The Next Best Thing, Finding Mercy

Oh, here I am, on The Next Best Thing, blog hop. Nose to the grindstone here, and though I tried to find other authors whom I could twist an arm or two, alas, they all beat me to this blog hop. So, I'll just post a little bit about some authors I think are fabulous and talk a little about my upcoming title, Finding Mercy.

I was tagged by J.M. Madden, a fabulous writer, who is penning a series to help wounded vets. What’s not to love? You can learn more about her books here: http://jmmadden.com

Barbara Elsborg is the first author on my list you need to check out. She's been a good friend for many years, was there when I started my writing journey. Her title Strangers is one of my all time favorite contemporary romances. This book will take you on a roller coaster ride of ups and down. You’ll laugh. You’ll cry, and you’ll walk away with a new to you author that you’ll have to have more from. http://www.barbaraelsborg.com/

Arlene Webb is my next author. Her voice is one of the most unique I’ve read in years. Her stories are thought provoking and deep. If you want a book that will give you more than an escape, and challenge you intellectually, she’s the author for you. http://arlenewebb.com/
 

Sharon Fisher has just published her science fiction romance, Ghost Planet. The twists in this tale, the plot and setup are intriguing. If you’ve never tried science fiction romance, this is a good planet-based tale to cut your teeth on. You don’t get lost in the science, merely immersed in a world where it feels natural, not textbook. She does a brilliant job blending the science and fiction into a romantic tale of courage, human grit and sacrifice. http://www.sharonlynnfisher.com/

This blog hop includes ten questions to help you learn more about an author’s current work in progress, so here’s a little info about my current project:

1: What is the working title of your book? Finding Mercy

2: Where did the idea come from for the book? My publisher suggested they’d like to see a series on people who prepare for disasters, a.k.a. Preppers. When I get an idea seeded, like a burr under a saddle, it doesn’t go away. It digs at me until I do something about it, and I firmly believe that was my publishers intent when she told me about her idea. She knows me well. From there I went back to my roots and my home town of Alliance, Nebraska, which has the unique distinction of having a bomb shelter under it. In the 1940s the United States Army installed the shelter when they built the Airfield to train fighter pilots just outside the town. Its existence is a little known fact to most of the population of the United States. From there, I went to my what ifs? What if a town was flattened by tornadoes and those that decided to stay, decide they will prepare for the future to prevent the loss of life from happening again.

3: What genre does your book fall under? Contemporary/military romance.

4: Which actors/actresses would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition? Scarlett Johannson is an easy one for Mercy. As for Sargent Justin Redway, a little harder, but probably Taylor Kitsch. The right age, the right look. Taylor looked great as John on Mars.

5: What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book? You’ll die in three minutes without oxygen, three hours without shelter, three days without water, and three weeks without food, but can you live a lifetime with a broken heart?

6: Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency? Published by Decadent, but I’m not represented by an agent at this time. I’m considering looking for one. This will be my 18th published story and it’s getting hard to keep up with the requests rolling my way.

7: How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript? One month. That burr was really digging. LOL

8: What other books would you compare this story to within your genre? I don’t know of any other Prepper stories at this time. I’m sure there are, but I haven’t read them.

9: Who or What inspired you to write this book? Preppers inspired me, along with the people of my hometown, and the bug my publisher put in my ear. I’d say it was a joint effort.

10: What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest? Finding Mercy is part of a multi-author series. Two other “Evans Point”stories will be released the day after Doomsday along with Finding Mercy. They are, The Princess and the Prepper by Barbara Elsborg and Falling For Water by Arlene Webb. These two authors are amazing and I'm so thrilled they joined me in this series.

Please check out my website:  www.authordljackson.com

Thanks for stopping by,

 D L Jackson

 

Welcome to the Decadent Black Friday Hop

 

 

 

Happy Black Friday. As we all recover from our turkey hangovers, we have time to sit back and reflect on our year. This year has been a rather busy year for me. I had six releases. I also have one to be released the day after doomsday, December 22nd.

Which is what I’m dying to tell you about. When my publisher mentioned an idea for a Prepper series, I wasn’t sure at first what I'd write. It sounded like fun, but what did I know about preppers? The way my muse works, she takes a while to chew on an idea before she spits it out and slaps me upside the head, as was the case with Finding Mercy. I realized a lot of us are preppers already, in one manner or another. We prepare for bad storms, for the loss of power, or our jobs. We stock up on food and water. Grow gardens and put the food away. So, I researched and was caught up in it.

I couldn't stop thinking about it, so I spoke to my publisher on the phone for about an hour to find out more about what she wanted to see. By the end of the conversation, Evans Point was born and I was off and running.

Not only did my publisher give me a chance to write one of the launch stories for this new line of romances, she allowed me to build a world, a town to be more specific, and populate it with all kinds of people, who have all kinds of skills. People like us. Everyday people who use the skills they've aquired from jobs, the military, school and even experiences they've lived through. Then she let me invite my friends to play. Arlene Webb and Barbara Elsborg have also written stories in the Evans Point mini-series, Falling for Water andThe Princess and the Prepper.

 

 

Now, first I have to tell you this town wasn’t spun out of thin air. I had a lot of great inspiration. Evans Point, my fictional town, was modeled after the real town of Alliance, Nebraska. This little town on the edge of the Sand Hills has everything a prepper community could dream of.  In the 1940s, the United States Army built an airfield to train fighter pilots. The town’s population exploded overnight. Seeing a need to keep the military and their families safe, the Army Corp of Engineers built a bomb shelter under the town. This massive shelter takes up space under several blocks of the downtown area, and is a little known fact to people passing through. It has sat unused for over seventy years.

What if....

A town devastated by tornadoes decides to rebuild and refurbish, not only the town, but the shelter below, in hopes that they will never be caught unprepared again. This is the premise behind the community of preppers and their stories in Evans Point.

So, on December 22nd, after we’ve all weathered doomsday, I hope you’ll check out my latest release, Finding Mercy.

Blurb: 

You’ll die in three minutes without oxygen, three hours without shelter, three days without water and three weeks without food. But could you live a lifetime with a broken heart?

Mercy Evans has come to Evans Point hoping to collect herself and find a way to resurrect her career as an anchorwoman for Cheyenne’s news station. Sergeant Justin Redway has come to Evans Point to try to forget his past and survive what he’s done.

When two worlds collide, one of a battle damaged veteran, the other of a desperate woman who will go to any extreme to get his story, sparks fly and old wounds open. When the chasm between the fated lovers widens, will it be too big to cross?

One town, two lovers, and a second chance at finding mercy.

And here’s an excerpt: 

Fingers pressed against his throat, feeling for a pulse.

“This one’s alive.” Someone hoisted the weight of large chunk of wreckage from his torso. Two sets of hands slid under him. “On the count of three. One. Two. Three.”

They moved in unison, rolling him onto a stretcher.

“No,” he begged. He wasn’t alive. This couldn’t be real. Another protest gurgled from his throat and he began to convulse, unable to hold his limbs still.

“Hold him down so I can sedate him.” Hands grasped his wounded limbs. Bone cracked and shifted under their grip. He tried to arch up, but remained restrained by several soldiers. He yelled and thrashed his head side to side. They grabbed both sides of his face, holding him still.

Justin screamed. The sound was so inhuman, if he hadn’t been the one who’d made it, he wouldn’t have believed it came from a man. A stick with a needle. Burning.

As the seizure eased, they released their hold. He turned his head toward the medic who’d drugged him. The man blurred in and out. Justin’s vision came back into focus as a burnt picture of a woman and baby caught the breeze and tumbled across the baked earth next to where the medic kneeled. Justin swallowed and his eyes blurred with tears. Williams hadn’t even gotten to hold his daughter.

“You’re going to be okay.”

Let me die. Please. Let me die. Pain rode his nerves like an electrical wire, sending jolts of agony to the tips of his fingers and toes. He opened his mouth, but nothing came from his throat. Boom, boom, boom. His heartbeat slowed as the sedative did its job.

“Get him on the chopper.”

Regardless the drug, every step the medics took hurt as they hauled him toward reprieve. Broken bones, burns, but nothing compared to what played through his head. He’d killed them all and survived to see his handiwork. Nothing could be worse than that.

Thanks for stopping by, and make sure to check out the other stops on the hop to get in on the great prizes. For a chance to win a $10 Amazon Gift Certificate, leave a comment under this post. I’ll draw a name on Saturday and announce the the winner. And don't forget to mark your calender for December 22nd, for the triple release of the Evans Point Prepper series.

For more information about my books and buy links, please visit my website:  www.authordljackson.com You can find all my current works in the bookstore.

D L Jackson

 

 

 

 



Passion: Emotion with High Stakes by Laurie A. Green

Valentine's Day usually brings to mind the softer side of love—fragrant flowers, delectable candy, soft music, a candlelit dinner and the liquid bouquet of a fine wine. Touching, tender moments spent with someone you love.

But love also has a more unruly and tumultuous side.

Passion.

According to Wikipedia, passion is from the Ancient Greek verb πάσχω (paskho) meaning to suffer)…a term applied to a very strong feeling about a person or thing. Passion is an intense emotion compelling feeling, enthusiasm, or desire for something.”What defines passion?

Passion isn’t necessarily confined to the realm of romance. The ancient Greeks saw love and war as virtually the same thing, two pursuits driven by the same emotion. In their mythology, Aphrodite, the goddess of love, and Ares, the god of war, were usually paired. Hand-in-hand they were the hallmarks of Passion.

In Science Fiction Romance, love is the tie that binds, but passion can compel a character to do surprising things. To act in a way that defies everything they believe in, to take enormous risks, and put their lives and everything they hold dear on the line. Indeed, passion can “launch a thousand ships.”

In the motion picture Avatar, Jake becomes torn between two worlds when he mentally "drives" an avatar with alien-human DNA and immerses himself in the environment of the sentient moon, Pandora, and its Na'vi people. His tutor and guide, the female alien Neytiri, is at first disgusted by Jake's blundering attempts to learn about her world, which does not compute to the former Marine. In her words, Jake cannot learn because he cannot “see.” Even as he begins to understand and form a deep bond with Neytiri in his Avatar form, his human alter ego is supplying information to a military commander who's twitching for a chance to unleash superior military might on the natives. When Jake is forced to choose between two worlds, it’s passion that drives him to take an insane leap (literally) and win back the respect of Neytiri and her Omaticaya clan, earning a place as their new leader. In doing so, Jake not only puts his life on the line, but his human existence. Love and war again intertwined in a dynamic story of risk and emotion.

Exploring passion in SFR gives readers a stake in the plight of the characters and their futures. Understanding what drives a character to react or rebel brings them to life. What better way to understand their core strengths than by sharing the journey toward overcoming their weaknesses. By mentally joining with them as they gamble their very lives or the existence of everything they believe in.

As a reader, give me a tale that takes a character right over an emotional cliff—and then brings them back again—and you’ll have a fan for life. A story that fails to deliver on passion never lives up to its full potential.

Maybe Joss Whedon, the creator of Firefly, said it best: “Passion, it lies in all of us, sleeping…waiting…and though unwanted…unbidden…it will stir…open its jaws and howl. It speaks to us…guides us…passion rules us all, and we obey…Passion is the source of our finest moments. The joy of love…the clarity of hatred…and the ecstasy of grief. It hurts sometimes more than we can bear. If we could live without passion maybe we’d know some kind of peace…but we would be hollow…Empty rooms shuttered and dank. Without passion we’d be truly dead.”

And so would our stories.

Laurie A. Green writes award-winning Science Fiction Romance and blogs at Spacefreighters Lounge. She is best known as the founder of the SFR Brigade community of writers and fans. Always fascinated by stories of romance in the final frontier, she began seriously penning SFRs in 2007. Her first two novels were finalists in the 2011 RWA Golden Heart® Awards and have won numerous writing competitions across the US.

For the Love, Lasers and Light Swords Valentine’s Bash, Laurie is offering a chance to win a full length SFR novel that sizzles—Barbara Elsborg's LUCY IN THE SKY—the story of a heroine from Earth swept away by Three, a lusty alien hunk from the stars. But Three's passion-driven impulse spells doom. If discovered on his mothership, Lucy will be guaranteed a one-way trip into space without a spacesuit. If you are over the age of 18, enter a comment below for a chance to win. Be sure to include a contact email address. (Choice of print or digital copy for addressees inside continental US, digital e-book outside US, or an Amazon e-Gift Certificate).



Be sure to check out previous posts from the Valentine's Day Bash for more chances to WIN!
Arlene Webb
Graylin Fox
Barbara Elsborg

Don't Break My Heart by Barbara Elsborg

How many times have you read – her heart was breaking? Or—He broke her heart. Or she broke his heart. Don’t want to be sexist here. Doctors have identified a condition that mimics a heart attack, most often suffered by post-menopausal women who’ve lost a loved one. But any emotional trauma – grief, anger, anxiety—can trigger a massive surge of adrenaline that overwhelms the heart. It freezes the left ventricle, reducing its ability to contract and pump blood, and causes symptoms similar to an actual heart attack. It’s been called a concussion of the heart and it’s rare. Only 1-2% of people diagnosed with a heart problem have this, but it accounts for 6% of women’s heart attacks. The good news is lasting damage is rare and the heart recovers.

Bit of a morbid topic for Valentine’s Day, but I wanted to write about what a fantastic organ the heart is. It pumps (if you’re lucky) without problem for your entire life. Day after day, week after week, year after year. If only we could invent motors that worked for so long! So far 620 days is the longest anyone has survived with an artificial heart. While I can’t imagine an artificial brain being produced in my lifetime, I do believe that scientists will manage to build a long-lasting heart. Technology advances in leaps and bounds and is catching up with science fiction. Humans will have bodies that are built to last, skin that doesn’t age, muscles that never tire, and a heart that never wears out. When they fathom out a way to control adrenaline surges, then we won’t even have a concussion of the heart, but I suspect writers will still be using the expressions – he broke her heart. She broke his heart.

Don’t do that today. Today make someone’s heart sing by telling them you love them. Then remember to do that the day after and the day after that for as long as your heart keeps beating.

My heroine Lucy – in Lucy in the Sky thinks her heart’s about to stop when she’s whisked into space, but it turns out to be a journey to love. For one randomly picked commentator – I offer an ebook copy of Lucy in the Sky.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

www.barbaraelsborg.blogspot.com

www.barbaraelsborg.com


Be sure to check out previous posts from the Valentine's Day Bash for more chances to WIN!
Arlene Webb
Graylin Fox