THE ROGUE ELEMENT

As I count down the days until the release of my novella THE OTHER DANIEL (October 10th), I wanted to offer an exciting sneak peek at my next project.

THE ROGUE ELEMENT introduces a new character to the Grisham/Sullivan universe – Homicide Detective Scott Priest.

The Denver police department is in turmoil after two of its own are shot by a fellow officer. The motives for the shooting are unclear, but speculation mounts that a criminal element within the department is responsible. As he struggles through a grisly murder case involving a hotel room attendant, Detective Priest will also find himself on the front lines of a secret investigation into members of his own unit – men he once trusted with his own life. Before it’s all over, Priest will question whether or not there is anyone left to trust.

He will also be forced to wage the fight of his life.

Look for THE ROGUE ELEMENT in late autumn 2014. 

Thanks for hanging out, and until next time… write on.

GRISHAM IS BACK!!!

It is with great pleasure (and a whole lotta pride) that I announce THE OTHER DANIEL, the follow up to my bestselling debut novel THE STRATEGIST is now available for pre-order on Amazon! The official release date for the Camille Grisham novella is October 10th. I’ll be posting much more as the big day approaches. But for now, hop on over to Amazon for a sneak peek!!!

 

Author Spotlight: Abby Vandiver

 

I first met the subject of today’s Author Spotlight on a Goodreads indie author thread. I had the opportunity to read her debut novel In The Beginning and was incredibly impressed. In fact, it turned out to be my favorite book of 2013. The exciting sequel Irrefutable Proof  was released in February and immediately became an Amazon Bestseller. Now Abby is back with a third novel, in which she teams up with another highly successful author Kathryn Dionne. The result is At the End of the Line, a period drama set against the backdrop of the Civil Rights Movement.

It was an honor to spend some time with Abby discussing all things writing. I’m proud to say that I am a fan of both she and Kathryn. After this interview, you will be too.

Today marks the official launch of your latest novel ‘At the End of the Line’. Tell us about it.

I am so excited about the book that I could talk about it for days. But the short version is the book spans from 1958 through 1972 and revolves around the friendship of two women that never met and live thousands of miles away. Through their fourteen-year friendship we see them grow as women and survive all that life throws at them, partly from the care and support of the other.  The book covers their lives through the civil rights movement, politics, domestic life, interracial relationships, and friendship.

Unlike your first two novels which are solo efforts, this one is a collaboration. How did that come about?

It’s funny. Kathryn Dionne, my coauthor, and I are like the two women we wrote about in our book. We’ve never met, live thousands of miles away, but have formed a friendship. We email each other and talk on the phone. After one very long telephone conversation, Kathryn said, “Why don’t we write a book about two women who’ve never met and become friends?” So that’s what we did. We decided it had to be before the Internet was available because we wanted them to talk on the phone and write letters.

This book seems to be a bit of a departure from the Historical/ Sci-Fi mash up that your fans are used to. What inspired the change in direction?

Wow. I know, right? But I have such a mish-mash of books in my head that span almost every genre. I worry about that too, because I want to write them all down, but think that I might be “typecast” in my original genre. I don’t want to disappoint my fans (all two of them), but I do hope to span out. However, this book is very historical.

In this book we did a ton of research to bring the history in it to life. We’ve included the 1940 & 1960 Democratic Conventions; the March on Washington in August, 1963; Kennedy’s civil rights speech, his inauguration and his assassination; and we even put one of our characters in a real incident in Alabama during the freedom riders trips to the South. And in the book, Jack Kennedy is a friend of one main characters, after she was romantically involved with his brother, Joe Jr. It was great fun incorporating our history into the book.

When did you know you wanted to be a writer?

I don’t think there was a point that I said, “Oh, I want to be a writer.” I just realized I was good at writing and telling stories. And when I thought about writing books, I said, “I can do that.” So, I did. I’m very happy being a writer, though.

What is a typical writing day like for you?

That is a good question because I am such a procrastinator, and I work much better under pressure. You know, at the last minute. So usually, I say I’m going to write so much a day so I can meet a deadline, say a month away. Well, every day up until about a week before my deadline I goof off. Get on social media, read books, work on other books I’m writing, Google stuff, everything but what I’m supposed to do. But when I do get to it finally, I am fast and furious. I spend ten – twelve hours a day, or more at the computer pecking away.

Any unique cures for writer’s block?

My mother used to say, “A watched pot never boils.” Same thing with writer’s block. Don’t think about it and it will just come to you. Keep your notebook or recorder with you at all times, because something in your day will spark a scene in your book. I think another thing is that writers oftentimes have everything planned out, an outline of some sort, and they try to stick to it and write the book in order. I say, if you have a scene in your head you want to write that may come in later at the book, write that scene down now, and it will help you fill in what’s in between.

‘In the Beginning’ and ‘Irrefutable Proof’ have both been hugely successful. What one piece of advice would you give aspiring writers, whether they are pursing the indie or traditional route?

I wrote a blog post that maintained writing was only 10% of having a successful book, the other 90% is marketing. My advice would be to take an active part in marketing your book. Be consistent in it and don’t expect on thing – Bookbub or one book signing, to get your book in the hands of readers. You can’t write it, publish it and expect anyone to find out about it on their own. Every day I think about things I can do to make my books more visible.

In the interests of making our readers feel special, what one bit of Abby Vandiver trivia can you offer up that no one else know about?

Well, most people probably know that Abby Vandiver is a pen name, but they might not know that Vandiver is my maiden name. I don’t know how special that will make them feel, but it’s all I’ve got, which reveals something else about me – I’m not very interesting!

And Lastly, where can readers find At the End of the Line?

http://amzn.to/1fg7DYy

Also, the paperback will soon be available here:

www.abbylvandiver.com

www.kathryndionne.com

 

 

 

Kathryn Longino is a pen name for the writing team of Abby L. Vandiver and Kathryn Dionne.

To learn more about Abby, visit her website: www.abbylvandiver.com, or Twitter: @AbbyVandiver, Facebook: AbbyVandiver

To learn more about Kathryn, please visit her website at: www.kathryndionne.com

THE STRATEGIST IS HERE!

Since I don’t have a set of drums to roll, or a rooftop to shout from, or an airplane to hang one of those long banners from, I suppose this short (but incredibly sweet) announcement will have to do.

‘The Strategist’ has finally arrived!

This is a day I’ve been wondering about since I first took pen to paper back in 1999. Since the day is just beginning, I can’t attribute a feeling to it as of yet. Surreal comes to mind. As does ‘relieved’, ‘elated’ and ‘nervous as hell’. It’s been quite the long journey to get here (which I wrote about at length in a previous post ). But I know now that that journey has only just begun. I’m entering brand new territory here. It’s a land of sales obsession and constant marketing and reader criticism. I’d like to say I’m ready for all of that. I guess I’ll be finding out for sure very soon.

But right now is a time to focus on my abundant gratitude. I want to say thank you to everyone who has supported me to this point. There are too many of your to list individually, so I hope you’re okay with a giant group hug!! 🙂 Thank you to all of the wonder writers I’ve met over the years. You inspire me everyday. Thank you to my wife for the constant support and understanding. You are the best cheerleader I could ever hope to have, and I love you immensely! And thank you to everyone who has supported ‘Inside the Margins’ over the years. I know I haven’t been the blogosphere’s most consistent poster, and I’m grateful that so many of you have stuck around.

My baby is officially in the world now. All I can say now is that I hope you find as much joy in reading it as I did in writing it!

Now if you’ll excuse me, I think I need to go write another one. The empty-nest syndrome is kicking in something fierce!!!!

~JHB

Click here for the Kindle version

Click here for the paperback

‘RELEASE’ WEEK HAS BEGUN

After more than a decade of dreaming, struggling, writing, re-writing, giving up, starting over, false starts, false finishes, dozens of drafts, the glimmer of hope from an agent, the crushing defeat of being rejected by said agent, the support of friends and family, the ridicule of friends and family, and typing ‘The End’ for the twentieth (and now final) time, my debut novel THE STRATEGIST is less than a week away from being released. Even though it’s incredibly surreal to be this close, I don’t think the reality that my book will finally be available for the world to read has quite sunk in.

For the past ten years, The Strategist has existed primarily in my head and as a bunch of randomly thrown together ideas in my three-ring binder. Looking back, I can’t really say why it took ten years to write, other than for quite a few of those years I didn’t have anything approaching the talent enough to write a legitimate novel. I tried. Lord knows I did. I worked through draft after draft, character after character, plot point after plot point. The story of The Strategist has, over the years, taken place in three different locations. My main character (Camille Grisham) has had at least four different names. She was in the ATF, then the FBI. And the title itself has undergone countless changes. It began as ‘Urban Professional’, which I thought was the world’s coolest title. Unfortunately, I was the only one who thought so. Camille has been ‘Candace’, ‘Naomi’, ‘Olivia’, ‘Dana’, and ‘Rachel’. Before she was Grisham, she was ‘Foster’, “Graves’, and ‘Greer’.

Okay, now I guess I can see why it’s taken so many years to write. I was having some MAJOR committment issues!!

Part of that lack of committment stemmed from indecision. But more than that, I think I was afraid to let the story go. The Strategist was my baby. With me it was safe, it was secure, it was everything I always imagined it could be. I feared what would happen when I finally let it escape the confines of my computer. I knew the transition to the outside world was inevitable (after all, that’s why I was writing it), but I worried that the world wouldn’t treat it with nearly the same reverence that I did; that it would float aimlessly amongst the gazillion other political thrillers out there that were released with the best intentions and highest hopes, only to meet the cold, cruel reality of mid-list hell – or worse yet, ‘never read at all’ hell!

There is a very good chance that The Strategist may still meet that fate (the odds are never in a first time author’s favor), but at least I now have the confidence to loosen my grip enough to let the story find its place.

The decision to self-publish has been far and away the easiest I’ve ever made in respect to my writing. I had dreams of hitting the traditional publishing lottery just like every other fledgling writer out there. Then the agent rejections began piling up (in fairness, there were only nine, but that was more than enough for me), and I quickly came to the conclusion that I’ve worked too hard and too long to see my pride and joy toil away in a various slush piles for a year before someone even asked to read the full manuscript. And then there would be the minimum twelve-month turn around from the time my novel was accepted by a publisher (if I hit the lottery) until the time it actually hit store shelves. And with the way the big publishers are promoting new authors these days (read-not at all), my time on said store shelf would in all likelihood be depressingly short. I was fortunate enough to come across the brilliant Kristen Lamb, and a few others, including indie-publishing phenom John Locke, who provided wonderful guideposts for success in the brave new world of self-publishing (btw, if you’re even considering publishing your own book, being your research with Kristen and John). From there I was on my way.

I’m a bit of a control freak and I have a healthy dose of entrepreneurial spirit, so the decision was a no-brainer. Plus I would be in charge of my own promotion even if I was traditionally published, so why not cut out the (overpaid) middle man altogether? Admittedly, it is a little scary being out on the ledge by myself, but the support I’ve received (from both my day-to-day and social media friends) has been tremendous. And my wife and family are second to none. So while there are some major unknowns still to come, I do know that I’ll never truly have to face them by myself.

The process has involved a lot of hard work, and I’ve already made some mistakes (namely not securing enough final copies of the completed book for my launch party – ouch!), but I am learning from them and will be much better off for it the next time.

And the next time is coming up rather quickly. My second release should be ready by mid-December (no more ten-year gaps in between projects), and the third is slated for late spring.

But for right now, my main focus is The Strategist. As I get closer to my September 6th release date,  I hope I can keep the nerves in check, keep the expectations realistic, and let the true scope of my accomplishment sink in. No matter where the novel goes, I have achieved my dream. Whether The Strategist sells 200 copies or 2000, after September 6th, I will no longer need to call myself an ‘aspiring’ novelist. When one person who doesn’t know me and has no vested interest in my success tells me that he or she genuinely enjoyed my novel, I will know that I have reached the pinnacle. And the best part is that it can only go up from there.

I guess letting go of your pride and joy doesn’t have to be so scary after all!