Poe still stands up and fights for everyone. A new hero!” ~ Corky Alexander, Simon Says Book Reviews

“Zoey is an idiot.” ~ Haley Lane, Author of The Twilight King

https://www.amazon.com/REPOE-MAN-Bobby-Poe-Novel/dp/1957638966

Pamela Cowan is a Pacific Northwest author most recognized for her psychological thrillers. Her books are known for their dark and gritty themes, exploring the uglier side of human nature. Her short stories have been featured in various magazines, and anthologies, and have been broadcast on public radio.

With an education in communications and organizational psychology, Pamela spent most of her career in social services, honing her understanding of human behavior, which she incorporates into her books. She has two grown children, a supportive husband, and a dog whose life-long goal is to end the tyranny of UPS, USPS, and FedEx drivers. To date, she has not been successful.

Website: https://www.pamelacowan.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pamelacowanwriter/

Guest Blogger ~ Debbie Burke

~ patyjag ~ 4 Comments

What if a video goes viral showing you committing a crime? You’re innocent but how do you defend yourself when a million people on social media saw you do it. Once the court of public opinion finds you guilty, can you get a fair trial?

That’s the premise for Deep Fake Double Down, the eighth novel in my Tawny Lindholm Thriller series.

As a mystery/suspense/thriller author, I felt compelled to explore what happens when you can no longer believe what you see. How could deep fakes be used to create false evidence?

Deep fakes are often called “Photoshop on Steroids” and they frequently make news. Using software, video of real people is manipulated to make them say words they never said and do acts they never did.

Some recent examples of deep fakes are silly entertainment, like the Pope wearing a satin Balenciaga puffer coat.

But, in the wrong hands, deep fake technology becomes a weapon that can potentially affect world history. One not-so-amusing example was a fraudulent video in 2022 of the Ukrainian president ordering his troops to surrender to the Russians. In May 2023, a photo of a supposed explosion at the Pentagon caused stock market jitters before it was determined to be fake.

When I first began researching the topic a couple of years ago, deep fakes were difficult and time-consuming to create, yet fairly easy to detect. But, during the nine months when I was writing Deep Fake Double Down, technology took a giant leap forward. Now anyone with basic computer knowledge can download free or low-cost programs from the net. Then simply record a few seconds of a person’s face, body, movements, and voice, and you can create a video clone that’s nearly impossible to distinguish from the real person.

Scary? You bet!

In my new thriller, deep fakes mean deep trouble for intrepid investigator Tawny Lindholm and her charismatic attorney-husband Tillman Rosenbaum. A biracial female corrections officer begs them for help after video shows her aiding a young Native inmate in a prison escape. She swears she’s innocent and claims her life is in danger because she witnessed a murder. Then she disappears.

At the same time, Tillman’s troubled teenage son makes a deep fake video of his own kidnapping, but that prank takes an unexpected and frightening turn.

In both situations, Tawny and Tillman discover deep fake technology creates convincing but false evidence. While they struggle to save their client and their son, hidden enemies are ready to kill to keep the truth buried. Will deep fakes lead to real deaths?

Deep Fake Double Down is available from online retailers at this link: https://books2read.com/deep-fake-double-down

Or ask your favorite independent bookstore to order the paperback.

Debbie Burke is an award-winning journalist, crime novelist, freelance editor, and blogger on The Kill Zone. She writes from her home in Montana where the scenic, rugged Rocky Mountains offer plenty of locations to kill people…on the page, that is! 

Please visit https://debbieburkewriter.com to learn about my other books in the Tawny Lindholm Thriller series. Join my readers group and receive a FREE bonus short story about Tawny and Tillman.

Email: debbieburkewriter@gmail.com

Twitter/X: @burke_writer

Guest Blogger ~ Ana Diamond

~ patyjag ~ 3 Comments

The Body Conscious series was born out of dark humor, in the same vein of light-hearted humorous cozy mysteries. I thought having a murder occur in a funeral home where everyone working there was already used to being among the dead added a quirky element to the mystery.

That being said, even though the story is entirely based in a funeral home, I’ve never worked in or even visited a funeral home. I do work in the medical field, which does help with understanding medical terms and how things are generally run in a medical facility. It probably also contributed to my interest in writing on the subject in the first place.

My main character, Lily Reynolds is a smart, feisty mortician running a family business who ends up falling for the detective on the murder case. In order to figure out how she would feel about working in a funeral home and the tasks she would be doing on daily basis I searched the internet for articles written for people who are curious about the process of embalming and the tools used in the process. I would find interviews of morticians explaining why they enjoy their jobs. I was struck by how compassionate people felt about this profession and the care taken for their clients. I tried to take the morbid association out of the profession and make it seem more accessible to the average person.

For example, in Chapter Two, Detective James Rivers goes to the funeral to ask Lily some questions about the case. Lily is in the middle of a workday and asks if she can work while they talk.  She tells him,

“That’s fine, but I need to finish Mrs. Sherry’s makeup. Can I work while you talk?”

He hesitated for a moment.

The true test of how he really felt about her job, she decided.

In this scene James represents how the most people would react to Lily’s job and I wanted to use it as an opportunity to educate and humanize the role for readers. Through scenes when he’s watching her work she sets the tone for how she treats each client. For example, he says,  

“I’ve never seen anyone put makeup on a body.”

“Mrs. Sherry’s family told me she wore a lot of blush, and my job is to have her look as she did when she was around them. I think that it’s important to the family to have their last moments with their loved one feel like it did when she was alive.”

James’s eyes searched her face as if she’d said the most fascinating thing he’d ever heard.

For some reason, I typically write about topics that might make me somewhat uncomfortable—I write about cults in the second book, Body Snatched. I’m thinking maybe it’s a form of therapy? I’ll let you decide. Body Conscious and Body Snatched are available now at all major retailers from The Wild Rose Press.

Body Conscious

Mortician, Lily Reynolds is used to seeing bodies, but not the type murdered in her own funeral home. As Detective James Rivers zeroes in on her as the town’s number one suspect she must rise above the accusations and rumors to solve the case herself while keeping her attraction to the troubled detective at bay. 

James has a past. The last time he let someone into his life she wound up dead. Vowing never to let that happen again he has sworn off dating for good. Until he meets Lily. In his gut he knows she’s not the murderer but pressure to solve the case puts him on the wrong trail while he struggles to keep Lily off the case.  

Can she solve the case on her own or will their scandalous romance get in the way of proving her innocence?

Buy link:

https://books2read.com/anadiamondauthor

When Ana Diamond isn’t writing about tough gals finding love in unexpected places, she’s at work by day in the medical field. She writes romantic cozy mystery novels with feisty strong women and alluring men who can’t resist them. Her books are fast paced, entertaining and heartfelt all at once.

Ana is a 2020 Tara Contest Finalist for Body Conscious and 2015 Melody of Love contest finalist. She lives in New York with her husband, two children and two needy but wildly entertaining kitty cats.

Social media:

https://twitter.com/AuthorDiamond

https://www.instagram.com/anadiamondauthor/

https://www.tiktok.com/@anadiamondauthor

https://www.anadiamondauthor.com/

Guest Blogger ~ Marla A. White

~ patyjag ~ 5 Comments

Unveiling the Fun Side of Crime: My Murder Research Adventure

Maybe this should worry me, but there’s no shortage of people I want to kill on a daily basis, so coming up with victims for my plots is relatively easy. Cut me off on the freeway? Your car is now being driven by a soon to be dead character. Be mean to a friend? Murder will follow. 

The real fun for me comes when it’s time to research the details. For “Cause for Elimination” I had firsthand knowledge of the horse and eventing world because I lived it. But finding out how to blow up a boat (hint: it’s not as easy as it sounds), or what it would sound like if someone were stabbed and their lung collapsed, required a little more digging. Fortunately, I have a few real live resources I can turn to for answers.

There’s a fellow eventer and nurse who’s very patient with my myriad of weird questions about broken necks and blood loss. Another good friend is an expert in wiring and security systems. He was invaluable when I was trying to figure out how the spy camera I needed for a particular scene would work. My nephew builds boats and helped me with the boat question.

Obviously, the Internet is a beautiful thing. There’s a wonderful website, “How To Kill Your Imaginary Friends” with articles such as, “If you shock a flatline, I swear I will come to your home and beat you with a wet chicken”. One of my characters is Scottish so I have a ton of websites bookmarked to make him sound authentic, including “The Septic’s Companion” for British slang words and insults. Plus lots and lots of research on weapons; guns, swords, knives, and even what a cat-o’-nine-tails looks like. I dread the thought that one day someone will look through search history and promptly arrest or medicate me.

But many of the specific, colorful details in my books, however, come from personal experiences. Like I said, I boarded my horses and rode at most of the locations that appear in “Cause for Elimination”. One scene, where a boarder is bemoaning how their life has been ruined, was from an actual and hilarious encounter that I had. Beautiful Idyllwild, a place a go as often as I can, was the inspiration for the quirky town of Pine Cove in my cozy mystery, “The Starlight Mint Surprise Murder” and the upcoming sequel. My non-mystery books were born out of a visit to a historic inn.

Probably the single most useful research tool for me as a writer, however, is wordhippo.com. It’s like a thesaurus on steroids and helps me keep my writing fresh. Used with ProWritingAid, because I’m useless at putting commas in the right place, I’ve gotten much better at turning in manuscripts that are clean and avoid mistakes. Because while killing off people is fun, murdering the language is downright embarrassing! 

Fun facts

Something readers might find interesting about this book:

Much of what happens in this novel is inspired by real events, people and places from my years of riding horses. Emily’s distinctive pickup truck was inspired by a real truck I coveted. Justin’s uncontrollable ride with “whoa?” – happened to me on that very field. The horse she rides, Reese, is based on the last horse I owned right down to his big suitcase head that he likes to waggle.  Don’t even ask me about the upholstery story!  And though I’ve never forgotten to unhook my air-vest, I’ve certainly had my share of close calls.  

A fact about me readers might find interesting:

The first time I got on a horse was to ride a neighbor’s fat pony bareback. It took off, I clung to its side for maybe 100 yards before hitting the ground, and have been in love with horses ever since.  It’s entirely possible I hit my head.  

Cause for Elimination

After suffering a devastating riding accident, eventer Emily Conners is on the road back to reclaiming her life. Then she discovers the body of her friend and boss, Pam Yates, brutally murdered at the barn and it seems like nothing will ever be normal again. She’s out of a job, and annoyed by the handsome cop whose been sent to investigate the case.  Because while she wants to see the killer brought to justice, she has some dark secrets of her own she’d rather he didn’t unearth.

Detective Justin Butler usually gets his killer, but this time the investigation proves particularly difficult as Pam Yates had no shortage of enemies.  He looks to Emily for insights into a world that’s completely foreign to him and can’t understand why she’s resistant to help. Is she as busy as she claims, or is she scared off by the growing attraction they both share?

As the investigation heats up, dangers come from unexpected corners and buried secrets are exposed. Emily and Justin will have to work together to catch the killer, putting both their hearts and their lives on the line, before they strike again. 

Buy links:

Amazon  https://amzn.to/3qk7XCP

Books2Read  https://books2read.com/u/b6zjM6

BookBub  https://www.bookbub.com/books/cause-for-elimination-by-marla-a-white

GoodReads https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/62233827-cause-for-elimination

All Author https://allauthor.com/book/70256/cause-for-elimination/

Marla White is an award-winning novelist, story analysis instructor at UCLA and writing coach who lives in Los Angeles. She graduated from the University of Kentucky where she took her first horseback riding lesson. After dabbling in hunters, barrel racing, and weekly trail rides, she fell hopelessly in love with the sport of eventing.  She “conquered” Novice level before taking a break to pursue novel writing but hopes to return to the saddle some day soon.  Her first novel, “The Starlight Mint Surprise Murder,” was published in 2021 followed by the first two books in her Keeper Chronicles series. When she’s not writing, she’s out in the garden, hiking, or working on a jigsaw puzzle.  

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/TheScriptFixer

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marlawriteswords/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarlaAWhiteAuthor

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@marlaw825

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/21467766.Marla_A_White

Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/marla-a-white

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marla-A.-White/author/B094DVMCR4

Guest Blogger ~ J. Woollcott

~ patyjag ~ 5 Comments

WHERE DO PLOTS AND CHARACTERS COME FROM?

It was summer and I had finally finished my working career. I wanted to write and travel, but Covid happened, and travel was out of the question, so writing became my focus. I wasn’t sure exactly what kind of book I wanted to work on, except that it should be a mystery and probably have a detective in it. As I hail from Northern Ireland, I figured that was the perfect place. I had a relative who had been in the police over there and I thought, well, if that’s not serendipity, I don’t know what is.

The next part—actually writing the darn thing—was a little more difficult.

The plot? A good question. I don’t really know where that came from. Ask any writer and most of the time they will say the story came from an overheard remark or something they read in the paper or on line. Not copied, just a stray word or sentence that sparked another idea. Stephen King, in his wonderful book, ‘On Writing,’ tells how a casual remark someone made about a basement with ‘rats as big as dogs,’ led him to write Graveyard Shift. I suspect Mr. King doesn’t really suffer from a lack of plot ideas though. I rather think he has more than he knows what to do with.

And where do the characters who populate our books come from? Now this is murky. They often rise fully formed out of the writer’s imagination—or so it seems. I suspect my hero, DS Ryan McBride, and the other members of the squad are an amalgam of too many hours spent reading detective crime fiction and watching British tv mysteries and movies.

So, a plot can spring unbidden from anywhere and characters can tap you on the shoulder and say; ‘Hey, let me out, I want to be in your next story.’

I was a designer and artist, and tend to be visual, so when I started to write A Nice Place to Die, I had an opening scene in my head. A woman’s body lying by a river outside Belfast. Crows cawing above in high, dark trees. A day of sun and cloud. Around that time there had been a lot of talk about date rape drugs and the like, and also articles about mistaken identity. Somehow, by a mysterious alchemy, both subjects came together and ended up in my book.

The Belfast Murder Series; Book One, A Nice Place to Die.

The body of a young woman is found by a river outside Belfast and Detective Sergeant Ryan McBride makes a heart-wrenching discovery at the scene, a discovery he chooses to hide even though it could cost him the investigation – and his career. As Ryan untangles a web of lies, his suspects die one by one, leading him to a dangerous family deception and a murderer who will stop at nothing to keep it. And still, he harbors his secret …

For DS McBride’s second outing, Blood Relations, I’d like to say that came to me in an ordered way, but no. I have even less idea where that plot came from, other than an opening scene of a bleak country house, dark clouds rolling in and a retired Detective Inspector lying dead upstairs on bloody sheets. Once again the story sprang from bits and pieces of chat, random conversations and well, just everyday life – not the murder part of course, I made that up … of course I did.

The Belfast Murder Series; Book Two, Blood Relations.

Belfast, Northern Ireland: early spring 2017. Retired Chief Inspector Patrick Mullan is found brutally murdered in his bed. Detective Sergeant Ryan McBride and his partner Detective Sergeant Billy Lamont are called to his desolate country home to investigate. In their inquiry, they discover a man whose career with the Police Service of Northern Ireland was overshadowed by violence and corruption. Is the killer someone from Mullan’s past, or his present? And who hated the man enough to kill him twice? Is it one of Patrick Mullan’s own family, all of them hiding a history of abuse and lies? Or a vengeful crime boss and his psychopathic new employee? Or could it be a recently released prisoner desperate to protect his family and flee the country? Ryan and Billy once again face a complex investigation with wit and intelligence, all set in Belfast and the richly atmospheric countryside around it.           

Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/Blood-Relations-Ryan-McBride-Novel-ebook/dp/B0CFJWF69D/

J. Woollcott is a Canadian author born in Belfast, N. Ireland. She is a graduate of the Humber School for Writers and BCAD, University of Ulster. Her first book, A Nice Place to Die won the RWA Daphne du Maurier Award, was short-listed in the Crime Writers of Canada Awards of Excellence in 2021 and a Silver Falchion Award finalist at Killer Nashville 2023.

Website: https://www.jwoollcott.com

Twitter: @JoyceWoollcott