Tag: #Thriller

Guest Blogger ~ Helen Hynson Vettori

~ patyjag ~ 1 Comment

Have you ever heard of the term Black Swan? Not the bird found in Australia – the expression. It means a catastrophic event that could not have been foreseen or imagined because of its unprecedented impact. As a decorated EMT/Paramedic and award-winning US Homeland Security emergency manager, I planned and prepared for, responded to, and recovered from devastating crises. Experience from those professions forged my credibility to imagine plots driven by horrific circumstances, but, until I retired, I never imagined I would pen a Black Swan trilogy thriller novel series. The Ladies of Mystery invited me to introduce you to the first book, Black Swan Impact, on November 2, 2024, and one year later they repeated the kindness by welcoming me to spotlight the second book, Black Swan Shock.

As you might have guessed from the title, the catastrophe that could not be foreseen or imagined in Black Swan Shock is a massive earthquake. Like the first book, it is an award-winning, internationally acclaimed work, but unlike the first, it won the 2025 Mystery / Thriller category from The International Impact Book Awards even before its publication. The honor may be attributed to the stunning calamity and the strong, likeable, and multifaceted characters.

The primary protagonist, Marla Case, is a major reason for its recognition because she is so compelling. Beyond the professional and technical influences that helped me to shape her, the personal one that inspired me most was our neighbor, Millie Wiggins. Millie and her family live a few doors up and walk past our home often. She always smiles and spreads her joy whenever I see her. She was born with Down syndrome and personalizes it beautifully. I used Millie’s wonderful traits to develop Marla who also has the condition.

Then, an earthquake resonates with readers because seismic events are a recognized part of our dynamic world. However, while tremors are common, mammoth upheavals are not, captivating the audience. Through that catastrophic event I build tension with vivid and stunning scenarios. Of course, imagination was a key element, but I also called upon my experiences as a former paramedic and emergency manager, firsthand accounts from fire and rescue personnel, and research related to the 1811-1812 New Madrid Earthquake to deliver plausible and anxious situations.

As an avid thriller enthusiast myself, I strive to offer readers exciting and intriguing fiction because that is the great appeal of the genre. From its opening, Black Swan Shock surprises readers as Marla runs the race of her life. Then, the plot crescendos when a historic earthquake strikes. The elite athlete and her family are caught in mayhem, hooking the audience by intimately sharing their trials and successes. Juxtaposed hair-raising scenes alongside altruism and wonderful relationships, readers will experience tension one moment and then joy the next.

BLACK SWAN SHOCK

Marla Case, an elite Olympic-bound athlete, finds her devotion to competition fading and chooses to step away. She considers becoming a medical responder and learns about the profession from a paramedic friend. Before committing to the rescue service, Marla accompanies her mother on an academic tour that ends abruptly when a massive earthquake strikes. The athlete reacts to save victims with her physical skills and newly acquired understanding of some emergency medical actions. She becomes a beacon of hope for the citizens of St. Louis, Missouri. However, personal tragedy affects Marla, as well, and she struggles to find catharsis herself.

Black Swan Shock is available worldwide from your favorite bookstore or online bookseller like Barnes and Noble and Amazon in hardcover, paperback, and electronic versions. E-books are obtainable immediately, but audio-book lovers will need to wait to listen to it. That format should be released in the first quarter of 2026. If you prefer, you may find links to purchase a paperback, hardcover, or e-book at my Website https://www.helenhynsonvettori.com/.

ISBN 9798895436257 (Paperback)

ISBN 9798895436264 (Hardcover)

ISBN9798895436288 (ePub e-book)

ISBN 9798895436271 (Audiobook) 

Helen Hynson Vettori (pronounced: HELL-lun HIN-suhn Ve-TOR-ee ) was born in Washington, DC, and has always lived and worked in the National Capital Region. Her knowledge and experiences gained as a commended EMT/paramedic in the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Rescue Squad and Employee of the Year emergency manager in the Department of Homeland Security enable her to write books with credible and thrilling Black Swan plots. She lives in Leesburg, VA, with her husband and enjoys hobbies like fine art painting and traveling, but, most importantly, she likes spending time with family. You may find out more about the author at her Website https://www.helenhynsonvettori.com/, follow her on Instagram @helenhvettori, or subscribe to her monthly topics on Substack https://helenhvettori.substack.com/.  

Guest Blogger ~ Keith Yocum

~ patyjag ~ 2 Comments

The Iceberg Syndrome

It’s good to have a psychologist in the house.

Throughout my writing journey, my wife Denise has lurked in the background. Her input has been merciless, accurate, and vital.

That’s because she’s an avid reader in general and a licensed psychologist in particular.

Twenty-two years have passed since my first novel, “Daniel,” was published, and nine more have followed. The genres I write in are a mix of psychological mystery, espionage thriller and even magical realism.

Most of my novels involve strong female characters, including the Cape Cod Mystery series, in which the protagonist is Stacie Davis, a newspaper reporter. My background in journalism helped me create an authentic portrait of Stacie’s job as a reporter for a daily newspaper.

But Denise’s input to create the emotional authenticity for Stacie–and all my characters–is an important part of my writing process. “Would Stacie really do that?” Denise would ask. Or “That doesn’t sound like something Stacie would say.” When there are inciting incidents or dramatic twists that force Stacie to react, Denise is always looking over my shoulder to ensure the character’s actions are plausible.

Over the years, Denise and I have developed a work process that allows me to craft a story without her input. When I finish the complete manuscript, I drive to my local Staples and have them print a bound hard copy. Denise prefers working from a hard copy and jotting down questions. She folds down the corner of a page that has a comment.

In some of my novels, the protagonist sees a therapist dealing with an issue. Using therapy as a narrative tool can be useful for a writer. It helps fill in the character’s backstory and shows them struggling to understand their emotions and interpersonal struggles. Having Denise there to lend professional oversight to the rendered sessions is so important.

Psychological thrillers require the protagonist to struggle with both an external menace and internal uncertainties and confusion. But the reader only cares about what happens if they also care about the protagonist, and that’s where emotional authenticity is important.

In the most recent Cape Cod Mystery, Lost in the Crush, Stacie suffers a devastating personal setback that sends her reeling into a complex set of circumstances that tests her sanity and her relationships. She’s a dogged journalist seen as brash and forceful. Her strength is sometimes her greatest weakness, and Stacie struggles to understand what happened to her and why. But that journey causes friction with her friends and family as she stalks the truth. Is she going too far? Why does Stacie persist? What about her family background makes her such a driven person?

Sigmund Freud said, “The mind is like an iceberg, it floats with one-seventh of its bulk above water.” With my wife Denise’s help, I strive to show my characters’ motives and struggles that sit right below the surface.  

Lost in the Crush

Stacie Davis is about to marry the man of her dreams, but on the night of the rehearsal dinner, a dark secret unravels everything she holds dear.

Get ready to be swept away by a tidal wave of deception in this gripping psychological thriller set on the shores of Cape Cod. With the stunning backdrop of the ocean, Stacie must confront the truth and face the consequences that come with it. Will she be able to survive the brewing storm?

Buy Links:

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DQ88ZNYW

B&N: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/lost-in-the-crush-keith-yocum/1146747051?ean=2940184540061

Keith Yocum is an author of ten novels and lives on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. He grew up overseas as an Army brat, including long stints in the Panama Canal Zone and Western Australia. He has an undergraduate degree in philosophy and a graduate degree in journalism. He has an extensive career in publishing. He was the founder of a group of weekly newspapers in the western suburbs of Boston. He has also worked for publications including The Boston Globe and The New England Journal of Medicine.

Social Media links:

www.keithyocum.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/keithyocum/

https://www.facebook.com/yocum.keith

Guest Blogger ~ Pamela Fagan Hutchins

~ patyjag

Vigilante with a Badge in the Modern West: Delaney Pace

My Delaney Pace Series is set in the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming, present-day—the real-life Modern West. It’s a setting I know well. I live there, right on the eastern face of the Bighorns near Sheridan. For the book, I created the fictional town of Kearny. Its name was inspired by Fort Phil Kearny near Story. My husband and I used to live across the street from its ruins and the museum that now stands in its place. That setting has fueled many of the books I’ve written.

But any good series is driven by its lead character more than anything, so it is with that in mind that I present to you my vigilante with a badge, Deputy Investigator Delaney Pace. My friend Daisy is the inspo for Delaney, and you couldn’t get more Modern West than Daisy—or more kick ass.

A few years ago, my husband Eric posted that we were giving away rusty, fire-damaged barbed wire. One of the takers was Daisy, who showed up with her family to claim some to use for a project.

We soon learned that she’d given up oil field trucking in North Dakota—and a side gig as a reality star— for taking over the family homestead, raising her second daughter twenty years after her first, and being a service to others through philanthropy and her physical labor. She was a key player in organizing one of the largest agricultural relief efforts in the history of the United States through a huge convoy of truckers, donors, and volunteers after historic fires devastated America’s Midwest. She and her family raise (and butcher) a large flock of turkeys every year to feed 300+ people at a free community Thanksgiving dinner.

Daisy’s the one you want as your second in a knife fight, who could have been a model or actress instead of a rodeo star and extreme trucker, and she’s the friend you can knock back a cold one with or take to meet your pastor (after you’ve done your best to prepare them for the encounter). If by some small miracle you find her in a church, you won’t see her sitting in the pews… she’s the one standing in the back.

She was forged in the kind of volcanic upheaval that can result in smoking rubble or beautiful rocky mountain ranges. Daisy, through character and force of will, is the latter. If you enjoy Delaney as much as I do, it is because of my friend Daisy. {Daisy, thank you for agreeing to let me reshape you in fiction.}

Whether it is her love for her niece, her desperate need to find her father’s killer and unravel the mystery of her mother’s disappearance, or her passion for hunting down killers (and for the handsome deputy she works alongside), Delaney goes all in. Her spirit embodies the Modern West. Rugged, self-reliant but selfless, with one foot in 1950 and one in 2024.

I think she and I have a long road to travel together, and I’m thrilled to ride shotgun on her fictional journey.

Hop in with us—we’d love to have you, too!

Pamela Fagan Hutchins

Catch Delaney Pace in her latest adventure: HER FORGOTTEN SHADOW https://amzn.to/3Nh54xYA violent storm erupts over the small town of Kearny, bringing a devastating mudslide. Amongst the debris, the worn threads of a child’s blanket, hides the body of a young girl, her long dark hair matted with the fallen earth that killed her.

When the rescue team find rope marks around the ankles of the teenage girl, they call in Detective Delaney Pace. Fourteen-year-old Marilyn Littlewolf went missing five years ago after moving to Kearny from a local reservation. Fearing she was dead, nobody expected Marilyn to ever come home. So where has she been? And why is her body covered in bruises?

Delaney thinks Marilyn was held captive in the mountains that tower above the town, but with acres of remote wilderness to search, the investigation seems impossible. Diving into Marilyn’s case, one name stands out that makes her blood turn cold as ice: her friend and longstanding babysitter to her two adopted daughters, Skeeter Rawlins.

Racing to his home, she finds it in disarray, it’s clear he left in a hurry. In disbelief, Delaney takes in the empty whisky bottles and wonders if she was wrong to trust her reliable old friend with her darling girls?

As evidence piles up against Skeeter, Delaney’s heart shatters when another girl is reported missing. Tracing her to a remote cabin deep in the woods, she fears she’s about to finally uncover the truth about her once-trusted friend. But when she bursts into the disheveled shack nothing could have prepared her for what she finds. Was she wrong to suspect Skeeter as the twisted mind behind the missing girls? And is she already too late to save another innocent life?

Pamela Fagan Hutchins is a USA Today bestselling and Amazon All Star mystery/thriller/suspense author with books in ten languages, who believes in soulmates, loves to laugh, travels too much, and lives out the adventures in her books at a rustic lake camp at Maine’s Mooselook Lake and in an off-the-grid lodge on the face of Wyoming’s Bighorn Mountains with her husband, sled dogs, and draft horses. She’s currently along for her husband’s year-long assignment on the Mediterranean coast of France, writing her fifth Delaney Pace crime thriller in a tiny village where no one speaks English or has ever seen Alaskan malamutes before… and loving it.

Website: http://pamelafaganhutchins.com

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