Meet Ian Member Jason Kristopher

Jason Kristopher was born in Waco, Texas, and spent the first years of his life moving with his family around northern Texas and the Panhandle, including Lubbock. After settling with his family in northern Colorado, Jason spent nearly two decades there soaking up the creative energy and enjoying the beautiful weather, before moving back to Texas ten years ago for "real" work.

Throughout this long journey, Jason continued to write all kinds of fiction, including fantasy, sci-fi, horror, and children's tales, and even tried penning a poem or two. His family members were constantly invited to read incomplete works; finally, on pain of death, he has finished his first novel, and hopes that their ire will be at least somewhat sated.

Jason currently lives in Houston and enjoys reading, writing, movies, music (live and not), the Houston Astros (winning and not) and the Texas hill country, especially the vineyards.

The Dying of the Light: End is available at Print and Kindle at Amazon.com NOOK at Barnes&Noble.com

Why You Need Professional Editing For Your Manuscript

If you are like most authors, you have put months or even years into your manuscript. However, much more than time has been devoted to your work. You have invested your thoughts, emotions, and efforts, all into this manuscript. In turn, you want to give your manuscript the best chance it can possibly have in the publishing world.

Professional proof reading and editing will get the job done for you. Whether you have a work of fiction or non-fiction, professional proof reading and editing will give your manuscript the polished form it needs for success.

As an author, you have put your very best into your manuscript. However, any writer can miss spelling errors, typographical errors, grammatical inconsistencies, and other common problems. These problems can break an otherwise-wonderful manuscript, and ruin its chances for publication.

Whether you plan to self-publish, submit your work to an agent or directly to a publisher, professional editing is the edge you need. Any errors, no matter how small, will be quickly visible and easily corrected. Your manuscript will be at its finest when it is submitted to the agent or publisher.

Professional proof reading and editing is affordable. You will not need to strain your budget to get this extra help. When you think about it, it is worth every penny. After all, you have invested your time, effort, and hard work into your manuscript. It is only sensible to want it to have the best possible chance for publication.

In addition, this service can help you to save both time and money. If you have ever dealt with rejection notices in the past, you know what this means. Instead of submitting a manuscript without careful editing, only to have it returned to you, it will be in its correct form the first time around. You will not need to deal with the extra time and expense of correcting and resubmitting your manuscript.

If you want your fiction or non-fiction work to meet with the success it deserves, professional editing and proof reading is the answer.

Ronald S. Barak at ThrillerFest 2011

Two years ago, 40 years into the practice of law, I decided to see if I could write a novel. Why?

Because my wife and I love reading books, and I wanted to see if I could write one. Oh yeah, and maybe also because a "friend" dared me to do it, implying that I couldn't.

Did I think I could? Well, let's put it this way: I didn't quit my day job, in spite of the fact that a busy law practice didn't exactly make the task any easier. Nor did the fact that as a physics major before going to law school, I never took an English class, let alone a creative writing class.

One year later, I had a few copies of a "finished" political/legal mystery thriller that we shared with some friends, including the one who issued the original challenge. I had loved the journey, but figured that was it, I was done. I had done my best to meet the challenge. What more was there to do? Until friends said they liked the book and wanted to know where they could get copies for Cousin Sally and Uncle Joe.

But there weren't any more copies. So, I sent out some "query letters" to literary agents, you know, to see if one might get me a deal with some big publishing house and put copies out there for Sally and Joe.

Feedback on my novel had been great. Feedback on my query letters was...hmm, right, there was (almost) no feedback on the query letters. And what little there was was hardly encouraging. It hadn’t occurred to me that there was more to writing an effective query letter than I had done.

What did I do next, in the face of this next challenge, to satisfy those “legions” wanting to buy a copy of the book? I self-published, both in print and in digital.

Surprise, surprise. I've received 30+ flattering reviews. More amazing still, just this past week my novel reached a #1 bestseller ranking in Kindle Store's hard boiled mysteries! And it’s still there. Better still, I've started my second mystery thriller novel!

So, I figured I needed to do some homework and find a writing conference or two--where I could go and actually learn something about my new passion. And there it was, sitting right there in front of my eyes, on Google, just waiting for me. ThrillerFest, an annual four day conference sponsored by the International Thriller Writers. Held in New York every July. It was time for me to step out of my cave.

ThrillerFest turned out to be the bees knees, the cat's whiskers. If you're a thriller writer wannabe like me (and I'm guessing the other genres have their counterparts), then Thriller Fest may be just the ticket for you, just as it turned out to be for me. Here's why:

1. The first day and a half of the conference, CraftFest, is a series of interactive “how to” seminars on various elements of writing: Plot development, character development, point of view, setting, pace, rhythm, psychic distance, and more, actually much more, all taught by an absolute who's who of New York Times bestseller authors. Insightful, friendly, entirely and tirelessly giving of themselves, in the classes and after. Each one nicer and friendlier than the next, fully accessible. By the way, we’re not just talking about the art of writing, but the business of writing as well, and where's it's headed in the opinion of the top literary agents and publishers of the day, as well as the folks who run Amazon and Kindle.

2. The afternoon of the second day, AgentFest, is speed dating on steroids to try to find an agent. Three to four minutes per agent, among 65 to choose from. Enough time to work your way through the lines, first come, first served, and see maybe ten to fifteen before the session ended. A year ago, no reactions to my query letters. Here, twelve out of twelve agents either asked for several chapters of my book, or for the full book itself. Several also asked for the beginning of the manuscript of my second novel even though it’s just under way. Hitting #1 on Amazon certainly helped, but live access is night and day better than just a query letter.

3. The next two days is back to CraftFest, but now with superstar panels interacting first with one another, and then the audience.

4. The final night is the awards dinner, really hitting home the sense of community and camaraderie that pervaded the entire four days. 850 people in a grand ballroom setting like one of the televised film awards dinner, wannabe writers like me rubbing elbows with the creme de la creme of the writing community at intimate, friendly tables of eight. Not a case of the superstars gathered together in one part of the room and all of the others off to the side by themselves, left to gawk, and dream. At my table, for example, was a perennial New York Times bestseller, who won one of the major awards that night. Prizes for best debut novelist, best veteran in each of several formats, best in service to the writing community.

If you get a chance to attend ThrillerFest in 2012, or whatever and wherever the conference is that may be best for you, don't hesitate. Writing can be a very lonely profession or avocation, especially for the novice trying to make it mostly on his or her own. Participation in online groups help immeasurably, but for four days at ThrillerFest, the superstars of the writing community, made me, and others like me, feel as if I was part of the club. ITW makes this happen, not only for the four days of ThrillerFest each year, but also in committee activities and other programs and opportunities offered throughout the year.

Try it, you'll like it. I sure did. http://www.thrillerfest.com

Ronald S. Barak is the author of "A Season for Redemption" the #1 Best Selling Hard Boiled Thriller in Print and Kindle at Amazon

Bailey Bristol The IAN Interview

Bailey Bristol is an author of both historical and contemporary suspense. Family bonds, enduring love, menacing villains and unforgettable characters are prominent in her stories set in unlikely places. Whether you meet a heroine backstage at the Vienna opera, or at the bottom of an Ohio coal chute, or find your hero about to die trying to rescue her from a burning zeppelin, you will be immediately engaged with Bristol’s rich characterizations and vivid settings.

Bailey Bristol is the pen name of Mary Schwaner, an accomplished coloratura soprano, graphic artist, and IT geek. Long known as an audience builder for the arts, Schwaner wrote the score and libretto for “The Koala Bear Opera”- an opera for 2^nd graders, and directed many summer seasons of “Summer Stage Magic” music theatre workshops for kids. Her ability to set a vivid scene on stage is reflected in her very visual novels.

IAN. Please tell us about your latest book.

BB. Since the recent publication of LOVE WILL FOLLOW I have enjoyed all the schizophrenic hopes and fears of first-time authors. While I am currently channelling all that energy into the half dozen other stories that are just about ready to launch, I think LOVE WILL FOLLOW will always have a special place in my heart because it was my first. Kittie is one of the resilient women who began with nothing, experienced little other than brutality at the hands of those who were supposed to be "family", and still managed to recognize and open herself to love when it finally found her.

Kittie, the book’s central character, left the 1880’s Orphan Train in Kansas as a terrified 10-year-old, saying goodbye to her brother and walking away with the German family who showed her everything family should not be. At 18, Kittie fled the abuse, taking with her another battered child. Unbeknownst to her, Kittie’s brother Penn has been killed at Wounded Knee, leaving his best friend, Jake Kannady, to take his half-breed baby and find his sister – Kittie. I’ve employed poignant, mystical dream scenes to show that the bond between brother and sister was never severed, despite their years of separation and his ultimate death.

The depraved “step-brother” who is determined to have her as his woman, follows Jake to Mount Haven and very nearly costs Kittie her life, just when she is beginning to know for the first time what the shelter of loving arms and a loving family can mean.

The joy of a warm and sheltering family experience is becoming more and more rare in our culture. My stories seem to always encompass family found in one way or another. Family can be biological, accidental, or purposefully gathered. And its presence or absence has a dramatic effect on our lives.

So that's what I wish for all my readers...the joy that comes from the shelter of each other. The joy that Kittie found in LOVE WILL FOLLOW.

Read more about my love of historicals and why I write about women of consequence on my blog site at http://baileybristol.typepad.com/blog/.

IAN. How long did it take to write Love Will Follow?

BB. I spent about 3 months, devoting about 16 hours a day to the research and writing.

IAN. What inspired you to write the book?

BB. I’ve always been moved and motivated by historic women of consequence. Many of them had the advantage of family fortunes or the backing of charitable organizations. But the woman who used her own resources - physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual - is the woman who truly inspires me. Nobody said, “Here, let me help you.” In a male-dominated world, she had to use her own devices to rise above the hardships and dangers that life thrust before her. That’s who Kittie was, and that’s why I chose to write her story.

IAN. Talk about the writing process. Do you write at night or in the morning?

BB. While it’s true that I probably write “best” in the morning, I find that I write at all times of the day…and night.

IAN. Did you use an outline or do you just wing the first draft?

BB. I have a very loose idea that I sketch in a couple of paragraphs. Once that loose description engenders a very strong beginning, middle and end in my mind, I’m ready to write.

IAN. How is Love Will Follow different from others in the historical romance genre?

BB. The American setting is less common in historical suspense. I write in the 1890’s, that wonderful time when women threw off their corsets and began riding bicycles, which gave rise to the phrase “free wheeling”; when women went abroad unchaperoned to study. It was an amazing time for women, and a rather unique time period for historical romantic suspense.

IAN. Is your book published in print, e-book or both?

BB. Yes, both the paperback and ebook are available on all online venues.

IAN. What do you hope your readers come away with after reading Love Will Follow?

BB. I always endeavor to give my readers a lush look at what life in the 1890’s looked like, what it felt like, smelled like, and so on. I do a lot of research to be accurate in the kinds of obstacles that might have been thrown before the characters just by virtue of the time and place. I would hope readers would have felt immersed in the history while reading my book. And as I am genuinely fond of my characters, I would hope my readers become fond of them as well.

IAN. Where can we go to buy your book?

BB. LOVE WILL FOLLOW is available on Amazon, BN.com, and the many outlets served by Smashwords.com.

IAN. Tell us about your next book or a work in progress. Is it a sequel or a stand alone?

BB. My next book, coming out in August, is THE SAMARITAN FILES. Set in 1890’s New York, it’s a darker suspense with villains from the opium trade threatening the life of our heroine’s father. The hero, an investigative reporter, brings her father into the public light, exposing him as the good Samaritan who foiled a series of murders twenty years earlier. Now the murderers must kill her father before he breaks his silence of twenty years and exposes them. Another woman of consequence, the heroine of the story is a violinist who manages her own women’s orchestra. She, too, is very nearly killed before our hero manages to entrap the bad guys.

IAN. Any other links or info you'd like to share?

BB. http://www.baileybristol.com

LOVE WILL FOLLOW by Bailey Bristol

300 pages

Historical Romantic Suspense

Prairie Muse Publishing

Excerpt

Fly to the mountain

Fly to the sun

Fly to the apple grove

One by one

It was only an apple. And it was only an arm’s length away. Take it, and she might lose her job. Leave it, and her little Hannah Marie might die.

Kittie could hardly feel her hands as she labored over a massive pile of freshly-washed bed linens. A cloud of steam hovered above the heavy lumps of laundry, still hot from the boiling tubs. They’d be starting to freeze by the time she got half way through the pile.

At least until then she could plunge her stiffening fingers into the heart of the pile for a moment’s warmth. Not too long, though, or the screaming nerves would render her hands immobile.

Her lips trembled and her heart hammered in her chest as she fed the next heavy, wet sheet through the wringer. The apple seemed to swell larger each time she glanced at it from the corner of her eye. Larger, redder, shinier. And closer.

All she had to do was reach out.

“Calloway!”

Kittie lurched back from the wringer and knocked over the bench beside her. Flossie’s lunch pail flew off and the woman’s sandwich tumbled, still wrapped in waxed paper, onto the floor. The apple rolled, hit the wall, spun sideways, and came to a stop somewhere behind the coal bin.

Flossie Timberlake thumped her on the shoulder. Hard.

“Y’hear me?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Kittie whispered, staring at the trail the apple had made through the coal dust around the bin.

“You watch what yer’ doin’, girl. You ‘bout lost a hand.”

The owner of Timberlake Laundry lumbered past the upset bench and grunted as she worked to bend enough beyond her huge belly to pick up the sandwich. She waggled her fingers toward it and only succeeded in flipping it further out of reach. Disgusted, the double-chinned one-time doxy heaved herself upright and kicked the sandwich into the corner.

“If’n you finish afore I git back, start on them collars. I’ll take m’ lunch at Maloney’s fer a change.”

Kittie nodded and leaned into the crank. Sheets were the worst. The heavy wet fabric made the crank bog down so she had to push twice has hard. Distracted by the apple, she’d nearly fed her own hand through the very wringer she herself was cranking.

The tail end of the sheet slipped through the rolling jaws that squeezed every last drop of moisture into the tub below. Kittie dropped the crank, snapped the sheet three times, and ran it through the hot mangle that stood nearby. At least this part, ironing the sheets, gave her shoulders a break.

She worked the treadle with her foot and kept the sheet folded neatly in half and as flat as possible while she maneuvered it through the heated rolls of the mangle. It taunted her with searing puffs of steam so hot that she had to stretch and dodge to keep her face from getting burned. All that twisting and leaning put wrenching pressure on her right knee as she strained to keep a toe on the treadle.

If Flossie would only let her sit at the hulking machine, her face would be well away from the burning vapor. But Flossie said that sit-down jobs just made girls lazy, so Kittie was left to crouch and lean.

The lavender oil Flossie worked into the mangle’s rollers each night left a delicate scent in the crisp, warm sheets. Her devious employer believed it disguised the fact that she kept the rinsing barrel full by dumping the contents of the wringer bucket into it throughout the day.

Kittie added the last of this customer’s order to the pile that sat on the wrapping table. In just seconds she had the brown paper snug around the stack of fresh laundry and tied off with string. She marked the customer’s name with a pencil and carried it to the pickup bins.

Without breaking her resolute, shuffling stride, she snatched the apple from behind the coal bucket and the paper-wrapped sandwich from the floor and headed back to the pile of sodden linen.

“Oh, you there!”

The voice stopped Kittie dead in her tracks. She’d been caught red-handed with the sandwich and apple. Her heart thudded in her chest. Hannah Marie was going to eat tonight if she had to kill to keep the sandwich. There would be enough meat and cheese between those two slices of bread to feed her for three days.

“Miss? I should like to —”

The call was broken by a spasm of coughing. Kittie turned and looked toward the front of the laundry. It seemed impossible that the horrid hacking sounds could be coming from so slight a woman.

Kittie pocketed the sandwich and apple, forgot her guilt and pointed her stiff toes toward the makeshift front counter. Her feet wouldn’t warm up until she planted them next to the corncob burner tonight. During the day she simply scuffed along to protect them from getting banged up inside her cracked and hole-ridden shoes. Sometimes they were so cold she thought her toes might just shatter like glass if she bumped them wrong.

Flossie worked inside the main building that stayed toasty and warm from the small coal burners that heated the big wash tubs. Even on days like this the woman broke a sweat in there. Kittie’s assignments kept her in the lean-to built on at the back. It was a dilapidated excuse for an enclosure that let the frigid wind keep a constant draft through the unheated shed.

Kittie forced herself to focus on the woman who leaned on the counter. “Are you all right?” It wasn’t her place to deal with customers, but it was impossible to ignore the lady in distress. And it would keep her inside the warm sanctuary for a few precious minutes.

Amazon.com

Barnes&Noble.com

Smashwaords.com

L.Carroll The IAN Author Interview

L. Carroll is the author of the Lor Mandela Series (Book #2 "Four Hundred Days" coming July 15, 2011). Her first book, "Destruction from Twins" maintains a 5 star rating on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Goodreads.

Currently, she lives in Eagle Mountain, UT with her husband, Chuck, and four of their five children. Her favorite place is the portal in her garage (a.k.a. the office) that takes her to the mystical world of Lor Mandela!

IAN. Please tell us about Lor Mandela 400 Days:

LC. Four Hundred Days follows Audril, the heiress to the Lor Mandelan throne, as she sneaks away to Earth to save one of her dearest friends, and finds that a power hungry tyrant from her own world has begun systematically obliterating towns and cities to get her to turn herself over to him.

On Earth, Audril meets a wildly eccentric old lady named Teedee Venilworth whose imaginary butler/fiancé supposedly holds the key to her success. But how can someone help if he doesn't exist? Could it be that creatures who dwell in shadow are not exclusive to Lor Mandela?

Book number two in the Lor Mandela Series, Lor Mandela – Four Hundred Days, is an action-packed whirlwind of intrigue and fantasy. Join the extraordinary characters from the first book, (both the goodand the evil), as they traverse the haunted corridors of Alcatraz Penitentiary, travel via portal to an ancient castle on the cliff shores of Ireland, and meet a foreboding race of mystic warriors known as the Solom.

Soar on the back of a large horse-like creature to the Northern High Forests and discover that on the picturesque world of Lor Mandela, your friends can become foes, your enemies your allies, and just because someone dies, it doesn’t always mean that they’re dead.

IAN. How long did it take to write the book?

LC. "Four Hundred Days" took about fourteen months to write. It took five times that to write my first book "Destruction from Twins", so I guess I'm getting better!

IAN. Why did you decide to write a sequel instead of going in another direction with a stand alone?

LC. Originally, "Destruction from Twins" was going to be a stand alone book. I started writing it without any sort of outline, but about half way through, I sat down and roughed out the rest of the story. With everything that still needed to happen, I realized that this was going to have to be a trilogy.

IAN. Do you have part three in the Lor Mandela series written or outlined?

LC. I've written the first few chapters of the third book, and have a basic outline. Knowing me, though, that outline is bound to see a few revisions before it's all said and done.

IAN. You ran a contest for readers to name a catch phrase for the Lor Mandela series. How did that turn out?

LC. That contest was such a blast! I think I had about sixty entries or so. The idea was to have people send in their favorite phrase for a chance to have it featured as the "catch phrase" for a new character in book #3. I had some of the funniest, most clever, and highly inspirational phrases pass through my inbox! In the end, the winner was a gal from Georgia, with her phrase, "Speaking of toasters…" That's gonna be a fun one to work in, for sure!

IAN. Talk about the writing process. Did you have a writing routine? Did you do any research, and if so, what did that involve?

LC. My process was kind of a secret before I started this blog tour, only because it's embarrassing! I usually start out by going on an, "I'm going to write so y'all need to keep it quiet", rampage. After that, I lock myself in my office and read the last chapter I wrote. Then, I actually act out the next scene I want to write, (for the sake of continuity and believability). Once I'm happy with the flow of the next segment, I start plunking away at the keyboard.

There is a ton of research that goes into my books, even though, and perhaps especially because, they are fantasy. Again, in the name of believability, there have to be hard facts mixed in with the fantastic. In "Four Hundred Days" for example, I had to research AlcatrazPenitentiary…its layout, stories of famous inmates, etc. and I even had to study up on the United States Secret Service. (Let's hope they never confiscate my computer; questions would undoubtedly arise….)

IAN. What do you hope your readers come away with after reading 400 Days?

LC. A desire to read the third book and a healthy despise of cliffhangers!

Actually, I love the prevalent underlying theme in fantasy stories in general -- that ordinary people can, and do become extraordinary. I hope that "Four Hundred Days" inspires readers to find their own inner greatness!

IAN. Where can we go to buy your book?

LC. Right now, "Destruction from Twins" is available in paperback at

https://www.createspace.com/3602036 or

http://www.amazon.com/Lor-Mandela-Destruction-Twins-Book/dp/0615481752/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1309238407&sr=8-3

Or in ebook formats at

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/55880 or

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/lor-mandela-destruction-from-twins-l-carroll/1031162349?ean=2940011287046&itm=1&usri=lor%2bmandela

IAN. Any other links or info you'd like to share?

LC. Sure! You can learn more about the Lor Mandela Series athttp://www.lormandela.com or on my Independent Author Network page at http://www.independentauthornetwork.com/lcaroll.html

And, if you're interested in joining the "Four Hundred Hours to Four Hundred Days" blog tour and countdown party, visithttp://www.wovenstrands.wordpress.com orhttp://www.lormandela.blogspot.com

Excerpt from book:

Here's the first page…

The only visible thing outside of the cement, one-windowed room was a hazy blanket of black — a thick, inky gloom so dense that neither moon nor stars penetrated it. Inside, the small room was similarly shrouded in stale blackness, except for a tiny sliver of one wall weakly illuminated by three shining, green buttons. In their faint glow, the sharp edge of a metal door glinted on the otherwise barren slab of concrete. A musty odor — similar to that of a dust field stirred by the wind prior to a thunderstorm — hung heavily between the cold, damp walls and seemed a fitting aroma for a mill which was left dead and decaying by its former owners.

On a simple, grey, utilitarian bench — sterile and hard, and haphazardly jutting out from a corner — sat a tiny creature, curled in a dismal, rocking ball, quietly sobbing and shivering. The faint chirping of crickets in the distance no longer appealed to her. In fact, the sound that would have normally held an irresistible fascination now created a sickening knot in the pit of Tabbit the Shadow Squanki's bulgy, brown tummy.

“Squankis don’t tells,” she blubbered, “lady comes backs . . . lady comes backs . . . return the powers . . . four hundred days . . . four hundred days.”

Meet IAN Member Robert English

Robert English has a day job as an attorney specializing in criminal defense, family law, and general civil litigation. He is a military veteran and served on active duty in the U.S. Army from 1989-1991.

Robert is very outdoor oriented and his hobbies include camping, hiking, motorcycling, trail running, martial arts, and marathons.

Robert has run 33 marathons and 25 half-marathons as of 2010.

His two finished novels are in the genres of legal thriller/crime drama (Dead Sharks) and Hard Science Fiction (The Prison). T.E.C.H.s is a short story collection of sports oriented Science Fiction. Other works in progress include True Patriots (Action Thriller), Miles Murphy and the Ring of Truth (Teen Fantasy), DNA Doesn't Lie (Legal Thriller), Valhalla (Science Fiction), The Blood Eternal (Vampire), and Realms (Fantasy).

Robert has won an Honorable Mention writing award for an original screenplay.

His books are: Dead Sharks, The Prison, and the short story collection, TECHs.

Available at Amazon.com, Barnes&Noble.com and Smashwords.com

Meet IAN Member Gary William Murning

Gary is a novelist living in the northeast of England. His work, largely mainstream fiction, focuses on themes that touch us all — love, death, loss and aspiration — but always with an eye to finding an unusual angle or viewpoint. Quirky and highly readable, his writing aims to entertain first and foremost. If he can also offer a previously unfamiliar perspective or insight, all the better.

Gary was born with a form of Spinal Muscular Atrophy, and whilst he has never thought of himself as a “disabled writer” it is nevertheless fair to say that his disability has in many ways contributed to his fairly unique perspective.

Gary William Murning at IAN

His books are: If I Never and Children of the Resolution

Amazon.com

Meet IAN Member Karen Pokras Toz

Karen Pokras Toz is a writer, wife and mom. Karen grew up in the small town of Orange, Connecticut and graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Finance. She also attended the University of Richmond, where she studied law and business, receiving both a JD and an MBA. Karen has spent the last several years working as a tax accountant, writing in numbers. She recently discovered a passion for writing with words. She is the 2011 honoree and spokesperson for the Eastern Pennsylvania Arthritis Foundation’s Jingle Bell 5K Run. Karen enjoys gardening, cooking, and spending time with her husband and three children.

Her book is Nate Rocks the World

DEAD of KNIGHT by William R. Potter for Sample Sunday

1000 words from Dead of Knight by William R. Potter

Jack Staal lay in his bed, propped against the headboard. He held a half finished Scotch neat in his left hand. He didn’t normally take a drink to bed, but lately he’d had trouble sleeping. In his lap were numerous photos and 3x5 index cards with notes and bits of information about what he was beginning to think might turn out to be the most important case in his twenty years on the job.

Two women violently raped and murdered on their birthdays. The media, mayor’s office, Chief Constable and the public were all buzzing about a serial killer in Hanson and the department’s lack of progress. He glanced at the cards.

Stephanie MacKay, 32, found in Discovery Park, ambushed while jogging, brutally assaulted and left for dead on March twenty-third. Gabriella Haywood, 31, a realtor, found dead nine days later in the basement of a townhouse she was supposed to be showing. Research had turned up no link connecting the two women. Clues, tips, trace evidence, and leads went nowhere.

Staal tossed the file folder aside and shook his head when he realized how much time he had spent on the cards. The case was not officially his. Just minutes after he responded to the first victim, Max Barnes—the Staff Sergeant in charge of the Criminal Investigations Branch of the Hanson Police Service had called in the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team.

The IHIT combined the skills of homicide specialists from the RCMP’s “E” Division with those of the experienced detectives from local law enforcements agencies. They were in charge of working homicides, attempted murders and all unexplained deaths across Metropolitan Vancouver.

Staal’s former partner, Lesley Degarmo, had been assigned to one of the seven IHIT teams only five months earlier. She was the one who had kept him up to date with the case, going so far as to e-mail him copies of the case files.

Analysis done on footprints at the park scene revealed that the killer probably stood around five foot eight, weighed 150 pounds, and was perhaps a teenager. In the house where Haywood died toys had been scattered around the children’s bedrooms, presumably played with by the suspect. When that bit of information had leaked out, the press had instantly dubbed the murderer “Birthday Boy.” Now it was June 29. Almost three months had passed since the last victim’s death. Experience and his gut told him the killer would strike again, and the waiting made him uneasy.

Lying next to Staal was Gina Hayes She had fallen asleep shortly after their lovemaking, and neither his restlessness nor the rustle of his paperwork seemed to disturb her. He’d worked with Hayes for almost two years, but her muscular, athletic body still excited him. He could get lost in her deep brown eyes, and he marveled at how beautiful she was, even when asleep. She was a cop, not Staal’s partner; however they were both assigned to the Major Crimes Section and worked closely.

Gina held a black belt in Karate, and when she expressed an interest in boxing professionally, Staal had volunteered to train her. She accepted. Long hours in the gym had moved their relationship quickly from colleagues to good friends, and now Gina spent most nights at his place.

Gilbert, an aging black tabby, lay at the foot of the bed. The feline had kept him company on many late nights as he mulled over difficult cases. Staal set his drink on the side table, slid the cards into the drawer, and slid further under the covers.

“Go to sleep, old man,” he whispered to Gilbert. He closed his eyes and drifted off thinking of the way Gina had smiled down at him as they’d made love.

Staal struggled against the dream, thrashing as if he could prevent the vision from stirring in his brain. He saw a children’s playground surrounded by dense bushes and evergreen trees. A man lay dead near the swings.

Staal fought the unfolding images.

Three injured children.

Blood.

Screams.

A young woman begged him to save her daughter as the child died. A man cradled a limp arm and screamed as he ran.

Staal looked beyond him to see dozens, then hundreds of tiny faceless forms. Some of the injured struggled in agony, while others were as motionless as mannequins.

“Jesus Christ!” He bolted upright and took a deep breath. He sat hugging his knees. The wall clock thumped steadily and Gilbert’s purr sounded like a diesel engine.

Gina put her hand on his shoulder. “Jack, what’s wrong?”

“Just a damn dream.” He reached for the cocktail glass on the night table and swallowed the last sip.

He glanced at Gina. She smiled and sat up in bed beside him.

“Dream? About the shooting?” She ran her fingers up and down his leg.

“Yeah,” he whispered. “Sorry to wake you.”

“It’s been a while since the last one?” Gina asked.

“Yeah, a couple months,” he lied.

Staal often wondered what Gina saw in him. He wasn’t the best looking guy around. At forty-two; he was still in good shape despite the recent adding of over twenty pounds to his normal 200. The job and over a hundred amateur and twenty-six professional boxing matches had left him with his share of scars and blemishes, and a nose that had obviously been broken more than once. She didn’t seem to mind.

He slipped out of bed and headed for the kitchen where he poured himself a shot of whiskey. He downed it in one long swallow, shuddering as it burned his throat. Too bad it did little to calm his trembling hands. He fumbled to light a cigarette, inhaled deeply and blew nine months of surviving without nicotine.

Staal stared at the calendar. “Shit, thirteen straight nights, that God-damn dream!” He shook his head and poured another shot.

Jack hated stereotypes, especially cop stereotypes. He struggled against the overweight, doughnut chomping, two-pack-a-day habit, bottle-of-hooch-in-the-desk-drawer cliché. The cop dinosaur so often played on television by Dennis Franz. He looked at the glass in right hand, the cigarette smoldering in his left and shook his head.

“Have you been keeping your appointments with Dr. Connelly lately?” Gina asked.

Jack poured himself a glass of ice-water and moved into the living room where he slumped in his Lay-z-boy. “Missed the last two.”

“You’re gonna hear about it from Barnes.”

“Yeah. I know.”

He had never known Gina to nag or push. This time was no exception. She kissed him on the cheek and left him alone.

Staal didn’t have time for therapists, didn’t believe in their ability to help him, and hated talking about his personal stuff. He preferred to go it alone. He remembered his first visit with Dr. Janet Connelly, Hanson Police Service’s Staff Psychologist. His career as a cop was on the rocks; his superiors at the Vancouver Police Department had removed him from the street after failed stints in the Auto-Theft unit and Vice, and set him behind a desk. Then an opportunity with the Hanson surfaced.

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The Blurred Line by VH Folland

The line between fiction and non-fiction can sometimes get rather blurred.

"Your book would make a great film" is nice to hear. "I know where this happened" is less so, particularly when you invented the story. I've had three different people tell me they know where Brooke's Vale is and where these events happened. Notably, all three set it in different countries.

There seems to be a drive to assume that where a fictional story is engaging or well-researched, it must in fact be true. This also happens with movies - the scriptwriter for Titanic invented the name "Jack Dawson" without knowing about "J. Dawson" who was a crewman on the ship. It hasn't stopped fans leaving flowers on his grave. In a less benevolent case, actor Andrew Robinson received death threats after playing Scorpio in Dirty Harry.

Nowadays, filmmakers can head this off, to a degree. DVD extras showing the cast getting made up, doing interviews and drawing a line between themselves and their character all help. Authors don't have this option, and it can be very difficult to convince people that the ideas and world you have created are both completely fictional. After all, if it is impossible to prove a negative, how do you prove your characters don't exist?

Part of the problem is that people hear what they want to hear. If someone is getting something - validation, enjoyment, etc. - out of what they believe, they won't want to listen no matter how strong the evidence is against it. Unfortunately, with the increasing social networks and drive for authors to be "in touch" with their readers, it is easier and easier for one person's obsession to spoil things for other readers, and in the worst cases turn dangerous.

In my case the readers who had blurred the line were sensible people who listened when I pointed out the logical issues with their guesses, and accepted the story as fictional. Other authors aren't so lucky. Mercedes Lackey's essay "The Last Straw" covers in detail the problems she had with the Diana Tregarde books, and fans who would not accept that she invented them.

To make things more complicated there is the issue of reality mirroring fiction. The most notorious case was the novel "Futility, or the wreck of the Titan" which came startlingly close to the actual fate of the Titanic fourteen years later. The problem is that if you research something thoroughly, and you come up with a scenario that could happen in real-life, the world is a big place and somewhere, sooner or later, it probably will.

I've heard people say that they don't understand how anyone could confuse fact and fiction. On one hand I would agree - I've never read a book, fiction or non-fiction where there wasn't an awareness at the back of my mind that this was someone's (often many people's) work, invention or interpretation.

On the other hand, some authors say that they talk to their characters. If the characters are that real to them, then is it surprising that readers may get confused? If fiction is about telling stories that enlighten people about the human condition, telling truth with lies and fables, then believing that the story is as true as the message can be very easy. And if fiction is about escapism, then it is easy to understand someone wanting a better life - or maybe just to get away from their own and not let the illusion end?

VH Folland is an adventure and thriller author, whose profile on the Independent Author network can be viewed here:

http://www.independentauthornetwork.com/vh-folland.html