June: Seeking thrills and chills with thrillers
Posted: June 24, 2019 Filed under: Fiction, Thriller, Writing | Tags: Dan Alatorre, John Nicholl, Medical Thriller, psychological thrilers, Thrillers, Writing to be Read Leave a comment
This month’s genre theme is thrillers, and it has been exciting exploring the many facets of this widely encompassing genre. Some of the great thriller writers include James Patterson, Dean Koontz, Jonathan Kellerman, Stephen White, Patricia Cornwell, J.A. Jance, Stephen King and John Grisham. Thriller authors seem to have a knack for keeping readers on the edge of their seats, chewing their nails down to the quick, and fighting off sleep to finish reading the last few pages. Many great thriller novels become thriller movies, such as The Firm, Night Train to Munich, Odd Thomas, The Girl on the Train, The Andromeda Strain, The Foreigner, The Pelican Brief, The Silence of the Lambs, and Die Hard to name just a few. Thrillers make the adrenalin flow and the heart pump with anticipation. In a broad sense, a thriller is an adventure or mystery novel, (or movie), that feeds on suspense to get readers’ adrenelin pumping and keep them turning pages, because they have to learn what… happens… next.
Within this context, there are many subgenres of thriller, including spy novels, political thrillers, psychological thrillers. My review books this month, The Gamma Sequence, by Dan Alatorre and Only Wrong Once, by Jenifer Ruff are both medical thrillers, but they are two very different stories. My interviews this month are with International bestselling novelist Dan Alatorre and my “Chatting with the Pros” author guest is psychological thriller author John Nicholl. The subgenres are many, and sometimes the lines are blurred between thrillers and horror novels, or thrillers and mysteries, or thrillers and crime fiction, but as master thriller author James Patterson said in his book Thrillers: Stories to Keep You Up All Night (2016),
“But what gives the variety of thrillers a common ground is the intensity of emotions they create, particularly those of apprehension and exhilaration, of excitement and breathlessness, all designed to generate that all-important thrill. By definition, if a thriller doesn’t thrill, it’s not doing its job.”
Yes, it’s the excitement we feel when we read a good thriller, the sudden rush of adrenaline when catastrophy strikes and it seems there is no way out for the hero(es), or the anticipation that makes us jump in our seat when the villian attacks even though we saw it coming, these are the feelings that keep thriller readers coming back for more. Good thrillers are usually fast paced to keep the action moving and keep the adrenaline pumping from the first page to the last, throwing in twists and turns, and maybe a series of ups and downs, that keep readers on the edges of their seats and never quite give them a chance to rest until that last page is turned.
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Writing for a YA Audience: Author Photo Shoot
Posted: June 19, 2019 Filed under: Books, Fantasy, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Writing for a YA Audience, Young Adult | Tags: Fantasy, Fanya in the Underworld, Jordan Elizabeth, Writing for a YA Audience, YA, Young Adult, Young Adult Fiction Leave a comment
I’ve done a few photo shoots for my author pictures, and they are always so much fun. I get to feel like a model. For FANYA IN THE UNDERWORLD, we decided to do things a little differently. Aaron Siddall illustrated the book and I wrote it; we both brainstormed the concepts. Because this was a joint collaboration, we decided to have a joint photo.
A good friend of ours, Monica Reid Keba, met with us at the Utica Train Station, known as Union Station. The building is beautiful, with marble pillars and chandeliers. Stepping inside is a little like going back in time. Many of the fixtures are original from the construction in 1914. I have a special fondness for the waiting room benches. Not only do they incorporate the heating system, but they are gorgeous to look at. The station was designed by Allen Stem and Alfred Fellheimer. In case you aren’t familiar with those names, they are the architects who designed New York City’s Grand Central Station.
Aaron Siddall and I posed on the benches, beneath the chandeliers, and outside. The autumn day was crisp, with a light drizzle in the air. I hiked up my skirt and scaled the side of an old trolley car. We also explored the park next door. The train station is located in the historic Bagg’s Square neighborhood. The quaint park, surrounded by a stone fence, is home to the site of a log cabin known as Bagg’s Tavern. This log cabin saw esteemed guests such as George Washington and Ulysses S. Grant.
If you are ever in the area and love visiting historic sites, check out the train station and Bagg’s Tavern. Your eyes won’t be disappointed by the sites.
Jordan Elizabeth is a young adult fantasy author. She is most likely gazing at something in awe, something she will soon include in one of her novels. You can connect with Jordan – and point her in the direction of some paranormal activity – via her website, JordanElizabethBooks.com.
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Chatting with the Pros: Interview with suspense thriller novelist John Nicholl
Posted: June 17, 2019 Filed under: Author Profile, Books, Chatting with the Pros, Fiction, Interview, Suspense, Thriller | Tags: Author Interview, Chatting with the Pros, John Nicholl, Suspense, The Girl In Red, Thriller, Writing to be Read 2 Comments
It’s my pleasure to have as my guest today on “Chatting with the Pros” bestselling suspense thriller author John Nicholl. His works draw from his own true life experiences as a law enforcement officer and child welfare social worker in Wales. John has written seven thrillers and every one of them has seen the bestseller list. Please help me welcome him now. Maybe we can learn some of his secrets to becoming a bestselling author.
Kaye: Would you share the story of your own publishing journey?
John: I self-published initially. When that went better than expected, I partnered with a literary agent and signed a publishing deal. Further books followed from there.
Kaye: What do you think is the single most important element in a story?
John: The hook is crucial. I try to capture the reader’s attention from the very first page.
Kaye: What time of day do you prefer to do your writing? Why?
John: I write in the morning. It’s when I’m at my most creative.
Kaye: What is the biggest challenge in writing psychological thrillers for you?
John: My books sometimes engender memories that were, perhaps, best left in the past.
Kaye: What elements of storytelling do you feel are specific to the thriller genre? Are there particular elements that are specific to psychological thrillers?
John: Psychological thrillers explore the extremes of human behaviour.
Kaye: Anonymity is described as intense and terrifying; White is the Coldest Color as violent and brutal; Portraits of the Dead as disturbing and compelling; The Girl in Red as haunting and unsettling. Where do you get ideas for your stories?
John: I began my working life as a young police officer, and subsequently trained as a social worker. I worked in child protection for about twenty years after qualifying. My writing draws heavily on those experiences.
Kaye: Thrillers are action-packed and filled with conflict and tension. What techniques do you use to keep the story moving, the readers on the edges of their seats, and the pages turning?
John: I try to keep the stories as fast paced as possible, without too much padding. Quality is more important than length!
Kaye: How do you decide the titles for your books? Where does the title come in the process for you?
John: Inspiration comes from different places. The title of White is the Coldest Colour, for example, came to me when listening to A Whiter Shade of Pale on Radio 2.
Kaye: Is there anything unique or unusual about your writing process?
John: The words come into my head as if channelled from somewhere else entirely.
Kaye: Your latest release was The Girl in Red, which came out in March. Would you like to tell me a little about this book?
John: The Girl in Red is a dark tale of domestic violence, and the extreme lengths that one woman goes to, to escape her tormentor.
Kaye: Every one of your books has been an Amazon bestseller. What’s your secret?
John: I’ve had a lot of luck. And the book blogging community has been wonderfully supportive. I’ll always be grateful for that.
Kaye: Are there any particular thriller authors that you fashioned your writing style after as you approached writing in the thriller genre?
John: I mostly read historical biography and stories of real-life experiences that are out of the ordinary· Castaway by Lucy Irvine is a particular favourite. I’ve read it three times over the years.
Kaye: What are you working on now? What’s next for John Nicholl?
John: My next thriller, The Girl in White, will be published by Bloodhound Books this year. The release date has just been bumped up to September 4. It’s the story of a secret, quasi-religious cult hidden deep in the beautiful West Wales countryside. Hopefully, readers will like it. I’ll keep my fingers crossed!
I want to thank John for joining me here and sharing with us today. You can learn more about John and his bestselling thriller novels on his website, on his Amazon Author page. or on his Goodreads Author page. Join me on the third Monday in July, when we’ll be celebrating crime fiction and my “Chatting with the Pros” author guest will be Jenifer Ruff.
You can catch the monthly segment “Chatting with the Pros” on the third Monday of every month in 2019, or you can be sure not to any of the great content on Writing to be Read by signing up by email or following on WordPress.
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“Only Wrong Once”: A medical thriller that could be fact instead of fiction
Posted: June 14, 2019 Filed under: Book Review, Books, Medical Thriller, Thriller | Tags: Book Review, Jenifer Ruff, Medical Thriller, Only Wrong Once, Thriller, Writing to be Read 2 Comments
Only Wrong Once, by Jennifer Ruff is a fast paced medical thriller that deals with international bio-terrorism on a personal level, bringing it all home in a big way. Maybe the reason this tale hits a nerve is that there are similar stories in the news every day, and Only Wrong Once made me wonder about the stories we don’t hear about.
Quinn Traynor is a U.S. intelligence agent out to save the world from terrorism, but his next case will hit closer to home than most of the terrorist attacks he’s worked to thwart. When a plot to strike terror into Americans in pandemic proportions with a bio-terrorism attack, the clock is ticking to find and stop the terrorists before they can carry out their deadly plan. Time is running out for the terrorists, too, maybe faster than anyone thinks, and if they succeed, time may be running out for the entire nation. Quinn and his team work against all odds to stop the bio-terrorism weapon from being released on the country, but can they succeed in time to make a difference?
Only Wrong Once will be released next month in the medical thriller box set, Do No Harm. It is available for preorder now.
The ticking clock lends Only Wrong Once just the right amount of urgency to keep the pages turning. It is well-crafted and keeps readers sitting on the edge of their seats. The plot is downright scary, because it could happen. I give it five quills.
Kaye Lynne Booth does honest book reviews on Writing to be Read in exchange for ARCs. Have a book you’d like reviewed? Contact Kaye at kayebooth(at)yahoo(dot)com.
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Author Update: The Making of a Memoir On Hold Indefinitely
Posted: June 12, 2019 Filed under: Book Covers, Books, Editing, Fiction, His Name Was Michael, Memoir, Nonfiction, Paranormal, Publishing, Self-Publishing, Speculative Fiction, Stories, Western, WordCrafter, WordCrafter Press, Writing | Tags: Anthologies, Ask the Authors Anthology, Delilah, Delilah: The Homecoming, His Name Was Michael, Losing Michael: Teen Suicide and a Mother's Grief, Whispers of the Past, WordCrafter, WordCrafter Press, Writing to be Read 2 Comments
I’m sorry to say that the obstacles and road blocks I mentioned in my April post have brought my memoir writing process to a screeching halt before it had truly begun, and thus, this bi-monthly blog series must come to a halt, as well, until I can find answers to the problems related to writing about real people and organizations which is necessary to telling my son Michael’s story, as well as my own. Losing Michael: Teen Suicide and a Mother’s Grief has been shelved, at least for a while due to legalities. This book project is based from my personal experience and is dear to my heart, and it great saddness that I make this decision, but I’m not ready to face the trials that forging ahead with it would require.
On the other hand, there are exciting things on the horizon. My efforts for the near future will turn to working on the issue of re-issuing Delilah, which Dusty Saddle Publishing has so graciously offered to do. Once this is completed, I plan to pick up where I left off on the drafting of the second book, Delilah: The Homecoming. I just got Delilah back on track in this story with considerable revisions and I’m a little sad to have to delay the completion of this book, but also confident that the story will be better for it.
I will be getting the WordCrafter website up and running and ready for launch. Get ready folks, because WordCrafter Writer & Author Services is coming soon. Services will include Editing and Copywriting services, online courses, and WordCrafter Press.
I’ll also be compiling and publishing the two great anthologies to be released by WordCrafter Press. The Ask the Authors anthology will feature the collaborative interviews from the 2018 “Ask the Authors” blog series right here on Writing to be Read. This book will be filled with writing tips and advice from authors who are out there doing it, a valuable writing reference for authors in all stages of the publishing journey.
The other anthology, Whispers in the Dark, will be a short story collection harvested from the WordCrafter Paranormal Short Story Contest held at the beginning of 2019. It will feature several of the submissions from the contest, including the winning entry, “A Peaceful Life I’ve Never Had”, by Jeff Bowles. These anthologies are still in the preliminary stages, but I plan to have them both out by the end of the year. I have cover ideas for each one, but only Whispers has a final version at this time. I plan to release it in October.
To keep up on the latest with my writing endeavors and with Wordcrafter, sign up for my monthly newsletter in the pop-up. When you do, you’ll recieve a free e-copy of my paranormal mystery novella, Hidden Secrets.
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“The Gamma Sequence”: Non-stop Action and Suspense
Posted: June 7, 2019 Filed under: Book Review, Books, Fiction, Medical Thriller, Suspense, Thriller | Tags: Children's Books, Classic Literature, Growing Bookworms, Reading, Writing to be Read 8 Comments
The Gamma Sequence, by Dan Alatorre is a non-stop action, futuristic medical thriller. The suspense begins to build on the very first page and keeps on ratcheting up the tension from there, with twists and turns that will keep readers on their toes.
Hamilton DeShear is a private detective and former cop, who isn’t looking for a mystery to solve. But when the mysterious Lanaya Kim arrives on the scene claiming to need his help, how can he refuse? There’s no turning back once his apartment goes up in flames and the game turns personal. Soon enough people are shooting at them, the stakes are raised and it will take all of DeShear’s skill and expertise to keep them alive. Genetic research is the name of the game, but not everyone is playing by the same rules. Things aren’t always what they seem, and this certainly appears to be the case here. There’s a killer on the loose, who is targeting the scientists who worked on a secretive project which Lanaya was involved with, but can DeShear unravel the mystery and figure out what is going on before he and Lanaya are taken out of the game?
The Gamma Sequence will be available next month as a part of the Do No Harm medical thriller box set. You can preorder now.
Nail biting suspense that keeps you on the edge of your seat. The Gamma Sequence does everything a good thriller should. I give it five quills.
Kaye Lynne Booth does honest book reviews on Writing to be Read in exchange for ARCs. Have a book you’d like reviewed? Contact Kaye at kayebooth(at)yahoo(dot)com.
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Should children read abridged classics?
Posted: June 5, 2019 Filed under: Books, Children's Books, Classics, Growing Bookworms, Reading | Tags: Children's Books, Classic Literature, Growing Bookworms, Reading, Robbie Cheadle, Writing to be Read 50 Comments
There are many wonderful classic books available to people who are interested in reading them. I have recently re-read War of the Worlds and The Time Machine, both by H.G. Wells and also Dracula by Bram Stoker. I read these books in my early teens and, while I did enjoy them, I don’t remember appreciating any of the subtleties of the development of the characters in these books or the psychological and philosophical aspects either. This is because I did not have the life experience at that time to appreciate these concepts and their incredible appropriateness and cleverness.
I have never restricted or limited my children’s reading choices. This is because I believe that children can only experience and visualise the written world in the context of their own life experiences. If a child has never attended a funeral, they cannot visualise the white and haggard faces of the surviving family, smell the heavy and potent aroma of the funeral flowers or understand extreme expressions of grief such as throwing oneself onto a coffin as it is slowly lowered into the ground, in the same way someone who as actually witnessed such events could. They can read and appreciate the words but their ability to picture the detail is limited to their own visual experiences. This is not the case with television which supplies a ready-made visual to put the image into your mind regardless of your own experience. It is for this reason that I think that abridged classics are appropriate, and even ideal, for children.
Abridged classics expose children to the joys of great literature and enable them to appreciate their stories without struggling to understand words and concepts that are beyond their current reading and life abilities. In other words, abridged classics stimulate an interest in the storyline and characters while not burdening the child with all the deep emotion and psychology that is present in many classic books. If the child is excited by the story, there is a high chance he will revisit the book as an adult and read the full, unabridged version with greater understanding and appreciation.
If you are interested in purchasing the Classic Starts books, you can find them on Amazon US here: Classic Starts series
I bought all the Classic Starts books as well as a set of abridged Shakespearean plays and Chaucer’s stories for my son. My older son was mesmerised by certain stories such as The Phantom of the Opera, The Secret Garden and The Red Badge of Courage. I well remember him recalling these books with such fondness that a few years later, when he was about 13 years old, he read the unabridged versions of these books with great enthusiasm. He also went on to read a significant number of other classic books and represent South Africa as part of the St John’s College Prep team at the Kids Lit Quiz in New Zealand in 2016. I remember Gregory laughing aloud over the abridged versions of Canterbury Tales and The Taming of the Shrew. I do think these cultural experiences of English help set him up with a love of reading for life.
Reading abridged classics also allows children to access books that have been written in old English and are difficult for modern children [and adults] to read for that reason. These books allow us all access to humorous, dramatically and other situations from the past and allow us to learn more about our own history and path of evolution and change.
I believe there is a lot of benefit to be had from reading abridged classics to your child and letting them read them on their own. What do you think? Let me know in the comments.
About Robbie Cheadle
Hello, my name is Robbie, short for Roberta. I am an author with five published children’s picture books in the Sir Chocolate books series for children aged 2 to 9 years old (co-authored with my son, Michael Cheadle), one published middle grade book in the Silly Willy series and one published preteen/young adult fictionalised biography about my mother’s life as a young girl growing up in an English town in Suffolk during World War II called While the Bombs Fell (co-authored with my mother, Elsie Hancy Eaton). All of my children’s book are written under Robbie Cheadle and are published by TSL Publications.
I have recently branched into adult horror and supernatural writing and, in order to clearly differential my children’s books from my adult writing, I plan to publish these books under Roberta Eaton Cheadle. I have two short stories in the horror/supernatural genre included in Dark Visions, a collection of 34 short stories by 27 different authors and edited by award winning author, Dan Alatorre. These short stories are published under Robbie Cheadle.
I have recently published a book of poetry called Open a new door, with fellow South African poet, Kim Blades.
Find Robbie Cheadle
Blog: https://bakeandwrite.co.za/
Blog: robbiesinspiration.wordpress.com
Goodreads: Robbie Cheadle – Goodreads
Twitter: BakeandWrite
Instagram: Robbie Cheadle – Instagram
Facebook: Sir Chocolate Books
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